Craftwork Plays in the Kitchen
In case you don't think there's anything crafty about baking a batch of cupcakes, we've got the pictures to prove you wrong. And we've had so much sugar today, we doubt you would really want to argue with us.
Maybe it was the decadent cakes and sweets we saw in Marie Antoinette, our hero Amy Sedaris's cupcake obsession, the new book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, cupcake blogs, or our own local cupcakeries, but we've been itching to make cupcakes for months now. Lucky for us we have a good friend who happens to be a pastry chef (not that you need a pastry chef in your life to make cupcakes, we're just less baking savvy then most) who offered to play in the kitchen with us.
Sure, part of crafting is the satisfaction of planning, playing, and making something permanent with your hands. But baking is as much an art as any craft out there. And there's something just as satisfying in mixing, measuring, baking and then eating your creation. Cupcakes are the perfect palate for some edible artistry.
It's been a while since we've done much of anything in the kitchen, so we decided on a basic yellow cake batter, and a powdered sugar frosting, which the book we used called kid-simple cupcakes. Don't think we didn't feel below average when we somehow managed to mess up the frosting the first time around. We were just having too much fun pouring the milk into the kitchen-aid.
The really creative part of cupcakes happens in the icing and decorating stages. Our pastry chef friend, Nekoda, let us in on the wonderful secret of marzipan. Sure, we've eaten marzipan before, but did you know you could buy it in a nice big block at Rainbow? Marzipan is just almond paste and sugar, and uncolored it looks like a big yellow brick of clay.
In keeping with our crafty theme we sculpted up some knitting needles, balls of yarn, spools of thread, and a measuring tape. But once we got started there was no limit to what we wanted to build for our cupcakes. We went from fruit, to fish, to Nekoda's amazing mini bacon eggs and toast cupcake.
The key to working with marzipan is really treating it like clay, rolling it in your hands to soften it and working in the food dye so that it soaks up all the color. Food dye can turn any baking project into an art one, but be sure to go easy on the dye at first. Food coloring is extremely concentrated. Start with a half a drop and then work your way up to bolder colors. For that pretty pink frosting we only used about a drop and a half of red food coloring.
Cupcakes are also quick and easy, requiring few ingredients and not much baking time. A great activity to do with kids, we also know a lot of adults who can't help but squeal with delight around cupcakes. Steal our idea and invite a bunch of big kids over for a cupcake crafting party, its cheap, easy and fun. And did we mention that champagne goes great with the little sugar bombs? Just make sure everyone’s made their marzipan sculptures before too many bottles come out.
