Tricky Treats and Creepy Confections

One of the two online groups I'm in specializes in Halloweeny goodness.

Both groups recently issued challenges to their members. This one's challenge was:

It wasn't hard for me to decide on a Tricky Treat.

I love cupcakes. Love them!

They are so pretty and perfectly-sized, tiny little packages of pure sweet potential. So naturally my confections took a cupcakey form.

. . .

Unfortunately, these inedible yummys had a bit of a near-death experience before being saved just in the nick of time.

(Don't be scared, this story has a happy ending.)

See, sometimes I like to the hurry the drying process a bit by sticking my paperclay pieces in a warm oven, especially on rainy days (which we have our share of here in the Pacific NW). I turn the oven on and off, never letting it get too terribly toasty for the little darlings. Anyway, on this particular rainy day, it was Dylan's turn to cook dinner (we take turns daily). Not noticing the confectionery delights in the oven, he turned it up to 425 degrees.

(There really should be a dramatic pause here.)

A few hundred degrees into the heating-up process and I hear the tiny cries of Skelly and Punkinhead (OK, so I smelled their overly hot styrofoam armatures expanding). Aaaaah! My poor babies!

I rescued them in the nick of time, just shy of Total Meltdown, but not before several cracks emerged in their frosting perches. Letting them cool down very slowly, I pulled them back from the brink of death. Whew! After a little reconstructive surgery (paperclay transplant), they were better than ever, and a bit more humble for the experience.

I think the whole experience has made them close friends. They're rather inseparable now. I felt bad when Dylan listed them in separate auctions. Haven't they had enough trauma in their short lives?