And hey, it’s also the first post on here, so cheers to that, too!īefore she started performing as White Hinterland, Casey Dienel released Wind-Up Canary, a quirky piano-pop record that I bought on a whim about four years ago. Since I made these for a New Year’s Eve party, the champagne was even more fitting to represent new beginnings. The cupcakes were inspired by changing seasons and new beginnings: The pumpkin and apple are obvious fall flavors, the champagne is a nod to Dienel’s lyric about toasting the end of a season, and I wanted the frosting to look at least a little bit like snow. “And we’ll toast this death of summer months, and summer warmth, and summer love.”
You know the awkward time between between fall and winter, usually in November-ish, when you’ve had two weeks of scarves and winter coats, then all of a sudden there are a few days when it’s 50 degrees and sunny and you can get away with just a sweatshirt? Or between winter and spring, when you think the snow has finally disappeared for the year and then BAM! Another snowstorm hits and, despite the fact that it’s mid-March, you’re suddenly convinced that winter won’t end for another six weeks? Casey Dienel’s song “Cabin Fever” sums that up perfectly, as she personifies autumn as an old man with tattered clothes, and sings about Indian summers, wearing sweaters, and getting out of town. Pumpkin-apple-champagne cupcakes with champagne buttercream frosting (recipe at bottom of post) “Cabin Fever” by Casey Dienel (from 2006’s Wind-Up Canary) “As soon as you’re used to one season it moves/