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I'm typing this with frosting-sticky fingers surrounded by a cloying cloud of icing sugar.
It's cupcake making day to raise funds for something or other.
So after L burst into tears when I suggested Mommy send her in with ten dollars rather than 6 cupcakes, Mommy stepped up to the plate. I got books out of the library, I bought a series of nesting cups to make sure I had the precise amount of each ingredient. I replaced my ancient baking soda and baking powder, bought cake flour, pretty pastel cupcake liners. I baked not one but two versions of my chosen cupcake, lemon/lime with lemon frosting.
They were...okay.
So this morning I abandoned it all and whipped up some banana and choc chip cupcakes with chocolate buttercream frosting.
Yes, I'm an idiot, but what can I say. It meant a flying trip over to Sobeys for cocoa and orange juice (and a cup of Timmies where my roll up the rim once again told me to play again, damn it) but that only took 15 mins.
Cups. Cups baffle me. I know they're about 8 ounces and that's usually what I do, but the nesting cups weren't expensive so I gave them a go. OMG, so hard! All these books kept saying that weighing ingredients was for super serious professionals and most people couldn't do it at home and I was like, huh? What? Why? I have a set of scales; they're not at all expensive. Cups on the other hand...unless you keep flour and sugar in bins, it's really hard to scoop out what you need and slice across to get an accurate read. Then you have things like butter; how do you squish it into a cup when usually it's still a little hard and angular?
Maybe you have to be born here to understand cups.
Anyway, they came out looking gorgeous, risen to a mound, gently springy. I made the frosting and flushed with confidence cut out a circle of parchment paper to use as a piping tool. The test ones were great so I cut another and went to town.
Disaster. The stuff was oozing out of the top AND the bottom of the tube, dripping everywhere. I abandoned the sculpted swirls and used a knife.
Next came the artful sprinkle of colored chocolate beads. I took a few and scattered them over the frosted cakes.
They bounced.
Over and over, they bounced instead of plopping gently into the mounds of creamy goodness.
They're all over the floor and, after I stabbed them forcefully, they're now in the frosting.
The kitchen is a mess like you wouldn't believe.
If the kids don't buy the lot, every single one of them, I'm going to cry salty tears.
I guess I should taste one to see if they're okay...
It's cupcake making day to raise funds for something or other.
So after L burst into tears when I suggested Mommy send her in with ten dollars rather than 6 cupcakes, Mommy stepped up to the plate. I got books out of the library, I bought a series of nesting cups to make sure I had the precise amount of each ingredient. I replaced my ancient baking soda and baking powder, bought cake flour, pretty pastel cupcake liners. I baked not one but two versions of my chosen cupcake, lemon/lime with lemon frosting.
They were...okay.
So this morning I abandoned it all and whipped up some banana and choc chip cupcakes with chocolate buttercream frosting.
Yes, I'm an idiot, but what can I say. It meant a flying trip over to Sobeys for cocoa and orange juice (and a cup of Timmies where my roll up the rim once again told me to play again, damn it) but that only took 15 mins.
Cups. Cups baffle me. I know they're about 8 ounces and that's usually what I do, but the nesting cups weren't expensive so I gave them a go. OMG, so hard! All these books kept saying that weighing ingredients was for super serious professionals and most people couldn't do it at home and I was like, huh? What? Why? I have a set of scales; they're not at all expensive. Cups on the other hand...unless you keep flour and sugar in bins, it's really hard to scoop out what you need and slice across to get an accurate read. Then you have things like butter; how do you squish it into a cup when usually it's still a little hard and angular?
Maybe you have to be born here to understand cups.
Anyway, they came out looking gorgeous, risen to a mound, gently springy. I made the frosting and flushed with confidence cut out a circle of parchment paper to use as a piping tool. The test ones were great so I cut another and went to town.
Disaster. The stuff was oozing out of the top AND the bottom of the tube, dripping everywhere. I abandoned the sculpted swirls and used a knife.
Next came the artful sprinkle of colored chocolate beads. I took a few and scattered them over the frosted cakes.
They bounced.
Over and over, they bounced instead of plopping gently into the mounds of creamy goodness.
They're all over the floor and, after I stabbed them forcefully, they're now in the frosting.
The kitchen is a mess like you wouldn't believe.
If the kids don't buy the lot, every single one of them, I'm going to cry salty tears.
I guess I should taste one to see if they're okay...