How it all began........
I'm not a baker. I don't like to measure and I don't fancy myself a "sweets" person. Nope, I want to be able to throw food together without measuring anything. I want to have the freedom to add more ingredients or leave something out. I don't want to have to add something to a recipe if I don't like it.......hence, I don't bake.
But recently that all changed. First of all, I must confess my love for one Mrs. Betty Crocker. I love her and I love her recipes. She is my "go to gal" for just about everything. Out of all my cook books, that is the one with the most food stains, torn pages and notes. She has been my inspiration for many a dinner. The savory section of the book has been well used over the years.......until I tried to bake a cake. Since I like to know what goes into my food, I decided a store bought cake or cake in a box, was not an option. So I baked one of Mrs. Crocker's cakes and well, it wasn't so hard and it actually tasted pretty good. I still wasn't a baker at this point, I was just trying something new.
The Egg Nog Cake
Christmas time means parties and many social events where you are required to bring something in exchange for the seasons festivities. Well, I went back to Betty and noticed a recipe for an Egg Nog cake - ooh now that sounded good. I knew I could make it since by this point I had already made 2 or 3 other cakes from scratch so I purchased the ingredients and away I went. My husband who doesn't like Egg Nog, loved this cake, so I have since made it multiple times.
The Red Velvet cupcakes and Madame Prez.
I volunteer at the high school and last year was asked to help with the music boosters. Well before I could finish saying, "sure I'd like to help" the title of President was thrust upon me, along with all the responsibility and no clue as to what I was doing. Boosters are about fundraising so I figured we could sell refreshments at the concerts. For our Christmas concert I asked parents to bring in baked goods and thought to myself, "well I should also bake something". I had wanted to try Red Velvet so I went to Betty and that woman didn't have a red velvet recipe in the book. So I went to the source of probably the best and richest red velvet cupcake baker I could think of, Paula Deen. Well, I made them, sold them at the refreshment table and they were a hit! FYI - so was the refreshment table. Because the refreshement table was such a hit, we decided to continue to do a bake sale during every concert but not wanting to bake the same things again and again, I started thinking about what I could bake next.
OK, I'm finally getting the main part of this story. The Egg Nog cake - great but definitely seasonal, Red Velvet - good but it's been done.......hmmmmm what could I make that would be new, fun, original.....boozy cake good.....and here is where the light bulb clicked on! What if I started making cupcakes that tasted like drinks (like the egg nog cake)? Can't be that hard right? I searched the Internet for a recipe for a Merlot cupcake but really didn't see anything, so I thought, what if I take the Red Velvet recipe and tweak it to make a Merlot cupcake. My first try was edible but not the taste I was going for, my second attempt was even worse, but I nailed the frosting. So I thought, well I don't want to just make Merlot cupcakes and my mind began to go a little crazy and I started baking cupcakes like a wild baker woman.
It's been about 2 months since I started baking and I have about 15 recipes that I have created and the reviews, mostly friends and co-workers, have been great. But I'm not going into detail on my first blog as to all that I have created. I will share but only if you will follow.
I do have Facebook page "Happy Hour Cuptails" if you should like to peek ahead.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1830044676675&set=o.171552039557264&theater
Until next time......
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