A quick business update: I am receiving quite the helping hand from a new friend, AJ, who is going to put me in touch with some people who could potentially assist greatly in launching this whole game To be continued very soon…!

So I tried out two new recipes this weekend: a modified red velvet cupcake with a meringue type icing and a maple cupcake with a blueberry glaze or a blueberry crème. I had fairly opposite results and a whole host of lessons (including some of my very own food photography). The red velvet was for a July 4^th BBQ, while the maple-blueberry combo was for an organizational meeting for a festival in August. (I will fill you in on the festival details soon). For now, let’s see what I learned this weekend:

lesson 1 – purple ≠ red

The modified red velvet ended up being too dry and (by my own fault) not red at all. See, I accidentally mixed up the tops on my food coloring bottles and dropped purple into the mix, then I tried to solve it by dropping more red into the batter, which turned it an unnatural magenta. Worse yet, since you add the dry ingredients at the end, and there is cocoa powder in the recipe, it became brick red. A dirty, dusty, muddy brick red. Ugh. Not one to waste any opportunity to photograph, I will discuss the trick in shooting this cupcake in the visual section

lesson 2 – mini cupcakes + dark pan = less cooking time (and no TV)
So, most avid bakers will tell you that even though an oven will say 350^o, it’s not necessarily true, especially with older ovens like the one in my apartment. My dial knob isn’t the most accurate in the first place and tends to heat unevenly, so I try to remember to turn it just under the desired temperature. Dismissing that for a moment, it should also be fairly obvious that if the cupcakes are smaller and less in quantity, they will take less time to bake. I’ve made mini-cupcakes before and noticed that you have to cut down baking time up to 10 minutes sometimes. Always set the timer for half of the full baking time to allow you to check and adjust as necessary. Last point to keep in mind, the darker the baking pan, the quicker it will retain heat, and the less baking time you will need. Most pans are a medium colored silver gray, but my mini pan happens to be a much darker shade. Unfortunately, all of this information that I already knew happily flew out the window while I baked on Friday. I guess I was distracted by the Family Guy movie that I left playing (you know the part where Quagmire decides to go on his cross “country” tour, country without an “o” in it… note to self, no more TV while baking, only music). The poor minis that came out of the oven were fitting considering they were already that ugly shade of redbrick: they were heavy, rock hard, potentially tooth-chipping, and completely inedible. Luckily, since I discouraged myself from buying an additional mini-cupcake pan while I was at the store earlier that day, I had only used half of the batter, and I was able to try again…

lesson 3 – meringue icing = delightful marshmallowy goo…until it dries
Ok, so everyone knows meringues are those light and crispy sugar-and-egg-white French cookie confections, right? I was intrigued by this idea of meringue icing because obviously I only know meringue as this hard but delicate dessert. It turns out, in its pre-baked state, meringue begins as something light and fluffy, then transforms into something much more viscous. Madiha, a new friend that I met at the party, compared the consistency it to “that Jet-Puffed marshmallow crème that comes in the jar.” The challenge was to keep the meringue at a constant temperature so that it didn’t get to that crispy state, and it was QUITE difficult considering these Georgia summers. Seriously, dried meringue could be used as an alternative for hot wax…just reference the smooth patch on my arm where a tiny bit of meringue fell. The partygoers seemed to enjoy the icing because it was different, not the standard mouthful of buttercream or cream cheese, so I had moderate success. I will definitely play around with it more to see what types of flavors I can infuse into it so that it can have more dimension and really wow a crowd.

lesson 4 – always be inspired by donuts
The maple cupcake for Sunday’s meeting was quite possibly the best cake I have made to-date. It was light and soft, but still had significant body to it. Earlier, I had a craving for french toast, which inspired the idea for that cupcake in particular. I went up to my aunt’s house for a little while and she happened to have just picked some home-grown blueberries. The idea instantly came to me: try a donut-style blueberry glaze. The reasoning was two-fold: first, it seemed to be an obvious choice since I was going with the whole breakfast theme. Secondly, as I mentioned before, I have recently encountered many people recently who don’t particularly care for traditional icing. There are a lot of vegan/vegetarian/ health-conscious people involved in with the block party, and I have been experimenting with alternatives to eggs, dairy, animal products, etc. Though these cupcakes were not vegan, most of my taste-testers were extremely receptive to both the glaze and crème; the main suggestion was to add more blueberries (which is valid since I only had about a handful to work with). They really liked the idea of a cupcake/donut fusion so there is much more to be explored in that realm. I was told by one attendee that she liked the creme much more than the glaze, but this may be attributed to her dislike of blueberry glaze donuts (I appreciate the feedback, Kristen!).

All in all this was a pretty rockin’ weekend. I appreciate all of you who tasted for me this weekend, and thank you for your opinions! I am taking them to heart. If I haven’t seen you in a while, hit me up so you can get some cupcakes in your life!

Until next time…!