Thursday, December 13, 2007

Cupcakes

My Small Obsession.

It all started with this book I found on Amazon.com called Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World: 75 Dairy Free Recipes for Cupcakes that Rule. I added it to my Amazon Wedding Registry (great invention). One of my bridesmaids, B, has been very supportive in our vegetarian pursuit and realized that I was getting fairly good at baking- so she gave it to us as a wedding present. She even read the intro to the book and their suggestions for supplies and bought us the cupcake pan they recommend as well as some fun papers and decorating kit! So far I estimate that since the first of September I have baked 300 cupcakes (S says thats a little overkill).

Well she is graduating on Saturday so she came out to our house today and we baked 4 dozen!

I think I like baking, and cupcakes because they are instant gratification. If you do it right you will know if 18-22 min. And as selfish as this is- I like the praise that others give me when I bake for them.

I have realized in my marriage and in relationships in general that if you want something, you should be giving it first.

For example, birthdays have always been a big deal in my family growing up- actually we got a whole birthday week where we decide what we do, get little surprises, and on our birthday everything we eat we get candles in! Therefore if I want people to pay attention to my birthday, then I need to pay attention to theirs!!!

So today we made some tried and true recipes, and some experimental recipes.

This semester I have been taking in cupcakes and cookies for my theater class. Basically it is a blow off freshman class that I just skipped, so now I am taking it as a senior. I guess I might have been scared that they wouldn't like me, so I started bringing in treats. Tomorrow is our exam and they were very eger to know what I would bring. One of my friends asked if I could make confetti cupcakes (the ones where you add sprinkles). So I found these great Wilson red and green Christmas dot sprinkles. They worked great! I just added them to my "Golden Vanilla" recipe right before I poured the batter. I thought for balance I would also take my favorite double-chocolate ones. I just make the basic chocolate recipe and add as many chocolate chips as I deem fit.

For B's graduation we decided we must have cupcakes also. You know red velvet cake? Well we thought we could just alter the color and make them orange velvet! Funny thing seeing as how velvet cake actually has cocoa in it (two tablespoons for one dozen cupakes), its kinda hard to cover up with orange. But we tried. We added a whole bunch of jell orange food coloring, and then for good measure added a package of yellow and a package of red. Nope, no covering of the cocoa. We baked them and they didn't really set up right- too much food coloring? So after much discussion we made Golden Vanilla and added a heaping 1/4 teaspoon of orange jell coloring. They are beautiful! But it kinda confuses your brain because there is no orange flavor in them. I guess that is my next experiment!

No comments: