From Scratch

I am not one of those people who dislikes baking vs cooking or vice versa.  I just like being in the kitchen period.

Typically when I go to someone’s place I bring…something.   A bottle of wine in a pinch (or when I know we’re going to need it), tomato bruschetta to a barbecue,  flowers when the host/hostess declares “Don’t you dare bring anything but yourself”.     Nine times out of ten though – I bring dessert.

My father wasn’t much of a baker but he could take a box of Ghirardelli brownie mix from Costco and make it the best brownie you ever ate.    Sometimes he added extra chips or a squeeze of chocolate syrup but he could really make them sing.

Other than cookies – I rarely make anything completely from scratch.   My cakes might be a bit doctored up and I give brownies the same treatment as my dad once did but I’m very new to the world of scratch cake baking.

I decided on mini cupcakes this time because a) they were for my nieces and they like to eat MULTIPLE cupcakes b) I only have 1 large cupcake tin and I have two mini cupcake tins.    I didn’t feel like babysitting 2 batches of cupcakes.

Note to self – go get some more large cupcake tins.

Don’t tell Dave but I almost married him solely so that I could have a kitchen big enough to own this mixer. :)

 

I decided on vanilla cupcakes.  It was a recipe from allrecipies.com.   I’d link but they were really pretty dry.   Does it count as making something from scratch if next time I add a box of vanilla pudding?   How else can you make moister cupcakes.

Ugh.  Moist.  Jen hates that word.

  Here’s the after.   I made homemade vanilla buttercream and topped with rainbow sprinkles and mini chocolate chips.   The frosting was the best part.

Baking is about as much Science as I want in my life to be honest. 

All and all it was a good experiment.   It didn’t take that much longer than ripping open a box and I won’t deny I like being able to reply yes to the question “You made these from scratch?”

In another life – like a few years down the road – I’d like to open a tiny catering business.     Mini cupcakes would fit right in with what I’m planning.

This is just the first attempt.  I plan to try and improve the recipe in the next few months so stay tuned.