First off, let me apologize for taking so long to post! The days after Joe’s birthday I came down with a really terrible cold that sidelined me through all of last weekend. During all of last week, I would go directly from work to bed, or just not make it out of bed at all. A box of tissues, a z-pack, and far too many episodes of Friends on DVD, and I was ready to jump back into life this Monday morning. Now that it’s Wednesday and I have procrastinated enough on writing this next entry.
As we all recall, there was quite a bit of drama concerning the frosting, and thankfully some of you have offered support and suggestions via the comments or email, all of which I wholeheartedly appreciate. I do want to say that my frosting kicked ass. It was delicious and creamy, and not overly sweet. It’s possible that when I got home from Joe’s party in the wee hours of Sunday morning, I may have snuck a little from the bowl of leftover frosting. I will neither confirm nor deny that it happened.
Two quick caveats before we get into how the cupcakes got to the party and how they went over in the taste test. One, I forgot to take a picture of the finished product! So stupid, and I apologize, but they looked alright. I’m not an artiste with frosting yet, but I’m sure I’ll get there someday. Not bad for a first time out solo. Caveat number two, I forgot to grab my camera to take pictures at Joe’s birthday party so you all could see some pictures of us sampling the cupcakes alongside our fancy cocktails at the bar. As I was rushing out the door to catch the bus with a box full of cupcakes, slipping my camera into my coat didn’t quite happen. It turned out to be for the best.
Getting the cupcakes to the party on public transportation was no easy feat. You all have seen the picture of the bundled-up cupcakes in their box covered in aluminum foil. They were pretty secure, but it’s not like the box was wall-to-wall cupcakes – there was some room for them to slide around. Also, many of you may not have taken city buses around Brooklyn, but it’s not always a smooth ride. However, I wasn’t about to shell out $15 to take a car service for twenty-something blocks, and it was too far and too cold to walk all the way to the bar with the box of cupcakes, so the bus was my sole option. I have never in my life had a smoother ride on any form of public transportation anywhere. My bus driver guided that bus so smoothly down through Greenpoint and into Williamsburg that I swear we could have been floating on air. I was shocked that all of the cupcakes arrived whole and without the frosting getting everywhere. I’ve lived in Greenpoint for over three years now and I’ve never felt like even remotely praising anything or anyone associated with the MTA until that night. Bravo, B43 bus-driver-lady.
When I got to the bar, everyone was stoked to see the cupcakes. Joe was beside himself with joy so we put the cupcakes down in our reserved area. A few minutes later, our server stopped by and took them away. Apparently, the bar had a big notice up on their website that you can’t bring in outside food to a party there. It’s their rule and I understood, but we were all really bummed. Our server put the cupcakes up on a shelf in the kitchen where they sat uneaten by anyone in our party. Then, my friend David, who was standing next to the kitchen, looked over and caught one of the chefs sneaking one of my cupcakes. At this point, our server had been missing for about ten minutes, we all needed drinks, and David was fired up that he wasn’t allowed to eat a cupcake but the kitchen staff was. Luckily our server didn’t show up for another twenty minutes or so, because David was about to lose his cool when he witnessed the cupcake-snatching. By the time our server showed up to take our next drink order, David had calmed down and let well enough alone. And sure, I was upset, but I thought that causing a scene about a stolen cupcake would possibly lead to the rest of them all “accidentally” falling off the shelf in the kitchen. I think also the stress over the frosting had tired me out – I didn’t have any more fight left in me.
By the time we were ready to leave the bar the size of our party had greatly dwindled. We decided to trudge the few blocks over to Joe’s apartment and sample the cupcakes there. Seven of us sat up in Joe’s living room at two in the morning eating cupcakes paired with wine, whiskey or water.
I tried one cupcake of each size. The frosting was fantastic and totally seemed worth the trouble. The larger cupcakes were perfect. The cake was moist, buttery, while also being light and fluffy, but the cupcakes didn’t fall apart and crumble in my hand. The smaller cupcakes were fine, if not a little too firm. I think had I taken them out maybe a minute or two sooner, they would have been perfect. Lesson learned. Overall, I was very satisfied with the result of this project and feel comfortable not using mixes to do cakes anymore.
To make up for being out of commission on Saturday, I planned to bake during this week. For my next project, I went out shopping for the ingredients only to make the rookie mistake of getting baking powder instead of baking soda. By the time I realized it tonight, it was too late to go out to the store and get the right ingredient. Instead I will be baking tomorrow night and posting about my experience the same night, and then again this weekend I will get back on schedule. To add a little more excitement, a boy bakes in brooklyn is hitting the road. I will be out of town this weekend, but I will be baking while upstate at my parents’ house. While the snow falls here in Brooklyn, be on the lookout for a flurry of postings on a boy bakes in brooklyn! Ha!
No? Not funny? Maybe my next project could be a blog about learning comedy.
- Jon
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