A not-so-great cupcake fate.
It's funny how the holidays change with age. For me, Christmas used to be a magical time filled with visits from Santa, family fun and of course hoards and hoards of goodies. It took forever to arrive and was gone in an instant. Now Christmas is an exasperating experience that sneaks up on me in a flash, hits me like a ton of bricks and empties my purse faster than you can say "ho, ho, ho." Then the onslaught of "events" feels never ending and by the completion of this whole ordeal I'm a good five pounds heavier.
Don't get me started on my birthday.
Not only is getting older so not cute, but the once-festive parties and get-togethers that went with it become tedious and exasperating. Between me and the boy, every member of our immediate families have birthdays between April and early August. So my birthday falls pretty much in the middle of all this and I'm pretty much wiped-out by now.
This year I turn 26 and as my birthday is June 26 it marks a weird milestone. My whole life I've been thinking "wow, it'll be weird when I'm 26 on the 26th! My, I'll be OLD!!" Alas, this day has arrived and I'm just trying to soldier through. But along with my aging woes comes a whole new set of issues - - my eating woes!
Aren't birthdays just the most calorie-ridden beasts ever?
Between the inevitable cake, the celebratory drinks and the innumerable dinners you end up going to because your ever-growing groups of friends just can't seem to get it together, birthdays are a minefield for diets. This year - - of course the year I'm trying to be fit for a million reasons - - the most twisted of fates befell my humble local neighborhood of Hoboken, NJ. One that would call out to me, beckoning me to shore like a forbidden oasis of confectionary delights. One that I'd only dared approach in my darkest hours of sugar cravings. One that would surely lure in my well-wishers are more than one occasion in hopes of procuring me a sweet treat to celebrate my aging.
A shop that was once only part of NYC folklore, Crumbs' spoils consist of larger-than-life cupcakes, each iced and stuffed to perfection. Why-oh-why did this weapon of mass diet-destruction have to come to the quiet plains of metropolitan New Jersey?!
I'm not sure but I've devised a plan of attack.
The cupcakes are seriously huge and instead of offering once apiece, the way my friends and I avoid destroying our diets is by slicing those suckers up and sharing them. We don't even buy enough for everyone to get their own. After sampling a few bites we're good to go and no one's diet is destroyed.
As unenthused as I am about my birthday, it's nice to get together and toast to friends. Any time you're at a celebration, don't hold yourself back completely because then you're more likely to go nuts if you give in to temptation. Instead sample a little here and there and keep it moving. Above all, focus on your friends and family and the fun conversation don't let the food take over the event.
Even if that food is cupcakes sent from heaven.
