Thus, a short list--with lots of pics--of what I've learned over the past couple of months in my baking adventures.
1. When Martha Stewart says something is easy, DO NOT believe her.
For this chocolate cupcake with a chocolate-hazelnut swiss meringue buttercream icing, I wanted to use rich cocoa powder (easy) and roasted, crushed hazelnuts (really, really hard). I discovered that you can't just buy hazelnuts pre-roasted--at least, not where I was looking--so I had to buy them plain. Now, you can't use them as is because the skins give the nuts a bitter taste, so you are supposed to roasted them in the oven--which dries them out and allows the skins to be easily removed by placing them in a clean dish towel and rubbing until the skins miraculously fall away. NOTE: that does not happen. At least not for me. I spent more time trying to peel off those teeny, tiny skins than I did on the entire cupcake! Ahem... But the whole thing was tastey, so I'm over it. Sort of. Do I sound over it?
2. When something is labelled "bad," it always tastes that much better.
We live in this nut-free zone nowadays and most public work places are super-strict about outlawing the whole nut family. But if there were a (not) WANTED poster, the peanut would have his picture right front and centre. He is persona non grata, numero uno. And such a label does nothing but make him taste that much better. And a chocolate cupcake with peanut butter icing? Downright rebellious and delicious.
On this particular baking extravaganza, I also tried making ones with chai latte icing. To this day, they are some of my best creations--take that nut-free bubble zones!
3. Cupcakes are better with friends.
I sometimes ask myself why it is that I am so obsessed with this incredibly tastey treat. And I came to a bit of an answer when I decided to do a cupcake tasting with some lovely ladies at my place.
I travelled to a bunch of cupcake shops on the west end and asked them what their best-sellers, buying one from each of the five locations. Clockwise from top: chocolate raspberry (from The Wedding Cake Shoppe), salted caramel (from Bobbette and Belle), red velvet (from Dlish), vegan chocolate (from OMG Baked Goodness) and pina colada (from The Cupcakery). We divided each cupcake into four so we could each just try a bite.
Some were good, some were REALLY good and others were so-so--and we didn't all agree on which go which label. But the fun part was sitting around, chatting about what we liked and what could be changed, feeling like cupcake conoisseurs. So, one of the reasons I love these little cakes so much is that it can be a totally social activity that brings a smile to everyone's face because there is something for everyone. Diversity is a beautiful thing, people.
4. Perfection is for God. Mistakes are for people.
Not all experiments go well. Actually, that's a stupid thing to write, because if it doesn't go well, it still goes well. Confusing, I know, but let me explain.
I tried out this recipe I've used before for lemon cake, but I wanted to switch it up for an orange flavour instead. Just swap the fruity ingredients--seemed simply enough. But the change brought out the not-so-great aspects of the cakes and it ended up being pretty dry with an icing that wasn't all that flavourful. But I learned. I learned a lot. About cooking times and fat-to-glutein ratios and so much more. So, in the end, the cupcakes were mostly tossed (very sad) but I like to think I've moved on since then to achieve greatness. Well, maybe not greatness, but definitely better tasting cupcakes. So, sometimes you win, even when you lose.
5. Keep life simple.
In my cupcake adventures, I am all about the taste. Yes, I like them to look presentable, but I'm not into all this fondant, looks-good-but-tastes-like-sugary-cardboard stuff. The most important thing is how they taste.
I'm also not huge about really sweet stuff--which sounds weird given my claim about loving something that is, by nature, sweet. But I have been experimenting with tons of different icings in order to create a cupcake that is not overly sweet. At least, not to me. And let me tell you: the recipes get super-complicated.
But when my husband needed a dessert for 25-30 people for his sailing class, I surprisingly decided to go with something simpler: just your basic, run of the mill buttercream icing. Sure, I spiced up different ones to make (from right to left) chocolate, mint, mint-chocolate, banana and banana-chocolate, but for the most part, they were straight-forward concoctions.
And to surprise--they loved them! I mean, I didn't expect to them to hate cupcakes--who does?!?--but when I saw these people the next week, all they could talk about was the icing. Really? Well, I guess it goes to show me that in some instances, simpler is just better.
6. Start baking before 9pm.
Ta-da! My first, professional looking order. I did these ones for a friend of mine, who was throwing a baby shower (it's a girl!) for her sister-in-law. I decided to go with lemon cupcakes with a cream cheese lemon icing and my previous hit (see blog below) of strawberry.
Work schedules and life schedules being what they are, I didn't get started on these bad boys until after 9pm on a Friday night (yes, a wild weekend for me), when they needed to be dropped off by Saturday morning. So dumb.
The end result was nice and pretty, but the dark circles under my eyes were not. These recipes are more complicated than your average choc and van, and the lemon ones involve a lemon curd filling. 2 a.m. came and went, and by the time I was finished, I felt flat-footed from standing up so long without proper footfear ('cause who wears shoes in their own kitchen?!), so exhausted I couldn't think straight and really stupid for not having started earlier. Oh, the price of beauty...
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