Lovin' from the Oven: Cupcake kebabs, strawberry vodka and mix tapes from 1999

When you're a 70 year old housewife trapped in a 30 year old's body you don't travel like most people. You don't camp like most people. You don't drink like most people. You do it classier.

That's me. Classy. You won't find me drinking Dutch Gold. No way Jose. I'll go for the cheapest vodka I can find but with a little inspiration from people with a lot more free time to think up these things, I undertook to make the prettiest vodka there ever was (in this case I was inspired by www.shutterbean.com). Strawberry Vodka. Here's how it goes:

Step 1: Remove the stems of 2 punnets of strawberries and plonk them in a glass jar.

Step 2: Bathe those strawberries in a bottle of vodka.

Keep the jar in a shady spot and gently agitate the mixture twice a day for 3 days

After 3 days you will have pretty pink vodka that tastes like strawberries. And less pretty strawberries that have been sapped of their life force and colour, and taste like a shot of vodka. Add a dash of Coke and, in the words of one manly man who took a sip, "Well THAT is delightful. It tastes like an ice pop!"

So I had my bags all packed (busting, as per uje) the couch cushions in the car for sleeping on in the tent, the car entertainment sorted (we would be playing random cassette tapes, not knowing what embarrassing mixes would come up because when was the last time you listened to those cassettes? Or labeled them properly?) and I was already panicking about the prospect of possibly maybe feeling hungry during the drive to festival in Mayo (as per uje). I went for 2 categories of car snacks that could be eaten one handed: Healthy (carrot sticks, strawberries, apples, bla bla) and Cupcake Kebabs.

Did she just say cupcake kebabs?

Yes. Yes I did. Cupcake Kebabs. You can't peel cupcake cases while driving and you can't be constantly checking your face for frosting. The solution is to stack a variety of mini cupcakes on a skewer.

Start with mini cupcakes. I had vanilla, lemon, carrot cake and chocolate. When they're cool, remove the paper cases

Frost your mini cupcakes. This was a handy way to use up bits of frosting I already had made up for other orders. I believe I have previously mentioned how I find my life of cake quite wonderful. This is a prime example of why. I have random bits of frosting prepared in my home. All. The. Time. I used fluffy vanilla cream cheese frosting on the vanilla cupcakes with some sugar strands for crunch, lemon on the lemon (which happened to be purple) with alphabet sprinkles because...I don't know, fluffy vanilla cream cheese frosting with butterscotch chips on the carrot cake and chocolate frosting or crunchy peanut butter frosting on the chocolate cupcakes

Skewer the cupcakes in whimsical combination and voila. You are a domestic goddess in the car, which is probably the opposite of domestic. The lemon tartlets in the background were intended as another one handed road trip snack, but got sold instead. It's probably better for my pants that way.