Thursday, March 06, 2008

sticky chewy messy gooey


that's the name of the cookbook we worked from last night!
my friend, erin invited a couple of us over (megan & trisha) to bake cupcakes last night ...

wow, is that a weird book.
the recipes are fantastic looking ... but the methods they use are really odd!!
maybe i'm the oddball, but take this method for example.
we made butterscotch caramel buttercream frosting. (yum)
the recipe said we should fill a large saute pan with water, simmer and put the mixing bowl (with sugar & eggs) INTO the water and whisk for 3-4 minutes until the mixture was thick & fluffy.
i'm thinking it's their warped sense of a double boiler ... but i've never done it this way in my life!

well, 10 minutes later it was NOT fluffy (the way I know fluffy to be) ... oh well.
they turned out OK. i'm just glad i didn't pipe the frosting. it was definitely too runny.
and NOT the consistency of real buttercream.

but that brings me to another odd idea ... the buttercream called for SIX (yes you read that right) SIX sticks of butter!!! cold butter. well my first thought was "if it's cold, how are we going to mix it into the frosting without it being chunky?".
well, here's the method they described.
unwrap all six sticks of butter and REWRAP them loosely in plastic wrap. then take out your agressions (my words not theirs) on the butter with a ROLLING PIN until malleable, but still cold.
what!?!?? once again, i've NEVER heard of this method. seems i'm getting set in my ways in my OLD age. well, even after all these strange methods were put into practice, the frosting was not quite right. oh well. at least the taste was good! :)

so either i did something wrong (which is VERY possible) or the recipe was too difficult to understand, or it was wrong (i like to think its the latter) ;)
but that's my nature ...

and did i mention they were MAYONNAISE chocoloate cupcakes!!
i've heard of this idea, but i've never been brave enough to try them.
my sister-in-law's friend Gail would gag at that concept.
but they really were such yummy moist chocolate cupcakes!
the frosting was the only issue (see above).

of course i FORGOT to take a picture.
dummy me ... but there are some left. so there's still time!! :)
i'll take some pictures later.

thanks for reading! i didn't realize this was going to turn into a rant.
i guess you can expect that if i attempt a recipe and it doesn't turn out the way i want it to :)

its that time again ...
time to say goodbye!!
over & out

~ Mayo-J

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