Thursday, September 1, 2016
A Cupcake Fiasco
In my years of self-learned baking, I've made a lot of mistakes, and fortunately, I've learned from them and my mistake level has decreased by A LOT. However, some disasters are out of your control. This was one of those times.
It all started when I got a cupcake order for five dozen cupcakes. Easy enough, right? Well it would have been except my oven broke and ruined two dozen cupcakes....
One other thing that was making this particular day a little harder was rag weed. Yes, ragweed. Apparently it's in bloom and I am very allergic to it. It gives me a very sore throat, no voice, and no energy. So a broken oven and two dozen ruined cupcakes was not what I had in mind for the day.
Either way, it was off to my sister's house to use her oven! Thank goodness for family who lives near by. So I loaded up my car with cake batter and hoped to goodness it didn't ruin in the incredibly hot car on the way over.
When I got there, I got straight to work and got, not five, but six dozen cupcakes done because my allergy brain was too foggy to do simple math and I somehow ended up with a dozen too many. But they looked perfect. I was so happy thinking that this disaster was going to turn out just fine, but of course, it wasn't over yet. As I was packing them up to go home and start the fun part of decorating them, I noticed that one of them looked a little dark on the bottom. It was hard to tell through the wrapper so, since I had extra, I unwrapped one to find that the bottom was just a little too dark. You know when sometimes ovens are tricky and tend to run a little hot on the bottom? I unwrapped another - too dark. I couldn't believe it! I had literally burned six dozen cupcakes. I mean, they weren't black. If I had been making them for myself, I wouldn't have been too concerned, but these were for an order. They had to be perfect!
Back to the store for the third time that day and then back to my sister's house to completely start over. I put the rack on the very top rack and started again. This time I anxiously awaiting to see how the first batch turned out. 16 minutes later, a perfectly fluffy, beautiful batch of cupcakes emerged. Problem solved. Four dozen more and I ended up with cupcakes I could be proud of.
In the end, I ended up with eight dozen ruined cupcakes and five dozen perfect ones but I only needed five so everything was fine! It just took a very long, frustrating, exhausting process to get there. So, if you're a baker and you think you're the only one who goes through days like this, know that you are not alone. If you're a baker who has never had a day like this, bless you and please share your great wisdom with the rest of us. And if you are not a baker, I hope you can have a laugh at my unfortunate baking stories and grow a greater appreciation for the work that went into that cupcake at your next birthday party.
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2 comments:
As a baker, I have had those days also! Sometimes it feels like the recipe is impossible to get right. But it's all worthwhile in the end, when we get it perfect and can step back to look at our masterpieces. (:
This has happened to me numerous times and I have gotten used to it by now. I just have to keep trying until I finally come out with something perfect.
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