Except for a brief stint playing Maria in Joey and Maria’s Comedy Italian Wedding way back when, this week’s cupcake making extravaganza was the best time I’ve ever had making money. A few weeks back a friend of a friend contacted me about making some sort of cake for a product launch party. We played a bit of phone tag as we were both in and out of the country traveling, but all I knew from her messages was that she was looking for a purplish-lilac coloured cake.
Now a delicious cake with purple frosting I could do, but did she want a massive sheet cake with a big purple dinosaur? My commission definitely wasn't happening if it was.
We finally touched base about 7 pm on Tuesday night. No, a big purple dinosaur (or in this particular case a big purple superhero) wasn’t necessary but what could I offer her? And for that next day - Wednesday morning. Now normally with a bit more notice I might have gone all out and been a bit more creative – but beggars can’t be choosers. She said she was happy with whatever I created. So at 7:15 p.m. I headed home, to get crackin’.
3 ½ hours, 750 grams of butter, 8 cups of sugar later – I’d created nearly 3 dozen purple cupcakes. I’d doubled a failsafe butter cake recipe and once doubled, divided it in half again. To one half I added lemon juice & zest and to the other half melted chocolate and chopped hazelnuts. I was a woman possessed as I baked, partly in my zone and partly in frenzy.
We finally touched base about 7 pm on Tuesday night. No, a big purple dinosaur (or in this particular case a big purple superhero) wasn’t necessary but what could I offer her? And for that next day - Wednesday morning. Now normally with a bit more notice I might have gone all out and been a bit more creative – but beggars can’t be choosers. She said she was happy with whatever I created. So at 7:15 p.m. I headed home, to get crackin’.
3 ½ hours, 750 grams of butter, 8 cups of sugar later – I’d created nearly 3 dozen purple cupcakes. I’d doubled a failsafe butter cake recipe and once doubled, divided it in half again. To one half I added lemon juice & zest and to the other half melted chocolate and chopped hazelnuts. I was a woman possessed as I baked, partly in my zone and partly in frenzy.
Considering I was under a huge time crunch, my hand mixer smoking and needing to be thrown in the bin straight off the cooking bat (thank goodness for crazy food processor attachments), and dealing with the temperamental fickleness of food colouring I ended up making one of the biggest messes of my cooking career.
Seriously, anyone who knows me can attest to me being a whirlwind with my stuff, be it in the kitchen, my living room, or bedroom. I’m that person that finds clothes in my kitchen cupboard and a jar of pickles with my t-shirts. So considering that I’m messy on a good day – the mess was a beast like no other. Forget about getting cake all over me, I somehow managed to get purple frosting on my ceiling too.
However, at the end of the day – they came out looking great. A woman picked them up at 7:30 am the next morning and handed me a wad of cash-ola for them. Funny thing is, I had so much fun I would have done it for free…although the clean up was brutal…so it did soften this blow.
However, at the end of the day – they came out looking great. A woman picked them up at 7:30 am the next morning and handed me a wad of cash-ola for them. Funny thing is, I had so much fun I would have done it for free…although the clean up was brutal…so it did soften this blow.
Who knows, maybe this is the beginning of a fun part-time job – I’ve already had an offer for a co-worker’s son’s birthday…apparently he's having a dinosaur themed party...just my luck!
