Candy striper cupcakes & Macaron!

An early afternoon potluck at my dear friend Tara's house (with her hilarious kid Esme) called for a fun little dessert. I made cocoa-crazy dark chocolate cupcakes, and since it was our friend Nadia's birthday and we hadn't yet celebrated, I made a cute little birthday announcement flag to make the cupcakes extra festive. The candy-striper cupcake liners were bought off of Etsy and I made vanilla coconut buttercream in a pale red, topped off with my old fave friend, Organic Raspberry!

The last picture is a gift from my sister Leanne, she just came back from three weeks in Japan! Macarons are all the rage there and this is a make-your-own macaron set. BUT... don't eat it!! Inside the box are plastic colorful puffed-out plastic macarons, and a bag filled with fluffy white glue stuff that looks exactly like a bag of frosting. There's also some sparkly little plastic jewels in which you can adorn the fluff once you've "piped" it between the macarons. Finally, attach the chain loop and you have a rippin' new keychain for you and three close friends! Excellent... and it's inspired me to make my own macarons, almond paste, lightly and delicately colored, with a piping of swiss meringue buttercream in the middle...!

Oh... and I also finally finished COCO CAKE! Go there and let me know what you think! Hooray for baking... !