To Bee Or Not To Bee

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“Our class is doing cupcakes for the “Food Truck” food court. Why don’t you do some kid-friendly ones?” When students began returning to campus in 1947 after WWII, many of them felt awkward trying to fit in. Auburn University initiated a “Hey Day” where everyone on campus wore a name tag and greeted each other with a “Hey!” It stuck and became a tradition.* We even have a Hey Day Market food court downtown now. You can get a name tag just inside the door. Our church has adopted our own version of Hey Day. Each fall we have a Sunday to wear name tags and say “Hey!” It culminates in a food truck event where each class has a booth with fun food and snacks for lunch. Kent suggested I do lemon/lime kid-friendly cupcakes. After some brainstorming, I decided to do Bees. Little did I know what an ordeal I had gotten myself into. I ended up agonizing over whether to bee or not to bee.

Bees. You’d think it would be simple. Supplies should be easy to find. I bought confetti cake mix, lemon icing, and a tube of black decorator icing on my grocery run and set them aside to do on Saturday. Friday night, Kent and I had our regular Chick-fil-a date and went to the store to look for the rest of the decorations.

Perusing the cake-decorating aisle for possibilities proved to be a fun adventure. We came up with M&M minis for eyes and marshmallows for wings. I wasn’t sure what to use for antennae, so decided to think on that one.

Saturday morning, Kent went down to the church to help with yard work, and I prepared to bake the cupcakes. I had the house to myself. It would only take a minute to mix up cake batter and pop them into the oven, then I could have the whole morning to write while they baked and cooled. Wonderful!

The first hint of trouble came when I realized I had bought angel food cake mix instead of regular. No worries, the box had a link to online instructions for cupcakes. Problem solved. They came out of the oven golden brown–and stuck fast to the paper cupcake holders.

Okay, we can still salvage this. On the plus side, they cooled in record time. So, I decided to go ahead and ice them now for decorating later. Pro tip-iced angel food cupcakes are top heavy and the cake part is tough and chewy, at least these were. My morning was shaping up to be less restful than I’d planned. I decided to go ahead and finish them to see if they were even going to work.

I pulled out the tube of black icing. It was a micro-tip and only made a thin line. I cannot write legibly with a pen much less hold decorator icing steady. They taught me in educational media class at Auburn that black on yellow is the best contrast for making signs you want people to be able to read easily. So, the stripes were not only crooked, you couldn’t miss how awful they looked. Still, I pressed on, determined to make this work.

I put smiles on the bees, chocolate baking chip stingers, M&M Mini eyes, and marshmallow wings. Then, I stood back to see my work. Yeah. They looked like a cross between tracker jackers from the Hunger Games and something out of a horror movie. I almost chucked them right there but decided to send pictures to my oldest and youngest for opinions. Oldest texted back, “I kind of love them.” (I suspect she was just trying to spare my feelings) Youngest texted, “I’m confused. Bunnies?” Fail.

Split decision. To bee or not to bee. I didn’t know if I had the courage to actually show up with bunny bees. While I was considering what to do, I pulled a couple of staples out of our pantry–a box of chocolate cake mix and a tub of chocolate icing. Then I saw the spatula.

My trusty Rubbermaid spatula, the one that I have used for years, my very favorite one for cakes, was missing about a quarter inch of its tip. I knew when I started that the tip was a little rough looking, but it was intact. All I could figure was that somewhere in those bees was the end of my spatula. Fine. The bees were not to bee. Bring on the chocolate cupcakes. And, I could dip them in the remaining M&M’s for the win. When they were done, I sent a picture to the family to prove I really could make presentable cupcakes. Oldest answered, “I kind of liked the bees.”

Kent insisted on keeping the reject bees. He said he wanted to conduct a scavenger hunt for the spatula. I think it was just a good excuse to eat cupcakes. Actually, they were pretty tasty. Oldest suggested I take them anyway along with a disclaimer. “It’ll be like a king cake,” she said. “I will not be remembered for causing a choking casualty at Hey Day,” I said.

All afternoon, I could not get my mind off the abysmal failure of my bees. Oldest’s “I kind of liked the bees” kept coming back to me. So, I grabbed my keys and told Kent I was going to the store for more supplies. We had a really late dinner, but I finished the bees around eight that night. So much for a leisurely writing day. Thankfully, my first experience had taught me a thing or two so the second batch came out okay. They even had Twizzlers for antennae.

After all the cupcake drama, I’ve decided next year on Hey Day I will be a little less adventurous. I am painfully aware of my limitations in the cupcake decorating department. To bee or not to bee? Definitely not.

Oh, I found the rest of the spatula. And yes, it was inside a reject bee. In case you’re wondering, no people were harmed in the recovery of this cooking utensil.

Happy Fall!

Blessings!

*Hey Day-A Beloved Auburn Tradition, sga.auburn.edu

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Beverly Smith
With three adult kids and two preschool grandkids, Beverly stays busy keeping up with her family and loves it. She likes to learn new things, be outdoors, and travel. You can frequently find her running with her dog Jack, reading a good book, or watching movies, crime dramas, and Auburn football. She met her husband Kent at Troy University and they moved to Auburn one month after they were married. Originally a Medical Technologist, she obtained a second degree from Auburn University's School of Education and taught Physical Science and Biology at Opelika High School until she decided to become a full time mom. If you ask her what she wants to be when she grows up, she'll say, "A writer for children." She has written preschool activities curriculum and is currently writing middle grade fiction.

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