cupcakes on FIRE!!!!

A little belated, but nevertheless, I had to tell you about my smokin' Labor Day. Boy oh, boy! Did we have some excitement in my house. I was knee deep in cupcake business, for the “cupcake of the week” feature on essence.com. Our neighbors dropped by (they have two boys) and the kids were in and out, up and down the stairs having a blast. With the help of our "Bob the Builder" friendly neighbor, my husband was climbing up this roof ladder while his wife kept me company in the kitchen. We were planning on grilling outside, but something weird was going on with the grill, plan b was in action. We'll use the indoor grill- simple enough-right? Not exactly! My husband claims to be the grill master, so I let him have that title, one less thing for me to do. While I baked, his responsibility was to manage the grilling- huh, he managed to slip out the door and never returned. So, I got stuck manning the indoor grill- somehow it didn't work out the way I envisioned. Does it ever?

Anyway, while I continued to make cupcakes the grill continued to do what it does-smoke, I didn't think anything of it. I just turned on the exhaust and kept on baking. The smoke continued to rise until the whole house was full of black clouds. Still I didn't think much of it, I just opened the windows. Finally, the smoke alarm went off and I shut it off and continued to bake and grill. Then it went off again- so I shut it off again, I figured the alarm company would call, but I never heard the phone ring- so I yelled out the window told my husband the happenings, he didn't say much so, I kept on baking and grilling. By this time, the better half of our neighbors went back to her house to get her dinner going and the kids including hers were still in and out and up and down- honestly, I really didn't know where they were! My cell phone rang- I looked at the 800 number and thought -huh, who is this calling me on a holiday from an 800 number, so I did what most of us do- I ignored it. About 10 minutes later, my stepdaughter comes in from outside and says there's a fireman here, and I said, WHAT? Walking through the gray smoke that filled the kitchen air appears a real live firefighter, standing about 6 feet 4 inches tall wearing a yellow jacket with matching pants, fire hat, boots, fire extinguisher the whole nine dead center in my kitchen asking "Is everything okay," Where's the fire"? It was like a scene out of a movie. I just stood there and smiled- what else was I to do? The kids thought this was the coolest thing ever-a real LIVE firefighter up close and personal. My husband never showed his face- he was too embarrassed. I told the firefighter everything was okay-I guess I just missed the calls from the alarm company, but there was no fire here, just some shishkabobs and cupcakes. I apologized and offered him a plate and a cupcake to go, I thought that was the least I could do. After all it was a holiday. The rest of the 25 firefighters, 4 firetrucks, police officer and fire chief were very happy there was not a fire to fight on Labor Day and needless to say we were too.


And, happily the Apple Walnut Crumb cupcakes turned out fantastic and the shishkabobs too. Check out the recipe on essence.com/recipes.


posted by Nicole Friday for the Cupcake Craze