Boo!

Here’s a question you probably already know the answer to, Gumdrop. Q: what do you do to entertain a three year old for the afternoon? A: Bake intricate Halloween cupcakes. That’s what I did this weekend when my three-year-old nephew came to visit. So when he wasn’t ‘helping’ the IE paint the exterior of our house, I had a little sweet sweatshop, churning out Martha Stewart’s latest ghoulish gastronomic treats.

The ever-reliable one-bowl chocolate cupcakes were as moist and delicious as usual, although her suggestion of doubling the Swiss meringue buttercream left me with vats of excess frosting. I’m going to see how it freezes, as surely I’ll have a cake emergency in the near future. Next time, I’d make it before the little one arrived to make cupcakes as the process of making this sort of buttercream was torture for my little helper. Ten minutes to whip egg whites? Another 5 to beat the air out? Only a journey outside to test magnetic attraction of wet paint and a new shirt prevented mutiny.

That and the allure of candy. With frosting at the ready, we began with mini spiders. Bumble B had the honour of dipping the frosted mini into the black sugar and he was surprisingly adept at it. His attention to detail wasn’t quite up to his aunt’s when it came to the eyes though, which is why all the spiders have “m”s for pupils instead of the pure evil red intended. And after the difficult task of snipping shoeless licorice into the appropriate leg lengths, our first batch of Halloween horrors was complete.

Next we tackled the aliens and monsters. There were some creative liberties taken with limb placement on the aliens, but who can say with certainty that aliens don’t have 6 limbs on one side of their body? Seeing how proud he was his handiwork almost made me regret my strict adherence to Martha’s rules when making the monsters. Almost.

Both us feel head over heels for the mummy cupcakes. Perhaps that’s why they were the most successful of our partnership. He added the eyes and mouth and then I covered them with ribbons of buttercream. Truly one of the most impressive cupcakes ever.

So while I did seem to have go through more icing and candy than can strictly be accounted for by the final product, it was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Xo
P

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