Have your cake but DON'T eat it

Mr Smith is taking me out today to the O2 to watch some tennis.  It was supposed to be Murray versus Federer or something like that but Murray is injured and Federer played yesterday so I am sitting for 5 bum numbing hours of incandescent boredom watching two completely unknown Russians pat a ball backwards and forwards over the net.  I will take my knitting.  All my questions so far have been "Do we get drinks?", "Where will be having dinner" and "Do we have to stay til the end?"   Perhaps I should take big knitting.

Now what do I have to do today?  Ah, cooking.  Lots and lots of cooking.  I am hoping to get my cupcakes made for December and January's entries on my 2012 calendar.  This not only involves making the cakes but also making little theatre sets for the photographs.  I know diddlysquat about photography but I will consult one of the eighty books I have on the subject.  I want in-focus foreground and fuzzy background - any ideas?
Under the Apprentice's bed the other day, along with an old sandwich and loads of smelly socks, I found a "Blizzard in a Can" left over from many a Christmas ago.  Oh how brilliant.  I can use the snow to create the background for my snowmen cupcakes.  I knew it would come in handy.

Part Four of my C&G Confectionary course has just arrived.  "Royal icing". OMG.  Plenty tricky.  I am going to have to do this very methodically and not go all off piste as I usually do.  Let me tell you, there's none of that 'try to get it flat, fail completely so do spikes all over instead'.  There is no mention of bunging on your ancient plastic Father Christmas with calcified icing from cakes past all over the bottom; ditto sad tree and three legged reindeer.  It looks serious.  All the decorating of these cakes is academic exercises so actually what you end up is not anything you could pass off as festive.  I suppose you could scrape it all off and re-ice the top. No, I'm far too exhausted from all these exercises to produce an actual Christmas cake.

Mine will be more exciting and much scarier!