Of Cups & Cakes or How the Professional does it

I am not a baker, nor am I scientific in my thinking and therefore baking being semi scientific in approach, I do not bake much, at all.

I like, nay I appreciate the occasional sweet home baked delight and prefer them over their store bought counterparts on any given day. Yesterday I had the opportunity to fully appreciate the complexity and joy of building a refreshing lime/coconut bit of sweetness. I had a pro come over and replicate their chosen recipe. I lent the occasional hand/help  around the periphery and even managed to learn a thing or two about the super sweet world of cup cakery.

coconut lime cup cakes mid production

One thing that the unsuspecting cup cake making novice such as myself soon discovers is that those tasty suckers aren’t all that cheap. I spent nearly $50 on the ingredients for this session and while I could do another go round with some of them, I’d have to go a replenish the ones that professional and I used up during the initial session. I still am not sure why I still have so much icing in the fridge but I am certain that I’ll double up on the coconut content for the last recipe. I must also admit to arriving at a better understanding as to profit margins in the resale aspect of some of the more indulgent recipes; $3.oo per cup cake oughta cover that part nicely.

The professional and I tore at, measured in, whipped, scooped, slashed at, extracted from, finely slivered, frothed, spooned, mixed with, levelled this, diced that, mounded this, beat that some more, gave that a good squeeze, cut, chopped up, folded into, soured, poured and scraped various ingredients that made up the little cakes. I nearly abused the lime and vanilla bean bits savagely while more buttery sweetness was beat into submission by the professional. I could tell that the professional had done this before.

… first half was excellent too

And then after sweating it out while the first batch of delicately citrus flavored cakes were baking, the resultant delight proved to be just the delectable treat that had fired our imaginations since reading the recipe.

It had not gone so well had it not been for the professional, you know who you are. Thanks kindly.

Until only one remained