Today I took a sick day. Haven’t had one of those in FOR. EVER. I’ll spare ya the details, but suffice it to say it wasn’t one of those laid-up-all-day-on-the-couch-with-a-box-of-Kleenex-and-the-Hallmark-channel sick days, but just one where I had to stay home. Had to. No worries, though. I’m all better now, thanks. =)
Anyway, I had a great cupcake order to fill for this weekend, so I used my time off pretty wisely. The customer gave me full creative license with the flavor combos. And I got two full batches of cupcakes baked, filled, frosted & decorated.
You probably think creative license is awesome, right? Well, truly it is. But inevitably I become paralyzed by the eleventy million ideas floating around in my head at any given time, like I have Flavor A.D.D. I just don’t have enough opportunities to create all the great ideas I see on the blogs I follow. Mocha, blueberry, roasted strawberry & basil are banging around in there against legal authorities on defamation, NCUA regulations, sub-chapter S of the internal revenue code, networking opportunities, blah blah blah…
Anyway, (sorry, A.D.D.) one of the flavors I’ve wanted to make for a while is a French vanilla latte or mocha cupcake. So I did!
But before I did, just after I assembled all the ingredients, I had a minor freak-out.
I had too many things goin’ on.
White chocolate pudding, a great scratch vanilla cake recipe. A box of French vanilla cake mix in the cupboard. Cool whip. White Baker’s chocolate. Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips. Coffee extract. Maxwell house mocha powder…. On top of that, I bought a whole cache of ingredients for blueberry cake & lemon cream cheese frosting.
Gah. Distracted.
I finally understood how you could accidentally put the wrong frosting on the wrong cupcake on Cupcake Wars.
Anyway, I had to call in reinforcements.
Luckily I have a like-minded friend or two in my phone contacts. Instant moral support via txt is sometimes necessary in the kitchen, and it was today. Thanks to one Wilton-trained buddy, I was able to focus on a French vanilla /white chocolate pudding cake filled with mocha whipped cream. And trusting my gut, I made an awesome mocha Swiss meringue buttercream. Although I haven’t tasted the combination, they look amazing and smell even better.
I’m dying a little inside, though. I’m on Day 8 of a 10-day sugar detox. Consequently I washed about 2/3 of a cup of silky smooth, gorgeous chocolate ganache and a 1/2 cup of mocha whipped cream DOWN. THE. DRAIN.
That’s what I call super-human self-control. I hope these cupcakes taste as good as they are in my mind.
kozubalk
I love the way you write like you are having a conversation with us- or with me- its comforting! Good job staying away from the ganache- I know how that feels! xoxo
Well you’re such a great inspiration, my dear, you’re always in the kitchen with me =)