Creativity Lost and Regained

It's been several months since I wrote an entry for this blog and there are many reasons for that. I was recovering from an illness that left me with hardly any energy for a long time. Then I had to pack up my crafting area while a new door and windows were installed in my apartment. Next, my evenings were filled with course prep and teaching. Before I knew it, it was August and I was busy attending Action Week events, singing in the Jazz Festival, and traveling home for a vacation. In short, there's been little time for crafting, baking, or any other hands on creativity in my life (though, there has been some writing and singing).

This past weekend, however, was an opportunity to get back into the kitchen. My friends were involved in the Rotary fundraiser in North Sydney and I decided to bake cupcakes for the auction. Admittedly, I wasn't sure about this idea. For a moment, I wondered if I should paint some chalkboard wine glasses instead, but I did recall that cupcakes had been in the auction before, so I figured why not. And even if they didn't make a lot of money, every dollar would count.

After quite a long hiatus from Pinterest, I found myself browsing the site during my vacation. I was intrigued by and had pinned a recipe for Neapolitan cupcakes. They looked delicious and I was happy to have a reason to experiment with the idea. The cake was chocolate and vanilla, and the frosting was strawberry. Naturally, I had to make it my own, so I decided that strawberry cream cheese icing made with real strawberry puree would put them over the top. I also thought they needed a little something special on top. I considered several options: strawberry jelly beans, dark chocolate pieces, the little strawberry candies from a box of Runts, whoppers. In the end, I decided a cherry sour would be the "cherry on top," so to speak.

And so I set about baking cupcakes and then making frosting. While conditions were fine for baking, they were quite challenging for frosting. The humidity was incredibly high on Saturday. My strawberry cream cheese icing made with Madagascar bourbon required significantly more sugar than normal to be of an appropriate consistency (I've since Googled and discovered that the addition of cornstarch would have helped the situation -- good to know for next time). Eventually, the battle with humidity won, I topped each cupcake with a pink swirl and a cherry sour. I then chilled them until it was time to drive to North Sydney.

Now, naturally, I had to cut open one of the cupcakes to try. Quality control is an important part of baking, especially if you intend to auction off your goods! I was very pleased with the results. The inside of the cupcake was a sight to behold! The chocolate cake surrounded the vanilla. These were some of the most unique cupcakes I'd ever seen. I'm honestly still not sure how exactly that effect was accomplished! And the icing, of course, was as heavenly as ever. You really can't go wrong with strawberries and cream cheese.

About an hour before I was due to be in North Sydney, I removed the cupcakes from the fridge and packaged them for the event. I had picked up brown cardboard cupcake boxes from Michaels for this purpose (yay 50% coupon!) and placed four in each. They looked pretty and professional, which made me very happy. (I am only sad now because I didn't take a photograph of them in the boxes!) I figured the auction organizers could decide whether to split them up or not.

Dressed and ready to go, I was very concerned about the humidity melting my cupcakes and even more so about the cherry sours melting and running all over the icing. (Then they'd be Dexter-inspired...) I rushed to the car and turned the air conditioning on bust for the drive over. Trying to avoid them toppling over, I held the handles of the reusable grocery bag they were in as I made a few sharp right-hand turns. I briefly paused at my friend's house and gave her a cupcake to try before we continued on to the event, which was held at the Yacht Club. Cupcakes delivered, I strolled around to see the other auction items. I was surprised to see just how many homemade items were available: jam, pickles, beets, fudge, bread... I felt less self-conscious about my contribution as a result. My friend and I grabbed wings and fries, and sat down at the best table in the joint (right next to the door) to wait for the auction to begin.

I eventually learned that the organizers had decided to break up the cupcakes and auction them four at a time. I wasn't sure this was a great strategy, since I couldn't imagine anyone paying much for just four of them, but I noticed that this had been done with several of the other homemade items. At this particular auction, that approach seemed to work quite well. Jams, beets, and fudge were all going for $25-30 each. And when the time came for my three boxes of cupcakes, they did equally as well. Who would have imagined that my cupcakes were worth more than a Joe Carter (Blue Jays) autographed picture? Not me. (And probably not Joe Carter either...)

So, it was good to get back into the kitchen after many months away from baking and I had a lot of fun at the auction. And now I must put on my thinking cap to decide what I'll make for a cake sale later this month! Stay tuned!