A little faerie happily drifting on the breeze…

First let’s take a few ice cubes…

Now let’s drop them in a few drinks and put them to the test!

Point proven…

Of all the money I spent while in the US, all the jeans, t-shirts, Victoria’s Secret underwear, accessories, DVDs, CDs, books, lattes etc… nothing, and I mean NOTHING, was as worthwhile as the ice cube trays! I can’t believe I went so many years without them! Proper ice cubes. FINALLY.

Wow. I totally did not expect that cupcake post to sit there for the eternity that it did, confusing and disappointing all who came here thinking it was a cupcake blog. For that, I apologize. Nope, not a cupcake blog. Just a blog of an illustrator who was momentarily obsessed with cupcakes. Actually, I still want to make them again, this time with PROPER ingredients, and hopefully some time over the summer.

But before I get into my legitimate explanation, I thought I’d chuck this illo in. I drew this last week for my boss. Then I drew it 1 meter high on a sheet, which her children later colored in and used at a Country/Western school dance. But I think the most fun was looking up fun country songs with my boss. Oh the COMEDY

So what could have possibly kept me away from here so long? Well I have LEGITIMATE reasons. Promise.

First off, my comic. Ya know, ‘Imy.’ It’s doing super well! Around the time I wrote that cupcake post, I was in the process of getting t-shirts printed up for selling on the site. From there things just got crazy! I got info about a convention (The Small Press Expo) that would take place at the end of April. I signed up for it and immediately started working on putting together merchandise, and planning out my table. This took nearly 2 months. it was a LOT of work, but I got it DONE! And it was a BLAST! You can read all about it, with lots of great pics, right here.

Right after that I went to the US to visit my mom for 3 weeks. It was an incredible eventful 3 weeks. Full of road trips, concerts, Starbucks, and a trip to the ER. But it was great, for the most part. I got to really indulge Jersey style. Walks on the boardwalk, pool and taking over jukeboxes at beach bars, gambling at AC (first time ever, won $30!), incredible Jersey pizza… *sigh*. These are the things that really make me miss it there.

But now I’m back in Sweden! I’ve been back a few weeks already. I’m still getting myself together. I’ve still been busy!

Last weekend I went to 3 (THREE!!!) Bruce Springsteen concerts! He’s HUGE here, and all 3 shows were sold out. I went to all 3 of them and even stood in line to get wristbands to get in the pit for all 3 as well. The last two nights I brought a “Jersey Girl” sign with me, hoping he’d play that song just for me, but he didn’t (he did choose my husband’s Jungleland sign though and played that!).

I never considered myself a Bruce fan before. But after seeing him in concert last year, and then 3 times last weekend, I’ve changed my mind. And I have a favorite Bruce song. I’ll link you to that one, and to my favorite live song!

Favorite Bruce Song -She’s the One (he didn’t play this at any of the 3 shows!)

Favorite Live Bruce song - American Land (he played this every night! It was so much fun to jump and dance to!)

My hubby has written reviews about all 3 shows over on his site, Rock Revival. You can also find the review for the Kings of Leon concert we hit while in Cleveland. AWESOME.

Anyway, now things are getting back to normal, for the most part. I opened up a store over at Imy. The books are going the fastest, which is VERY cool. I don’t have any other vacation plans except for a ton of concerts, which I’m sure to write about as I go along. Other than that I am just hoping for some good weather to come along. It was about 39F (4C) last week during one of the Springsteen shows. Even for here that’s weird for June! And I don’t like it!

So there we go. And now I’m off to bed, ’cause man do I need some sleep!

Anyone who comes by here new is going to think this is a site about baking and pastries. I swear it isn’t! It’s illustration! It just so happens that my posts have been about pastries lately. What can I say? They’re oh so good.

Anyway, like I mentioned in my post last week about the redesign, I’ve been slowly becoming more and more obsessed with cupcakes. I am not a baker, I’m not very good at it and I don’t really have the patience for it. But I needed to have cupcakes! I can only remember ever baking them with my mom one time to take them into school. I must have been around 8. Other than that I’ve never made them. And I’ve only eaten them on rare occasions. It’s safe to say that it’s probably been 10 years since I last had one. At least. I really think it’s closer to 15.

ANYWAY…

So today was “Cupcake Day.” And I finally made cupcakes. I decided to make vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting. And here’s the photo journal…

Batter prepared and ready to go in to the oven!

Cupcake breech!! I’ve learned my first lesson already: double cup the cakes! But a quick taste test shows that they taste fine, despite their awkward proportions.

Frosted! Which didn’t go as planned. It came out too soft, and I couldn’t make it all pretty with one of those cake decorating things squeezy things (see how much of a baker I am NOT?!). The end result is a little messy looking.

A completed cupcake, in all its glory. Can you hear the angels singing?

But the real question is - how do they taste?

The answer - Eh…

Ok. I have a few theories on what went wrong. One, or all of them, can be true.

Theory 1: - I had to use eggless recipes because my husband is allergic. I can’t make a whole batch of cupcakes JUST for ME. So eggless it was. And eggless cakes often have a vinegar/baking soda combo in them to give them some air. Unfortunately, the cake was still quite delicate and sort of falling apart under the weight of the frosting. But actually, I don’t think this has anything to do with the flavor.

Theory 2 - I used an American recipe and only had Swedish ingredients. Meaning, I had to use a few substitutes. Actually, I only had to make one substitute, and that was using unsalted butter in the frosting instead of shortening. That may be why it went so soft… maybe… Geez, I don’t know.

Theory 3 - Oil. I messed up with the oil. And I knew I had, but I refused to be patient. I meant to look up what kind of oil I needed, and I forgot. Then I went to the store and totally didn’t even think about buying oil. So I was left with either using olive oil (which I know shouldn’t be used for baking) or waiting another day to make them. I went with the olive oil risk. And I can taste it in the cake. And I think it’s ruining the vanilla flavor the cake should have as well.

Theory 4 - I’ve been living in Sweden so long that I have become intolerant of the sweetness of American cakes. This one IS true. It’s something I’ve noticed when I’ve gone back to the US on my trips. It’s good healthwise, but bad for messing with my memories of things.

Anyway, this is not ending the cupcake adventure. I will try again! I will get the proper oil (what kind should I have anyway?), and I will look up a different frosting recipe that won’t send me into a sugar coma. oh yes, and I’ll remember to double (or even triple!) cup the cakes

If there is anything I love about Sweden, it’s the tradition of celebrating pastries (or using a pastry to celebrate a day). There’s ‘Kanelbulledagen’ in the fall (Cinnamon Roll Day), there’s Våffeldagen in Spring (Waffle Day), and now, today, is Semla Day! Okay, well that’s a bit of a lie. It’s not actually Semla Day. It’s, as most of you probably know, “Fat Tuesday” (or Shrove Tuesday, or Mardi Gras). The Semla came about as basically a “last hurrah” before fasting for Lent began. But, with Sweden being the secular country it is today, most people don’t fast anymore, and semlas can be bought and eaten anytime between Christmas and Easter. A perfect way to get through a dark, cold and gloomy winter.

The semla started out as just a bread bun served in a bowl of warm milk . But today it is something so much more fabulous!

Behold the modern semla in all it’s glory - A cardamom bun with a bit of the insides scooped out and filled with almond paste, a whole mess of whipped cream (real, non-sweetened whipped cream, not the spray can kind), and then topped off by the lid of the bun sprinkled with powdered sugar. It’s probably the most delicious thing I’ve ever eaten. If I didn’t have any self control at all I’d eat them every single day. But, fortunately, I refuse to let all my work at the gym melt all away for a ball of delicious, sweet, creamy… mmmmmmmmmmmm… what was I saying?

Oh right. Temptation. I pass a few bakeries on my way to work, all with large signs boasting their semlas to all that walk by. All of them making me think of sharing my morning latte in my office with a soft, creamy semla. Pure Torture.

I had one this morning, so I won’t be having any tonight, sadly. So I thought I’d draw one to drool over instead.

Ad here’s fun semla tidbit for you - According to the “all knowing” Wikipedia - King Adolph Fredrick of Sweden died after eating a rather large and rich meal chased by… wait for it… fourteen semlas. Yup. How’s that for ending a fun and cheery post? Exactly. It’s perfect

I can’t believe it! I started the redesign earlier today and I actually finished it all! On every page! Even the e-cards page! Weeeee!

It’s it wonderful? I’ve been building this obsession for cupcakes lately. Not that I’ve even had any to eat in years. I have no memory of the last time I ate one. Probably in elementary school. And the last time I ever made one? Probably to take into class for my birthday when I was 9 years old. I don’t bake. So it’s not so easy for me to just up and bake cupcakes. It’s not that I don’t want to, but it’s because I know what will happen. I will end up eating them all. And I don’t need a bunch of cupcakes to cancel out all my work at the gym.

But the obsession has become so much that now I’ve made a sweet cupcake design. And, I plan on finally jumping into the world of baking cupcakes next weekend. Watch out world! I’ve got food coloring and I know how to use it!

Anyway, I hope you like the new design. And, as you’ve noticed, I moved the blog to the main page. There was really no point in having a main page with just links to other pages. This makes a LOT more sense.

And now it’s bedtime, because tomorrow is Monday, and I have to pay my bills somehow!

I am currently redesigning all of illoluv.com. I think I’m going to move the blog to the main page too (*DONE!*). There’s no point on having a main page that has JUST links. And then I’ll link on the side to the e-cards and goodies. Those other pages will take some time to update.

So things are going to look a little nutsy for a while. Just bear with me I would like to get it all done today, but I don’t see that happening. I’m sure everything will be done by next weekend sometime. Or… at least… I hope!