Water for Elephants, Cupcakes for Book Club

I joined my first evar book club recently, which I am extra excited about. But I completely failed to read the first book, Life of Pi. I just couldn't get into it. This month's book was Water for Elephants.. a novel I completely avoided reading because I'm a brat and don't like reading hyped up books (unless of course I happen to read it before it gets hyped up). Whatever, I'm not the only one. :P In the spirit of trying new things, I put on my big girl pants and mustered up the courage to read a popular book.

Water for Elephants, a book about a young man who runs away to join the circus, was a fast enjoyable read. There was little depth to the characters and more raunch than I expected, but the story flowed which is always nice when you're reading a book in a short amount of time (yes, one month is short for me). I expect it will translate really well to the screen and can't imagine how anyone could screw it up. However, Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon are cast.. and without spoiling, I'll only say I just don't see how that will work for Reese, bless her heart.

I wanted to help out the hostess of our meeting, so I offered to make dessert. Upon finishing the circus tale, I decided playfully decorated cupcakes would fit the mood. I went with chocolate because it is my fave, and had two frostings: cream cheese and chocolate. In the end it worked out well.. the alternating colors resembled the liberty horses in the book.

I had to make them when I got home from work.. at 5:30.. and have them out the door.. at 7:15. When I got home, I was a machine.. it was a beautiful thing. I took care of boiling water and mixing with the cocoa powders to start, melted the chocolate chips for the frosting, threw together the cupcake batter, put 12 cupcakes in the oven, busted out the rest of the chocolate frosting, put 12 more cupcakes in the oven, threw 12 minis in the oven with the extra batter I had, did all the dishes, took the cupcakes out, busted out the cream cheese frosting, did more dishes, piped all the cupcakes, decorated, took pictures, packed them up, and was out the door only three minutes late at 7:18. That's my kind of marathon!!

I think they came out super cute, too. The majority had dum dums sticking out the top which looked like balloons (thanks Halloween), and they all had sprinkles. Only 5 of us showed up to book club. The hostess made the most delicious chili, and we all scarfed down at least two cupcakes each. But I still have extra.. any bidders???

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