So, cupcake #4 involved some Martha…some me. :)  I was moving on to her Buttermilk Cupcakes with Fluffy Vanilla Icing (found on p.26).  But, after my passover cupcake fail, I wanted something fun.  Not boring.  So I made Martha’s Buttermilk Cupcakes…and set out to still make the planned for icing.  I was just going to make the icing pink.  Give the cupcake a little curb appeal…but I later changed my mind.

This recipe called for cake flour and until now, didnt know there was a specific kind of cake flour.  Apparantly it is many times (this brand is 27X) finer than regular flour.  So, it makes the cake lighter, fluffier, crumblier.

I also love the box…it seems so 70s or 80s, no?

The batter really was light and fluffy!

Golden and Delish.

And this is when things started getting interesting…for some reason my butter wouldn’t cream.  Seriously.  Would. Not. Cream.  It just ended up looking like crumbled feta cheese no matter how hard I beat it.

So I started improvising.  Added a little soymilk to get it creaming.  And that did the trick.  And then I reached for the red food coloring to make the cupcakes pretty in pink…and I grabbed the ginger instead.  I thought to myself…ginger icing!  Yum.  Yummmmm.

So I added some ground ginger to the icing…and added some more…and some more…and a leeeeeettle bit more.  And the icing started tasting gingery.

And I thought to myself, “Hmm, self, wouldn’t little bits of crystallized ginger be scrummy? Yes they would.”

So I reach for my crystallized ginger.  And it’s not there.  I swear there was some in the cabinet yesterday.  But it’s not there.  Crap.  Gotta to out to the grocery store.  But it’s 8:37 and the closest grocery store closes at 9.  Ok, rush rush rush. Get in car.  Get to a mile from grocery at 8:47.  Score, I’ll make it just in time.  Except…flipping masters traffic.  Who are all these people and please leave my roads alone?!!!

One mile.  One Mile takes me 12 minutes.  12 MINUTES.  It’s 8:59.  I slam the car into park in front of the grocery store and run, slipping in between the closing doors.  Just in time.

Candied Giner is mine.

Tasty.

Oops.

Rating:

  • Availability of Ingredients: A (for the cupcakes…just the norm, flour, cake flour, sugar, eggs, butter…etc.)
  • Ease of Prep: A (the cake was easy to mix, the icing was easy once I got the butter to cream)
  • Time: B (about 15min prep, 40min cook)
  • Appearance: B+ (Candied ginger is pretty…but there are no pretty colors.  I like pretty colors.  I’m a tolder that way.)
  • Cake (texture and taste): B+ (Good, fluffy, not too sweet.  Just not any special.)
  • Icing (texture and taste): A (WIN!!!  But that’s cause I made it up…  :))
  • Final Grade: A-