Baked Goods

After dinner, I had that craving for something sweet. The larder was deficient in that area, but it held some promise: chocolate cake mix and cupcake cups. I had picked up the making of cupcakes for some occasion, but somehow they had never got made.

Well tonight is the night. Cupcake night. I even had a nice tin of frosting ready to go.

Yes, I know it's cheap-ass cupcake-making to use a mix and all that. Seeing as my kitchen doesn't even have an electric mixer, I think I deserve a little slack.

Dump the mix in a pot, because I don't really have a good bowl. Add various liquids and egg. Mix mix mix. Mix more. Oven is all ready.

When I bought the cake mix, and looked at the direction for cupcakes, it said clearly "paper liners". Never wanting to cross Betty Crocker, I obediently got paper liners. The step I am forced to omit is actual cupcake pans, though. Nothing a bit of innovation can't solve, though. I'll just place the cups filled with batter on a cookie sheet.

Filling the rather flimsy paper cups is a bit awkward, but doable. I even space them out on the cookie sheet so they've got room to grow when they cook. In the oven they go, with a timer diligently set.

In twenty minutes, the apartment smells of chocolate goodness. I eagerly pull the pan from the oven.

I have successfully created nation-states of Ancient Rome cupcakes. Without the support of a muffin pan, or even stiffer muffin cups, the cupcakes have grown out, instead of up. They've also grown together in various odd shapes, like a jigsaw puzzle. Or a map.

Now there is no way >Conny and I can eat a full batch of cupcakes. That was never the plan. I figured I could either bring them into work, or give a bunch to the doorman. There is no way I can give away two dozen mutant cupcakes, though. Luckily the next batch that went in the over used doubled-up paper cups, and they came out like proper cupcakes. Unluckily, that was only 5 cupcakes.

So tomorrow, Robert, one of my doormen, will get 5 perfect cupcakes, and one nation-state of Ancient Rome cupcake that almost looks normal, to round it up to a nice half-dozen. And I will have to gradually consume the remaining cupcakes of shame.

If only I could always just eat my mistakes.
posted 9:38 PM | link |