Where's Pablo?

Do you know this penguin? I did not until recently when I was introduced to Pablo and the Backyardigans. In fact, my knowledge of who's who in childhood pop culture is very limited these days and only exists because of several nieces who delight in Dora and Disney princesses. Personally, I am from the generation of Sanrio classics, when Hello Kitty, My Melody, and Little Twin Stars reigned supreme. Forget Barbie and Cabbage Patch Kids, this Canadian-Chinese kid from the 1970's still has her pristine collection of Hello Kitty pencil cases and stickers and currently has unusual empathy for a character named Kogepan.


A lucky little girl named Blake (a big fan of Pablo) celebrated a birthday with swirly pink, purple, and yellow cupcakes decorated with royal icing alphabet letters and numbers. Six dozen cupcakes later, I have a new respect for these small tasty treats. The whole cupcake hype has been wasted on me, who admittedly, poo-pooed the notion that a cupcake could ever be delicious or desirable (I don't like a mouthful of buttercream). But their appeal makes more sense to me now, both from a consumer and creator point-of-view.


First, rather than getting a slice of cake, it is inherently more special to get an individual serving that is yours alone, not a fraction of a greater whole. Second, even though cupcakes are technically simple and often devoid of much flavour complexity, the possibilities in design are endless as each cupcake is its own blank canvas individually but also as a group where repetition and patterns can be visually stunning. Vive le cupcake!