Adventures in a Sweet World: Candyland Birthday Cake

When I used to get sick (like hospitals and surgeries sick), I didn't receive stuffed animals, balloons, or flowers. I got Pixy Sticks. I got Hershey's. I got sugar. I was known in my family as the one with the sweet tooth. I could devour teaspoons of sugar at the table before my mother could stir the milk in her tea. I found ways to get more sugar. I would forgo the Screwballs from the ice-cream-truck-man to get multiple kinds of candy that would last me longer than a melting ice cream with a dry gumball. I was a connoisseur. I wanted chocolate. I wanted sweet. I wanted sour and bitter and cream.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was one of my favorite books. Roald Dahl is still my favorite. Mel Stuart's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory would make my mouth water. I wanted the golden ticket so badly. I wanted to be Charlie. 

My love for candy has not faltered. But it has been challenged by a worthy competitor. The Lady wakes up in the middle of the night and sneaks into my chocolate stash and eats a whole bar before I notice it's gone. She will eat any and all candy at all times of the day, even if she doesn't like it (she's not a fan of chocolate! Blasphemy!)

It was her birthday.

I spent some money.

Then I spent a whooooooole day planning and drawing and coloring and doing fun things to make myself proud.

I had a few moments of "This is going to turn out terrible and I'm going to have to make cupcakes really quickly because there's no way that I can make a cake ugly and give it to someone that I love as much as I love her!"

Then things were coming together and I got scared that the cats would step on it. But they didn't even come near it.

Then I was sad I didn't get to show it to many people because we destroyed it post-taco dinner.

Then she destroyed it reallllly well while I was sleeping.

On Making Friends (and having very little time): Friendship Cupcakes

I had been working for my good-for-the-world job and the restaurant job for five months when I realized that I really, really enjoyed the people I work with.

CollegeRoommate would come home from work and complain about the people she worked with like it was high school.  For her, high school has not ended because everyone she works with (barring her girlfriend) is catty, self-involved, egotistical, and lazy.  When she came home from work, I would listen to her talk about how much she did not enjoy the people she spent 50 hours a week with while I thought about how lucky I was.  I frequently laughed (and currently do) until I cried, played Just Dance with my clients, had friendly competition, and trusted my staff with my literal life.

A few weeks prior to these easy cupcakes, I had taken a 4 day weekend for my birthday. When my staff told me she missed requesting her birthday off, I decided she needed somebody to tell her that birthdays (hers especially) are important. I dropped them off before going to the restaurant and she cried and hugged me.

A time when I was finally able to make friends with my baked goods.

A Very Green St Patrick's Day: Green Velvet Cupcakes

My life was changing.

My life is still changing.

Around the time that I made these pretty, green, St Patrick's Day themed cupcakes, I was suffering from laryngitis for the first of three times in a year (still counting, I've got some time left of 2013).

I sprinkled the well-liked cream cheese frosting with some green sugar crystals and left some coworkers very happy.

Apparently, I barely have a voice for this cupcake.

Everyone Deserves a Valentine: Chocolate Bacon and Eggs Cake

Last Valentine's Day, I had a valentine with multiple roommates. Every roommate had a valentine except one. This one without a valentine was a very nice, caring, lovely girl. Whose birthday happened to fall on Valentine's Day.

I believe Valentine's Day is an appointed day to tell the ones you love that you love them.  I spend just as much time on my friend's valentines as I do on my significant other's valentines.

So when one lonely, lovely lady was to celebrate her birthday surrounded by happy couples, why should she not be celebrated?

She really likes unhealthy things. She didn't like salty and sweet. We frequently ate breakfast together and her love for bacon was unparalleled.

So I made her a cake. Made of sweets. That looked like bacon and eggs. I also wrote her name in chocolate. She turned 22 that year. We all housed the cake.

It was a pretty awesome Valentine's Day.

A Note on Confusion and Disappointment: Chocolate Cupcakes and PB Cream Cheese Frosting

I spent the past 4 years watching the NFL Superbowl with CollegeRoommate.

In 2008, we watched the Giants pummel the Patriots in our freshman college dorm room eating too much Wings Over Worcester and fighting over whose team was best. (Clearly, I don't care if it was a pummeling or not, I love the Giants.)

In 2009, 2010, and 2011, I have no idea what we did. I was less interested. We graduated that year, and the next year, 2012, we were brought together for a rematch. I met her at her childhood home and we drank legal margaritas and watched the Giants again pummel the Patriots. She (as a true New Englander) clearly is unhappy about my winnings.

This past year, we lived together again. Excitedly, I got the night off. And then disappointingly, she invited people I didn't know well into our home to watch a match we didn't care about. I made them mediocre cupcakes because they were requested.

I was deeply disappointed in the game. I was sort of upset that I didn't get my "dude-time." The game was a blow out (Ravens were killing the 49ers). The halftime show was wonderful. The lights went out in the dome. I fell asleep before the game ended, missing the exciting part of the game (the 49ers were coming back at the Ravens).

The cupcakes weren't great. Nor was the night.

I owe myself more "dude-time" and better cupcakes next year. I'm going to force it.

A Pinterest Experiment: Candy Corn Cookies

Moving into my new apartment, I was left alone quite a lot. CollegeRoommate had started dating a new girl and I was a morning person working 3 to 11.

Due to this new location, lack of things to do and people to hang out with, an introvert like myself spent a lot of time on the internet. And Pinterest was just the right kind of place for me to spend time because I could daydream about things I wanted to do, constantly be distracted by pretty pictures, and forget that I was lonely.

In an effort to make friends and also waste some time, I decided to try something I found on Pinterest. But unfortunately, I am a realist/pessimist who doesn't believe that the recipe would be perfect. So I tried to resort to Martha for her Sugar Cookie Recipe. (Now that it's been a year, I don't think I'll offend her by telling you all that I used a different recipe)

And due to the fact that I had a whole jar of Pumpkin Spice spice, I decided to make my cookies festive.

I bought food dye.

I tried to equally separate the dough into three parts.

I changed the color and dyed my fingers all colors of orange and yellow.

I smooshed the first layer into the 8x8 pan. Then the second. Then the third.

Then I tried really hard to wait. I let it sit in the fridge overnight.

When I pulled it out (wax paper was key), I was able to cut it into cute triangles.

It ended up adorable, delicious, and perfectly wonderful for breakfast!

A Life Changing Brownie: Peppermint Patty Brownies

I was dating a boy. He was wonderful and intelligent and caring.

I was working two jobs. One which made me cash at the end of the night with a bunch of people that I liked. One which made me feel like I was doing something good in the world with a bunch of people that I also liked.

One day I was working the job with the cash (waiting tables with people I've known for years and new people that I was interested in making friends), and I was invited to a party much later in the night. I had said maybe. In my mind, I knew that I hate crowded places and I don't like drinking in front of people and I have social anxiety and the party was being thrown for a girl that I didn't particularly enjoy. And this beautiful woman who was throwing the party laughed and said, "If it weren't at my apartment, I'd say maybe too and not go. Don't worry. But I still think you should come."

I was much more intrigued when she said that. I was compelled to prove her wrong. I was compelled to stay at home. I left work and went to the grocery store. I bought ingredients. I used my leftover chocolate. I spent my introverted Sunday afternoon baking brownies.  I took a nap on the couch. I woke up, showered, got dressed, and looked like a girl. I sat on the couch. Said I wouldn't go. Garnished the brownies. Said I couldn't eat all the brownies myself. Plated the brownies. Sat on the couch. I hate socializing. I got in the car. I got lost. I said I would just go home. I found where I was supposed to be. I called that beautiful woman. I held my plate with both hands while she received me from the parking lot because I didn't know where to go. The plate was my wall. I would not be interested, intrigued, or invested.

I brought the brownies in. It's an easy ice breaker to get told the brownies are delicious or that they too love peppermint patties.

I had 1:1 conversations. I had lots of laughs. I had a few good beers (with most definitely not enough food in my belly). I found a cat in a bedroom and good conversation with that beautiful woman.

It was the first sign that things were a-changing. And it was a darn good brownie.

Eight months later, I got this note about my brownies...

                                                            I am in love. 

My First Kitchenaid Experiment: Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

Last December, I was working a lot. I frequently worked 11 day stretches, taking time off only to go to my early Christmas (10 days prior to Christmas) or spend one day in 22 laying on my couch doing nothing.

Ten days prior to Christmas, I spent a night laughing with loved ones, opening gifts and watching children's eyes light up with excitement.  My siblings and parents put money together to buy me something that would have been helpful in the months of Saturday Cupcake Baking.

I was very, very excited when I opened up an beautiful, white Kitchenaid! The entire weekend, I randomly got excited because (as I would consistently shout) I OWN A KITCHENAID!

While my Kitchenaid has been used sparingly in the past year, it is still a wonderful, wonderful thing that I now OWN. It is mine. I do not have to register for it when I get married. I don't have to save money for one. I now OWN it and it is mine.

So 9 days after I opened my beautiful Kitchenaid, I decided to make something that I had been putting off for the year of making cupcakes.

Martha's 7-Minute Frosting was a daunting recipe by hand. So I had put it off for a long time.

NOW I OWN A KITCHENAID AND I DECIDED TO TRY IT.

I worked a double on Christmas last year (because why wouldn't I? I wasn't going anywhere if I needed to work and I gave my co-workers whom I had begun to care deeply for the day off) and we had no cook. I made cupcakes and vegetable lasagna. I made 7-Minute Frosting.

The cupcakes themselves were delicious. The frosting was tasty, though a bit strange in texture. I still ate two. Because I can do what I want on Christmas!

They were beautiful. And moist. And part of a not-so-bad Christmas.