Cupcakes for All!

I am obsessed with cupcakes right now. Well, actually I've always been obsessed over cupcakes but I was sidetracked for a little while. It's time to get back in my groove. These are the cupcakes I made yesterday. I've been thinking about taking a cake decorating class so I can expand on my skills. I had been in Cupcake Cafe earlier in the day to look at their cupcakes because they have beautiful presentation but their cupcakes leave a lot to be desired. They tend to be very dry and hard.

I've always loved baking. My mom taught me how to cook and bake at a very early age and left me unsupervised in the kitchen very young. This could have turned into a tragedy but I've only been burned badly once when I was eight and I tried to cut my finger off at fifteen but those are stories for another time. When I was a young adult, I worked a national donut chain. That's where I honed my skills in baking bringing organization and speed into the mix. I haven't worked in the food industry for many, many years but I still use some of the tricks I learned. While I worked for the donut chain, I was the muffin, cookie, brownie person. I seemed to have been relegated to this task because the product I turned out was very consistent. Some people got it... some don't. I guess I'm one of the ones that have it, whatever it is.

I always want to go to cooking school because I have a thing for food. I love to look at it, buy it, prepare it, cook it and then eat it. Because I was introduced to the kitchen at such an early age, I've never been intimidated by cooking and baking. I'm addicted to buying cookbooks. Trying out new recipes is how I relax. The fun part is putting my own unique spin on a recipe to make it my own. Changing a recipes is fairly easy to do in cooking; baking however, is a different animal. Baking is all about chemistry. You can adjust the flavors fairly easy but you have to be careful with your leavening agents otherwise you can end up with something you can use as a blunt object or have it fall apart before you ever get it to the plate.

This past year, my baking went in another direction when I decided to give up animal products. Yes, I decided to go vegan. I can't say that it's been easy and I haven't been 100% vegan. There's been some fish a few times and every once in a while I will try a bite of a baked item from a high end bakery mostly because I want to feel the texture and taste the flavor. Then I think on how I can veganize it. I have a fabulous brownie recipe that I'm working on. When I get it right, it will be death by chocolate!

So here's to cupcakes for one and all!

As always,
TOO