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.

Winter Olympic Cupcakes

It’s cold, like really cold. The last time I experienced a winter this long I was living in the great white north of Rochester. But at least we do have bright sunny days here in the big city, Rochester was cold, snowy, and dismally gray from October 1^st through Mother’s Day. Yet still I am totally over building time into my morning schedule for sufficient “bundling”,changing from boots to shoes and back again, and dry hair and pasty skin, ick. However there are two good things that come with the February winter white out of 2010, the Vancouver Olympics and CUPCAKES

In December I dove head first into the deep dark pool of baking and surfaced victorious with my lovely miniature gingerbread houses. After that foray into the land of milk, eggs, and sugar T-bone and Bookie suggested that we proclaim February, “Cupcake Month”. Fantastic idea however at the time I did not foresee lurking in the distance ‘fridge fright-fest’ which unfortunately put the kibosh on all kitchen stadium antics. Thankfully last Friday with the hope that a new refrigerator would be awaiting my return from Mi7, T-Bone gently reminded me that we were halfway through the month and she had yet to taste a freshly backed morsel of cupcake goodness. True that homes, true that.

Now with a new, yet slightly diminutive refrigerator, installed I dialed up the ol’ Fresh Direct on the interweb, stocked up on all things yummy, and set to work on my first batch of cupcakes. I discovered immediately that baking cupcakes is a hell of a lot easier than gingerbread cookies and as an extra bonus they possess a quicker gratification factor. Yeah for cupcakes! The inaugural batch consisted of Spiced Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Molasses frosting, very seasonal. I thought the molasses was a bit too sugary so on my second tasting I covered the cupcake with whipped cream then gingerly drizzled the molasses topping over the creamy nooks and crannies…perfection! T-bone and Bookie loved the batch (however we all felt that the cupcakes were a bit more on the muffin side of the cupcake continuum) and they were totally into the sweet molasses topping.

Next up, Mens Finals Figure Skating and Pumpkin Cupcakes. GO USA!!!!

Baking (part 3) – This stopped being fun once the oven timer went off

3:30pm with the storm ramping up and my Fresh Direct order safely in my possession I began the baking. Blog Girl’s instructions were to use Martha Stewart’s recipe which I completed rather easily – thank you – and without sounding too boastful my gingerbread dough smelled fantastic! As my brown blobs of ginger goodness chilled in the fridge I cut out the template house pieces that Blog Girl so helpfully posted online. In no time my templates were complete and my dough was ready for phase two.

I didn’t want to bake too many pieces at once, just in case something went wacky so I began with just one house (6 pieces). Martha directed that I roll the cookies to ¼ of an inch but Blog Girl instructed that I go to 1/8 inch… indecision, great thanks. I stayed true to BG (blog girl) since these were her houses in design and went with the 1/8” thickness. My new fondant cutter worked like a charm slicing through the cool dough (yes I now own a fondant cutter) and in no time my first batch was in my 350 degree oven for a length of 12-14 min (as instructed by Martha – BG gave no direction as to baking temperature or time). At the end of my 12 min cycle my cookies were flat, dark and had a slight taste of burnt coal. I will cut to the chase and tell you that after 4+ hours of trial and error (and 8 inches of snow fall) I discovered that the cookies should be at least ¼ inch thick, placed on the top rack of the oven and baked for no longer than 10 ½ minutes. Martha and BG – you can both suck it! By 10pm the dough was not done (1/3 still in the fridge) but I was done with the dough.

Baking (Part 1) – How hard could this be?

After viewing these adorable gingerbread houses on a blog I frequent I got a bee in my bonnet - I wanted these mug hugging gingerbread houses! I asked T-Bone, Bookie, and The Kid if they baked and I got No’s all around. I then reached out to my Facebook community and just like my cry for help with the AC removal; I was greeted with utter silence. So not to be thwarted by others’ lack of culinary competence last Friday afternoon I scoured the web for baking suppliers, placed a Fresh Direct order (turns out the only ingredient I owned was flour) and cleared my weekend schedule for bakefest 2009.

With warnings of a major blizzard blaring from Weekend Today’s weather center I was up and out early Saturday morning on the hunt for all my baking supplies (cutter, rolling pin, parchment paper, sifter, etc……). Lucky for me I have a custom bakery supply shop just 8 blocks down from my apartment, really? Yes really. After a quick walk down Queens Blvd. under the ominous gray sky then up again to the 99 cent shop my list of needs was fulfilled and I was home and cozy by 11am.

If there are two things I have learned from my Mom is ONE - you can never set your table too early (in the Lewis household that window is 24-36 hours in advance of the first dinner guest) and TWO – when cooking anything you should set up everything you may need during the process (utensils, ingredients, bowls, etc…) at least 2 – 3 hours prior to the cooking event. Thanks to my inherited (learned?) obsessive cooking regimen I quickly discovered that I DID NOT own cinnamon, a major ingredient in my gingerbread recipe. So on with the coat, back out into the storm in search of the Queens spice trade.