Who knew? My first blog post is about pink cupcakes. Well, I do spend a lot of time with a 3 and a half year old girl.

We recently celebrated the Birth of Spring with my little girl and a handful of her friends (with their parents too). I am very interested in finding inspiring, creative ways to celebrate the natural cycles with her and teach her about the ordinary magic of the changing of seasons. We wanted to celebrate the Spring Equinox on the Spring Equinox, but the Spring Fairies could not find their way to our garden in a foot of snow! So we waited until the First Full Moon of Spring, which is just as well. The night before, we left a plate of fruit out in our backyard for the Fairies to eat as an offering. In the morning, we checked to see if they had come to eat our offering. (We hear that they only come when children are sleeping and dreaming of Spring…) Vwa-la! there was only a half eaten rose petal left!

The Spring Fairies sometimes leave a basket of treasures for children in their gardens when Spring returns. So we looked around and found a beautiful purple tulip basket full of goodies…little fruit bunnies, tinkerbell socks, a new toy fairy with glittering wings, paper grass, and jeweled eggs for Zahara!

But we haven’t gotten to the best part yet…the spinach beet cupcakes. Before I tell you about those delicious little beauties…When Z’s friends arrived we dyed organic eggs with beet juice and turmeric. Although the colors weren’t as vibrant as the toxic store bought kind, it felt so good to know that when the kids licked their fingers there wasn’t anything that would hurt their little bodies, and if we wanted to, we could just pour our egg dye right into the garden.

We then gathered on the grass for ‘Circle Time’ to talk about Spring’s return and sing together, which was followed by a treasure hunt to find colorful eggs hidden in the garden.

But, let’s get down to business! Let me tell you about those spinach-beet cupcakes! These were simple to make (with Leila’s help!), delicious, and healthy too! We used gluten free muffin mix, added organic sweet cream butter and eggs, and some finely chopped raw spinach. For the icing, I used ‘SO delicious’ cultured coconut milk. This stuff tastes just like yogurt, but without the dairy. I added some of the beet juice from the egg dying bowl, mixed it up into the ‘yogurt’, smeared it on the cupcakes, and then added organic, beet dyed cane sugar crystals for a little sparkle! They were delicious and of course, beautiful too!

It was a truly magical gathering. I am grateful to have the opportunity to turn the seasons with my family and community and make it sacred with ordinary magic.