cupcakes - a chemistry experiment
Posted by Stephanie Finnvik on Friday, August 19, 2011
Last night I decided that I need to bake. I found some cute silicon cupcake liners in the shapes of circles, hearts and stars in the cupboard and asked Thomas if it was ok to use them. He said sure, and didn't even think that they have been used before... Nonetheless, in the container was a small recipe book and I thought it would be best to use that so I ended up with the right amount of batter for the amount of cupcakes I could make.
Next task - I knew that I had to use a French (or at least European) recipe so that one, I would be using mL and grams and Celcius instead of cups and table/teaspoons and degrees F. Then Thomas reminded me that I can't use a UK recipe because they use different measurements too. AH!
So I took the French recipe, and translated it. After being unsure of what some of the things were, Thomas helped me identify the correct ingredients and explained to me the difference between bread yeast and baking yeast. Then I set off to the grocery store to get the last few ingredients I was missing. I took the recipe book with me because I knew I had to remember what some of the things were called.
My trip to the grocery store ended up being much much easier and quicker than anticipated.
I then got back to the flat and started cooking - of course I chose to make dark chocolate cupcakes! I was basically laughing the whole time making them because I felt like it was a chemistry experiment using a beaker to measure out mL and grams of sugar, butter and flour.
Thomas helped me use the 'combi' to cook them and they ended up turning out pretty darn good if I say so myself!
I let Thomas eat one too since he had helped me but told him I had to bring the rest to work since I felt so incompetent the day before.
I left them lacking frosting, mostly because I didn't think I was up for that challenge yet and I couldn't find cool whip or some premade stuff to supplement.
I brought them to work and they seemed to be a hit, so I'm glad. Though, I think they turned out a bit dry, but I'd say pretty darn good for the first recipe I've made using such measuring units and a 'combi' (that's a whole other story). Maybe I'll start trying to bring in treats every Friday!
Next task - I knew that I had to use a French (or at least European) recipe so that one, I would be using mL and grams and Celcius instead of cups and table/teaspoons and degrees F. Then Thomas reminded me that I can't use a UK recipe because they use different measurements too. AH!
So I took the French recipe, and translated it. After being unsure of what some of the things were, Thomas helped me identify the correct ingredients and explained to me the difference between bread yeast and baking yeast. Then I set off to the grocery store to get the last few ingredients I was missing. I took the recipe book with me because I knew I had to remember what some of the things were called.
My trip to the grocery store ended up being much much easier and quicker than anticipated.
I then got back to the flat and started cooking - of course I chose to make dark chocolate cupcakes! I was basically laughing the whole time making them because I felt like it was a chemistry experiment using a beaker to measure out mL and grams of sugar, butter and flour.
Thomas helped me use the 'combi' to cook them and they ended up turning out pretty darn good if I say so myself!
I let Thomas eat one too since he had helped me but told him I had to bring the rest to work since I felt so incompetent the day before.
I left them lacking frosting, mostly because I didn't think I was up for that challenge yet and I couldn't find cool whip or some premade stuff to supplement.
I brought them to work and they seemed to be a hit, so I'm glad. Though, I think they turned out a bit dry, but I'd say pretty darn good for the first recipe I've made using such measuring units and a 'combi' (that's a whole other story). Maybe I'll start trying to bring in treats every Friday!