Tennis Ball Cupcakes

Yikes! It's been a month since I posted something here.  When several weeks pass between blog entries on my cooking blog, my dad asks me, "Does that mean your family is starving?... your husband and son are having to fend for themselves?... perhaps you are going to McDonalds?"  He's a kidder.  Of course I am cooking, but I am just not finding enough time to write about it.

We had a tennis team dinner for the boy's high school tennis team last Friday night. It's a team tradition where the families of the boys who are Seniors host team dinners in their homes.  There are five Seniors on the team this year, including my son.  Another mom and I agreed to host a team dinner together.  She offered to have it at her house and I agreed to do a bunch of the cooking. It worked out great because she had to work on Friday and I did not.  Also, our house really is not great for entertaining. 

For the team dinner, we basically made up a terrific taco/nacho bar.  Seasoned ground beef in the crock pot, black beans, refried beans, hot queso dip... crunchy tacos, soft flour tortillas, tortilla chips... and every possible topping you could imagine... guacamole, sour cream, salsa, pickled jalapenos, cheese, olives, lettuce, tomatoes, onions... you get the idea. We also made some desserts. 

Above you'll see my tennis ball cupcakes. I made Funfetti cupcakes (white cake with colorful sprinkles mixed in) and Ifound Neon Yellow Vanilla canned frosting.  I used a little white frosting and piped that on with my pastry bag to make the cupcakes look a bit like tennis balls.

 

I can't believe this is my son's last year on the tennis team. This photo appeared in the local newspaper a few weeks back:

 

I love his smile. Crazy long hair, right? 

When I was looking on the internet for the photo above, I found the photo below (also from the local paper). Look how much he's grown and changed! He'll always be my baby boy.  *sigh*