Overturned Cupcakes — Donna Hopkins

Our oldest son will visit for a few days this week. We will celebrate his birthday and our anniversary (these events being just a few days apart). He has requested cupcakes, and his favorite is yellow cake with chocolate icing. I have let myself off the hook for baking those cupcakes and plan to buy them from a local bakery. I have two bakeries in mind and decided to buy the mini versions this morning for a taste test. I planned to take a little still life photograph of the cupcakes but in the process of getting things set up, the cupcakes went sliding and landed with perfect form, plop, upside down, on our yellow kitchen chair. I debated for a moment, wondering what to do next. Give up and call the idea a wash? Buy more cupcakes? Nah . . . I just took the picture in all of its truth. Then my husband and I scraped the cupcakes off the chair and scarfed them down in single bites. We licked the icing from our fingers and smiled like the goofy kids we still are inside. I had to get a toothbrush and spray cleaner to get that chocolate frosting out of the little holes in our snazzy yellow kitchen chairs. It was a job, and yet somehow, still fun. I wasn’t angry or frustrated with myself for the misstep. My husband pitched in willingly to help with both the tasting and the clean-up. In the least expected way, this felt like the perfect anniversary gift. The kind of love that is light and effortless.