Rooftop-cosmo-deco-jito-loungyness.

Miami Beach. Zipped over for a well deserved week of frivolity and ate very well despite the food pimps. Enjoyed the sport of drinking sparkly beverages while people watching on the beach. Ah, the beach. So nice to be near water.

You want to sit there, don't you?

I have. And it was good. This is Dish, a restaurant and loungy bar in Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia. Take off your Havaianas and plop down on the white sofas to await the delivery of your freshyfreshfresh mojito. Bliss, I tell you! So chic and fun and I wish my house looked like this bar! But I have pets and we all know when you have pets you can't have anything nice. But that's a rant for another day. For now, enjoy the sea breezes wafting through the white curtains in the evening when they open the floor to ceiling doors in the lounge. Is there anything better?

Mais, qu'est-ce que c'est? Ne me dites pas!

Oh my goodness! Have you ever seen anything so beautiful? These are macaroons (macaroons, I tell you!) from the sweetest little french bakery and salon called Ladurée. They come in all kinds of colours and flavours, wrapped up tight in the cutest boxes imaginable. Could you just die? I don't even like macaroons but I want my whole house to look like one of their shops.

The adventure continues ...

You would think I would be able to find food colouring after visiting three different stores, but no. I settled instead for vegan "buttercream" icing atop an otherworldly chocolate cupcake. A raspberry hat makes them cute and healthy. I can't stop eating them for breakfast. Is that what it's like to be Nigella Lawson?

Cupcakes

Let's get right to it, shall we? I'll be making vegan cupcakes this weekend for the first time and I am a little more than obsessed with finding a method for creating this rainbow icing. Something about it makes me want to learn how it works. What are its secrets? How does it become the glory that it is? Obviously, I'm no professional baker, but I enjoy a good cake batter and I shall rise to this challenge. Oh, yes. It shall be done.