Phew. October has been a busy month. A third of the way in we celebrated Paul's birthday, and then just kept on celebrating it for the rest of the month, because that's just how we do things. That same week that Paul turned 32, Desmond became a toddler. On Wednesday he started walking. On Thursday he began climbing. On Friday he held my hand as we walked down the street, and on Saturday he worked on his mini-tantrum, perfecting his devastated limp on the floor stance.
And yesterday, yesterday was Desmond's first birthday party. He had a grand time. He ran around with his cousins. Dug seeds out of a pumpkin. Ate a cupcake. Then ate my cupcake. And then his godmother's cupcake. To be fair, they were delicious. I suppose, given slightly less impulse control, I might have eaten three myself. I've mentioned the recipe before on this baby food blog over here.
I was waiting to mention that there baby food blog until it was well-established, but I'm afraid I'm only mentioning it now to tell you that it's done. I'm not going to update it because 1)Desmond's not really eating baby food anymore, and 2)I don't seem to have time to keep up with two blogs and one kid. For the time being anyway, I'm just going to leave it alone as a resource for anyone looking for baby food ideas. I know it was hard for me, as a new parent, to know what to feed my baby when. Yes, there are a million charts and books and whatnot, and I read them all. But still, as a new parent, and I imagine simply as a parent, there's a lot of self-doubt. So, anyway, if you would like to see what one baby ate during his first year, you can see a fairly incomplete picture here.
But for now, this kid has moved on. To cake
Desmond's First Birthday Cupcakes (Makes 12)
1 1/4 c. pureed pumpkin
1/3 c. oil
3/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. soymilk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
Heat the oven to 350 and line a muffin pan with cupcake liners. In a large bowl stir together the pumpkin, oil, sugar, soymilk, and vanilla. Sift in the dry ingredients. Stir with a fork until combined. The batter will be fairly thick. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 22 minutes.
Cream Cheese Frosting
1 8-oz. container tofutti cream cheese
1/4 c. margarine
1 - 4 c. sifted confectioner's sugar (I know that's an incredibly broad range, but it depends on the consistency you're going for. Keep adding until you like it.)
1/2 tsp.vanilla
With an electic mixer, cream together cream cheese and marge. Add vanilla. Beat in sugar. Refrigerate until ready to use.
(It brought me immense joy to pipe that frosting into little tiny ghosts using an 806 tip.)
(The cupcake recipe is based on a recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.)
