Baking

Today I baked cupcakes.  Vanilla cupcakes with raspberry frosting.  If you'd like to make your own cupcakes, here are the recipes I used.  http://glorioustreats.blogspot.com/2011/07/perfect-vanilla-cupcakes-recipe.html  and for the frosting, http://makinglifedelicious.com/2011/03/21/pink-pink-pink-fresh-raspberry-buttercream-frosting/


Now I will tell you about my baking experience.  I love baking.  It's therapeutic.  And whatnot.  Now, if you read the post on the link of the first recipe, you would think that these cupcakes were the answer to life's misshapen cupcakes, that they were little cupcake cherubs.  You'd be wrong.  At least, I was.  They were easy to make, and they tasted fantastic, but they were the lumpiest cupcakes I've ever pulled out of an oven.  And I didn't even fill them up as much as I do with other cupcakes.  It looked like the started to be perfect, but then they erupted.  Nothing a bit of frosting couldn't disguise (or rather, distract attention from) but if I were in the cupcake biz, I definitely wouldn't have served them to a customer.  

What a neat way to store cupcake liners.

Speaking of frosting, the frosting was amazing.  It was my first time ever making a fruity frosting, but it turned out beautifully.  I liked this recipe, because it tells you to strain out the seeds, hence, nice smooth frosting.  And it tasted great too.  I mean, I probably wouldn't take it into a corner and eat it by the spoon-full, like I'm tempted to do with chocolate frosting, but it tasted nice on the cupcakes.  Another thing, it turned out a pretty, opera mauve color.  As I was baking, I pictured in my head a nice light pink, but I realize that would have happened with strawberries, not with vibrant raspberries.  I still like how it turned out.  Also, I used the maximum amount of powdered sugar suggested by the recipe because I wanted it to be stiff so I could decorate easier.  

The entire reason why I did this was so I could try out this rose frosting technique.

Onto the next element of my story.  I didn't want to keep all the cupcakes, because then I would eat all the cupcakes.  So I decided to give some of the cupcakes to a neighbor.  And I didn't want to put them on any old paper plate with saran wrap, I wanted 'presentation.'  So I made a gable box, but I guess I got bored or absentminded, because I didn't really plan anything for the top until I had the bottom part of the box taped up.  So the top kinda looks like a four year old cut it up.  Then I fancied it up and wrote the word 'cupcakes' on both sides and the word 'enjoy' on both sides of the handle.  And then I got second thoughts about giving them to the neighbors I was planning on, the ones that our family has the best relationship with.  Well, more like the only ones our family has a relationship with.  They go to our church.  Anyway, I didn't want to give the box to them because it wasn't as perfect as I wanted.  Then I got the idea of ding dong ditching it on some random neighbors porch.  So I made a tag that I attached to the handle that said 'Vanilla cupcakes with raspberry frosting' so whoever got it would know what it was.  Thus concludes the making of the cupcake box.

This is a gable box.

Then I didn't want to ditch it in broad daylight (ok, more like starting dusk) and without a car, so I invited my brother along so he could run up to the door and I could hide safely in some bushes.  I texted him at 6:00, and he was at the movies, so he didn't get any of my texts until just now.  So now we are going to go and ditch these cupcakes, as soon as he gets here.  I will tell you how it goes.  If there's anything worth telling.

Isn't this a neat idea?  My only concern would be how to get the cupcake out of the cup.

Back.  Not much to tell.  I ended up putting six mini cupcakes into an egg carton and fancying it up so we ditched that one too.  Alright, I've got to go to bed.  Nighty-night.

I wish I could think of cool stuff like this.