It Was My Kid's Birthday So I Couldn't Bake A Cake

Welcome back, Pickle!

I love Korean food!!! Go Kimchi - hey, Kimchi's a Korean Pickle, no?! :) I have a memory of wandering through the frigid February streets of Seoul myself and finding a lovely little bakery. It had steamed up windows, adorable anime style characters, row upon row of delicious looking pastries. Just what the doctor ordered! I bought the most beautiful pastry I could find, if memory serves it was kind of posy shaped with a little cross of white icing on top so it looked a little four-leaf-clovery... All excited in anticipation of a warm sugar rush I bit in and found...

- A mixture of peas, corn and carrots. Like exactly that frozen mixed vegetable stuff your parents make you eat when you're five. Yummmmmmm. (Although I do love a red bean-filled dessert, which I know is a sometimes an equally controversial opinion.) I do concur - what you have pictured there, while intriguing (am especially into the green tea latte in some kind of handled vase) - that is definitely NOT a cupcake.

THIS is a cupcake. And this is what I was doing while you were flitting glamourously over the globe - celebrating little Pretzel's second birthday. We had a teddy bear's picnic this weekend, with rows of pinwheel party sandwiches to tease toddler tastebuds. In some kind of be-aproned Mommy Fugue state, I went all out on sandwiches, gingham blankets, balloons, little tea sets for the bears and the aforementioned sandwiches. It came time to make the cake and, aware of your challenge, I got all ready to bake a four-layer peanut butter and jam cake (to match the theme, dontcha know...) And... I had an acute attack of Shyness Culinaria. Has this ever happened to you? You have people coming and you want to impress with the food BUT you know if you go toooooooooooo far they're going to kinda mock you a little. Or a lot. And I was already feeling self-conscious about being a little too 50s mom with the whole theme thing. So I just made a one layer bear chocolate cake (this tasty Martha basic), with cupcakes for a snout and ears. I don't even have a picture as I was too shy to take one. I will ask my SIL who may oblige with a bear pic, if you're interested.

The good discovery made while doing all of this is an AMAZING VANILLA BUTTERCREAM from one of the Magnolia bakery cookbooks. I have been searching for a recipe like this forever - it is NOT icing sugar based, because I find icing sugar frostings hit my teeth with too much of a sweet wallop (not that I would ever turn any frosting/icing down, let's just be 100% clear about that.) And it is NOT a meringue buttercream, because I find those can be soooo labour intensive for just a small batch o' cupcakes for kids who don't care. However, as I intended to eat a number of cupcakes, it needed to be an authentic buttercream. This wonderful, unusual recipe is thickened with a milk and flour concoction and is made with granulated sugar. It was utterly delicious and paired a perfect whipped consistency with a gentle, sweet vanilla taste. Wow.

I also bought some wonderful silicone cupcake liners (I got mine, made by Wilton's, from McCall's School of Cake Decorating. If you haven't been to this baker's paradise, leave work and go now!) Have you tried these? Perfect. You don't have to worry about kids eating cupcake paper, these just slip right off. They don't leave you scraping cupcake off paper with your front teeth, which is a touch undignified (and could possibly be seen as greedy.) Plus they go in the dishwasher. Which is good, because I'm lazy as well as late.

I will get on making a wonderful layer cake as soon as the teddy bear dust settles. I love layer cakes, they make me feel all Southern. Which is something my frozen cold bones could use these days!

Love,
Gumdrop