Friday, February 19, 2010

I am the Schindler of Bakers


Last night as our U.S. Ladies were shredding it at the half pipe I was baking batch numero dos of Cupcake Month. As you may remember I began the week with a spectacular ½ dozen spiced cupcakes so in keeping with this cold weather flavor pallet I chose to bake pumpkin (or as my upstate farmish friends say, “Pun-Kin”) cupcakes with a rich cream cheese frosting.


I began my sophomore baking attempt with the unfortunate realization that the recipe was intended to produce 24 cupcakes, I however only required 6. Not to worry, I have a 40K loan that proves I posses a mathematics mastery at a minimum sixth grade level, so dividing a recipe by 4 will be cake (insert coy grin at pun). Through the help of both my laptop and my itouch I was able to ascertain the correct ¼ reduction of measurements such as ¾ of a Tbl. (.75/4 = .187 Tbs = 9/16 of a tsp which is really just ½ tsp. + 1/16 tsp.) It took some creative problem solving as well as a good deal of scooching (like how do you divide 2 eggs by 4?) but within the half hour I was the proud mamma of a small bowl of orangey goo. While basking in my triumphant achievement of sifting and combining ¼ of the stated ingredients I was suddenly awash with the sinking feeling that this tiny dollop of cupcake batter may not fill the awaiting 6 paper cups so cheerfully arranged in my muffin pan. YIKES! It was then that I pulled out every size rubber spatula and began to rescue the droplets that lay fallow on my table top and every drip that dangled from my hand beater. As I scraped the sides of the mixing bowl I thought, “How many more errant drops can I collect, how many more cupcakes can I save?” From the corner of my eye I spotted a huge dollop on the edge of the counter and thought, “That’s a cup cake…. and that’s a cupcake, and that’s a cupcake.” Just like Liam Neeson, but instead of saving humanity, I was saving mini cakes (it really is very similar however I do not think I will be entombed at Yad Vashem). In the end my 6 cupcakes proved delicious, if demure, and not unlike my gingerbread cookies that were resurrected by gobs of surgery frosting, a cupcake can be bumped up a few notches by a heaping swirl of cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and sugar.

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