I Like Cute

I confess, I like anything cute.  I appreciate classic. I get professional and chic.  But what I really love . . . is cute.  Cute shoes rank high on my list, followed by cute handbags, cute puppies, and well, you get the picture.  Over the years, my husband has discovered that there is a hierarchy to cute.  If I say something is cute, that's his first hint that I might want it; but, if I say it's a "cute, little something" it is probably already in a bag in the trunk of my car.  "I saw the cutest little pair of shoes at Dillards today."  I bought them, they're mine.  "I found the cutest little dress at SteinMart, honey."  I'll be wearing it to dinner tomorrow night.  "I watched the cutest little show on TV lastnight."  We'll be TIVOing it for the rest of the season. 

As you can see from above, cute does not just apply to apparel.  It might surprise you to know that cute can even be used to describe foods.  For example, an orange is nice, but a clementine is cute.  A pie, nice . . . a tart, cute . . . a cake, fine; but cupcakes, cute.  Definitely cute!  So cute in fact that I made it my summer's goal to perfect the art of decorating the cutest little cupcakes you've ever seen.  And what ensued . . .well, let's just say, it wasn't cute.

First, I purchased a book, an entire book, on cupcake decorating.  I spent days looking through the book and finally settled on the sunflower design.  It was too cute.  An Oreo cookie would be placed in the center, delicate golden leaves would be cleverly piped around the edges, and a red M & M with tiny chocolate spots would finish off the delectable, but more importantly, the cutest little cupcake ever.  Soon, my favorite on-line catalog store was offering a frosting deco pen as their item of the week.  Actually, it turned out to be "a cute little frosting deco pen."  I bought it.  And then I planned.  School would be out soon, (I'm a teacher.) and that's when I would do it.  A whole day set aside to decorate my cupcakes.

The summer went by.  I carried my cupcake decorating book and my frosting deco pen to the beach with me, thinking a rainy afternoon would be the perfect time.  It didn't rain, I didn't make them, and I carried everything back home.

This morning I woke up and realized I had three days left before I would return to work.  The cupcakes weighed heavily on my mind.  And so, I began. 

I opened the frosting deco pen package and read the directions (I mentioned I'm a teacher, did I not?) I washed all the little tubes and tips and installed the double A batteries. I filled a cartridge with frosting and attempted to add food coloring. This was the part I had looked forward to. The fancy frosting deco pen had a stirring device that allowed you to mix the frosting and food coloring in the tube. This would make cupcake decorating easy for novices like me. However, the food coloring managed to seep out through a minute opening and run down the sides of the cartridge I was holding.. My hands were instantly stained red and yellow. Committed to the task, I continued. I decorated two, only two cupcakes, and the cartridge was empty. In order to decorate my 24 cupcakes, I would have to load that "blasted little" cartridge 12 more times. I ate an Oreo cookie and gave it some thought. And right then and there I decided, understated may be the new cute for me.