“Who throws a cupcake? …honestly!”
- young Dr. Evil, Austin Powers
- young Dr. Evil, Austin Powers
I took a day off to create in the kitchen. Something thrown together to share with friends and coworkers who could use a little cheer in the coming week. We'll start with cake.
Cake for celebrations or for cheer is a tradition that dates back as far as the Romans, with the idea for the candle on top being attributed to both early Greeks and later, Germans. The origins notwithstanding, the cakes vary from region to region and even among families. Everyone has their own favorite cake for celebrations.
The first one I remember, was not a birthday cake, but an Easter one. I can still recall that ranch house, the apple trees I was almost big enough to climb, Mom's rose garden that she painstakingly kept up, that after her death, still bloomed without help or hindrance from any of us. I can picture that moment as she brought out the cake like it was yesterday. For at Easter every year, Mom would make a two layer cake, then cut it in half, adding a nose, ears and tail to make a bunny cake. Then she'd make a small cake into a baby bunny. We'd eat it at the very end of the day, after church, after thanks, after dinner. There is an extremely faded photo close by from the sixties of one of them.
Birthday cakes come in all sizes and flavors. Everyone had a favorite, though mine has been, since the very first cake that I can remember, yellow with chocolate buttercream.
Birthday cakes range from memories of "Oh, that's so sweet!" (and yes, that's a plumbers candle and as Partner has a birthday soon, there will be payback, as we say).
to "Get a rope. "
Then there are wedding cakes. Cakes at weddings are intense elaborate affairs that can cost hundreds of dollars. (Seriously? Register at Midway and make your own cake, think of all the money you'd save).
What were once tradition white cakes and frosting with the bride and groom toppers are now as individual as the couples involved.
The first mention of the cupcake can be traced as far back as 1796, when a recipe notation of "a cake to be baked in small cups" was written in American Cooker by Amelia Simmons. They're more than a dressed up muffin. They're fun, they're easy to prepare and share, and if they turn out too dry and overdone they make dandy replacements for sporting clays (pull!). For lunch OR launching in a trebuchet, they're dandy little things.
What kind? Honestly, the simplest things are often the best. My favorite is a vanilla cupcake with vanilla icing but today I added a twist. The cake is infused with the delicate flavor of almond and brandy topped with a whipped butter cream frosting that is both buttery and sweet, but leaves just a touch of salt on the tongue as the faintest of aftertaste. This is a cupcake for grown ups. But throw on some sprinkles, because there will always be a little kid in each of us.
You can just eat one and share the rest. Right?
click on photos to enlarge
