Australia Day Cupcakes

This year, we celebrated Australia Day twice. In addition to the cakes we enjoyed with friends on Saturday, we had more friends over on Monday and enjoyed a lovely lunch together. 

I had grand visions of having a themed table ~ inspired by May Gibbs (see image above). There was going to be handmade yellow pom-pom Wattle (Australia's floral emblem) in the centrepieces on the table and Gumnut Baby place-cards for the children and such... but being the sleep-deprived Mama I am, that just didn't happen (maybe next year?). 

However, I did really want to make some Aussie cupcakes and an idea came to me one night, when I was up very late feeding Ollie (and doing all my thinking and planning).

Banana Cupcakes!

Australian Bananas are delicious and 'The Big Banana' is an Australian icon!

Everyone stops there, on their drive north to Queensland, as we did last year;

(This was where our girls were introduced to the {now often-requested, rarely supplied} chocolate-dipped Banana) 

Anyway, this was an idea that would work  ~ thanks to a bag of Banana lollies and another bag of Spearmint Leaves.

I even recruited a little helper (I am very good at delegating now) who did all the decorating for me;

The kids enjoyed their Australia Day cupcakes and had a lot of fun together;

And us adults got to enjoy many hours of great conversation and the ultimate Australian dessert; a delicious Pavlova. Thanks Mossy & Maxine and Kurt & Zena... A very Happy Australia Day indeed!