Experimental Endeavors

Anyone watch 2 Broke Girls on CBS?

Well, in the episode pictured above, Max tells Caroline that she needs cake mixes to make her cupcakes and her "secret ingredient" is mixing a spoon full of Pillsbury cake mix into Duncan Hines Cake Mix!

That got me thinking a little harder about my hobby of cupcake decorating. The majority of the time, I had been getting cake mixes from my mom from a surplus of them at her work. I had been using them and then creating all my elaborate creations on top of them. But this episode really started the wheels turning - that I need to find a "scratch" recipe to call my own to try, make, tweak and be totally mine. I had made a few attempts at making my own, but I wasn't too focused on that part (very shameful, I know).

Today I made another attempt at creating my own yellow cake cupcake, and I do have to say, I am almost 100% a fan. Let's face it, if it were 100% the first try, it wouldn't be called baking - it would be called perfection, or something...

I thought I might try another kind tomorrow, but this batch made a TON more than what I thought it would make - I need to work on dialing that back somewhat, and getting it to my idea of perfection. 

I told Derick about my cupcake tasting party idea and he suggested we have it in conjunction with our Superbowl Party this year...

Basically, I would take a crack at baking/making about 5-6 different cupcake flavors, giving each person who comes to the party who wants to participate a plate with one of each kind of cupcake flavor on it with toothpicks with numbers on them. I would have them take a bite of each one and write what they think on a piece of paper next to that number. I would then ask them to choose an overall favorite, and an overall similar type favorite. For example, if there were three white cake recipes and two chocolate cake recipes that I tried, I would have them choose a top white cake and a top chocolate cake from the choices in order to better narrow down which recipe my "test group" likes the best. 

Anyone interested in eating a lot of cupcakes in about a month? Anyone? Bueller?

-LD