Black-Bottom Cupcakes, You Make The Rockin' World Go Round

Help! I need more time. I need to wear a bikini in about three weeks. This is very bad timing, because I normally put on about five pounds in the winter. I don’t gain this weight pigging-out at Thanksgiving and Christmas. I gain this weigh at the beginning of the year when winter really hits hard. This is because my activity level drops in relation to the plummeting thermometer.

My job (gardener) requires me to be outside, so, when the mercury hits the 20’s, I stay home and waste countless hours sitting on my ass in from of the computer. I do other things – sew, knit, read, and work on little projects. (Sounds like a dream, but it’s quite boring. Without riches to travel the world, retirement is gonna be a fat drag.) Unfortunately, all of these home activities don’t qualify as aerobic activity, and have never helped anyone get a smaller ass.

Let’s just say that February was COLD. I worked about five or six days the entire month. I also gained about five or six pounds.

Now that I’m back to work full-time, I’m burning loads of calories as I squat down to pick up sticks, push wheel barrows filled with mulch across lawns, rake the last lingering leaves, and contort my body to prune the branch juuust out of reach.

Because of work, I can now have my cake and eat it, too. What a relief! I saw David Lebovitz's black-bottom cupcakes featured at Apartment Therapy recently, and knew that this was exactly what I wanted to break my unsuccessful sort-of-trying-not-to-eat-everything fast.

These black-bottom cupcakes are a grown-up cupcake, in that they are not overly sweet. If you’re one of those weird people that doesn’t like dessert to be too sweet (Isn’t sweet part of the definition of dessert?), this is for you. The cream cheese filling studded with chocolate chunks also makes these cupcakes more sophisticated than the iced cupcakes you bake for a kid’s birthday party.

I love these cupcakes the way they are, but if you want things sweeter, add some ice cream. I’ve been loving the new Häagen-Dazs Extra Rich Light Ice Cream. (Two pints in the last two weeks!) The carton reads,” We spent ten years with European scientists perfecting our Extra Rich Light ice cream.” Time well spent. Time well spent

With all the cupcakes and ice cream, I’m afraid I’m just running in place getting no where fast with these five extra pounds, but, damn, it tastes good. I guess I need to go to work eight days a week.