I did it... I baked!

...And, as I suspected, it helped! I felt energetic, enthusiastic and inspired. And it was fun and refreshing to have the night in the kitchen by myself (with the pup at my feet, of course).

I made my standard chocolate cupcake. (It's really light and airy, and it reminds me of the cupcakes we used to have as kids.)

With a bright yellow buttercream (whoa butter) frosting because I thought they looked cheery. I stole the flower idea from the Citrus blog, which I saw posted yesterday on the site formerly known as Sk*rt.

Mine aren't as cute, but I was totally improvising, and I don't think they turned out half bad!

Oh, and while I was in the kitchen I made up a pretty fantastic recipe for turkey chili with grilled corn and a little garam masala! Yumm :)