Jacque's Birthday

I have been dying to make cupcakes again since Little Spencer’s birthday and Easter just didn’t seem to be coming fast enough. So, when Chris and I were invited to a small get together for our friend Jacque’s Birthday I jumped at the opportunity. That day, my friend Kelly who lives in Pasadena, had the day off work and came down to bake with me. I learned a few things baking that day, as I always do. Here are a few of them.

1. Always check to make sure you have ALL the ingredients not just some. I emphasize this for anyone who does not live alone. Although, you might think you have enough eggs, someone may have eaten one of your cupcake ingredients for breakfast. Always double check.

2. Old ovens can be finicky. My oven never cooks the same way twice. I first dreaded this fact, but have since found that if I never get complacent with my baking I’ll have to continue to try new techniques. Cooking with an old oven (that doesn’t even have a glass window) is stretching my baking skills and forcing me to learn about my food and why it does weird things. Like how cupcakes can look so perfect when they first come out of the oven, then fall flat and look so ugly. (Which is a result of them being baked in an oven that is too hot, therefore the outside looks done and pretty but the inside is not quite there yet.)

3. Always have plan B. After my first batch of cupcakes left me with many NOT presentable cupcakes I had to quickly find a solution to my cupcake problem. I salvaged as many from the first batch as I could and ran to my cupboard to find a second box of cake mix. Though, Jacque requested yellow cupcakes the only cake mix I had left was chocolate. So, I baked the chocolate ones and frosted them just the same. My story I told the group that night was not that I flopped at making the first batch, but that I knew her best friend Gina loved Chocolate, so I wanted to make some for the chocolate lovers too.

Please remember, in every baking experience there are highs and lows. Sometimes the simplest things go wrong and other times those tasks that seem so difficult end up being much simpler than you planned. In this case, the highs and lows aside, all that mattered was seeing Jacque’s face when she saw her birthday cupcakes.