cupcakes

beatrix part two: of guinea pigs, nursery rhymes and cupcakes

~ jama ~ 60 Comments

Today we are honored to welcome a very special guest to Alphabet Soup: the one and only Amiable Guinea-pig!

After reading and reviewing Beatrix Potter and the Unfortunate Tale of a Borrowed Guinea Pig by Deborah Hopkinson and Charlotte Voake (Schwartz & Wade, 2016), we felt a tasty homage to this dapper little fellow was definitely in order.

Peter Rabbit gets a lot of attention, as does Miss Tiggy-Winkle, Jemima Puddle-Duck, Jeremy Fisher, Tom Kitten and Squirrel Nutkin. In fact, they all have their own little books written about them. But not the Amiable one, who was actually the first guinea pig in Miss Potter’s work. She wrote a clever limerick about him that appeared in Appley Dapply’s Nursery Rhymes (1917).

But one limerick does not a book make. Wouldn’t you feel a little slighted? To add insult to injury, initially Miss Potter’s publisher Frederick Warne & Co. wasn’t that keen on the Appley Dapply rhyme collection, which she had hoped to publish following the release of The Tale of Peter Rabbit in 1902.

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Poetry Friday Roundup is here!

~ jama ~ 84 Comments

WELCOME TO POETRY FRIDAY AT ALPHABET SOUP!

Have I told you lately you’re as cute as a button? 🙂

Although National Button Day isn’t until November 16, Mr. Cornelius and the rest of us here decided we wanted to celebrate it a little early.

That’s because we love a particularly charming poem by Penny Parker Klostermann in the Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations (Pomelo Books, 2015).

Most of you probably know that Penny just recently published her first picture book — There Was an Old Dragon Who Swallowed a Knight (Random House, 2015), that showcased her enviable chops as a clever wordsmith and humorist — but did you know that “Buttons” was not only Penny’s first published poem, but her first published work for children?

We’re happy to celebrate this wonderful milestone with a batch of peanut butter button cookies and sugar button cupcakes. Please help yourself, enjoy Penny’s poem and backstory, then leave your PF links with Mr. Linky.

🎉 CONGRATULATIONS, PENNY!🎈

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jill corcoran: dreaming of big things . . . and cupcakes!

~ jama ~ 28 Comments

#19 in the Poetry Potluck Series, celebrating National Poetry Month 2012.

Jill Corcoran wears many hats in the world of children’s books — she’s an award-winning author, poet, literary agent and editor who’s creating a new series of poetry anthologies for Kane Miller Books.

You may already know that the first anthology, Dare to Dream . . . Change the World, will be released this Fall, and I’m especially happy because it includes the work of many previous Poetry Potluck noshers, like Jane Yolen, Joyce Sidman, J. Patrick Lewis, Marilyn Singer, Lee Bennett Hopkins, Elaine Magliaro, Tracie Vaughn Zimmer, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Laura Purdie Salas, Kelly R. Fineman, and of course, Janet Wong, who was just here yesterday.  How can you go wrong with a line-up like that?

Since I first “met” Jill online years ago through Poetry Friday, when she shared a touching poem inspired by her sister, it’s nice that for her first visit to Alphabet Soup she’s sharing a poem that just happens to be the title poem from the new anthology, which is fully illustrated by J Beth Jepson. She’s also brought a special recipe that she enjoys making with her daughter. (Those who know me, know that I get a tad ecstatic at the mention of cupcakes.)  If you need me, I’ll be drooling over by the dessert table.

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sara varon’s bake sale brownies

~ jama ~ 17 Comments

Oh my, but I do love Sara Varon’s Bake Sale!  And recently I made the brownies featured in it. *dies*☺

Such a lovely, feel-good story about friendship. This toothsome graphic novel is just quirky enough — a few squiggly degrees to the left of center — to avoid being cloying, overly sentimental, or cutesy, something that can easily happen when your main character is a pink cupcake in a town populated with walking food.

So, Cupcake is living the sweet life — bakes delectable treats at his own Sweet Tooth Bakery and plays drums in a cool band with his best friend Eggplant. Despite having won blue ribbons for Best Fruit Pie, Fluffiest Cake and Most Perfect Cookie, Cupcake gets into a baking rut.

Just so happens Eggplant is planning a trip to Turkey to visit his Aunt Aubergine, who is business partners with Turkish Delight, the greatest pastry chef in the world and Cupcake’s culinary idol.

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loving lisa schroeder’s sprinkles and secrets

~ jama ~ 14 Comments
Cover Bear Pauline loves this book!

We’ve been having lots of fun recently in the Alphabet Soup kitchen thanks to Lisa Schroeder’s Sprinkles and Secrets (Aladdin, 2011).

*nibbles on a Monster Cookie*

Not only have I reread this totally scrumptious companion book to It’s Raining Cupcakes (Aladdin, 2010), but I made Monster Cookies — one of two recipes included in the book (the other is Isabel’s prize-winning Chocolate Jam Tarts). Perfect way to get into the holiday spirit AND indulge my neverending cookie cravings.

Just in case you haven’t read Sprinkles and Secrets (please remedy that immediately!), it’s about Isabel’s best friend Sophie, an aspiring actress who gets her big chance to audition for a television commercial. She’s thrilled, of course, until she finds out she’d be advertising for Beatrice’s Brownies, the chief competitor to Isabel’s family’s cupcake shop. She tries to keep the specifics of the commercial under wraps for fear of jeopardizing her friendship with Isabel, but things go from bad to worse when she wins the audition and still can’t bear to tell Izzy. How do you choose between your fondest dream and your BFF?

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