Do-Over

In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month, I wanted to bake something pink, my idea-pink velvet cupcakes. It was my way of, getting my pink on! And, recognizing an important cause. All I had to do was use my red velvet recipe, swap out the red food color for pink. Simple. Oh, but what about the Dutch-processed cocoa powder. Not so simple. I was thinking more... hot pink rather than maroon. Cocoa powder eliminated- solves that problem. But still needs the velvet touch, hence the name. I suppose "white"chocolate would be a great substitute.


So, I try it. Mise place (that's French for prepare the ingredients) No, I don't speak French, I learned that in cooking school. I'm an advocate for the "stay in school" campaign.

Anyway, back in the kitchen....

Take #1

I mix my batter, add a little pink gel food coloring- need more- add a little more- perfect! I melt the white chocolate fold it into the batter; add baking soda, and distilled vinegar. This is good-(my bubble thought blurts out). Dip the ole' finger in the batter taste test-hmm, yummy. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Remove. Beautiful. Let cool. Okay- ready to remove the cupcakes from the muffin pans. Let cool just a little longer. Walk away. And, when I return. YIIIIIIKKKKKKESSSS!!!! What happened to my beautiful pink velvet cupcakes. How could this happen? Quickly, I reviewed my recipe. It said: add this...did that...add that...did that...1/2 teaspoon of this...did that too! I did everything as directed. So, my question: WHAT HAPPENED???

Clearly, this was: ******* a test of the emergency baking system*****

These were not even 1/2 the cupcakes my easy bake oven produced. They were more like doughnuts. Ruined- completely sunken in. I was mortified. Obviously, I disposed of the bad product immediately. I couldn't take the chance of my kids, certainly, not my husband witnessing one of my weakest baking moments. I was taking this one to the grave. Until now, of course. I pondered, what went wrong- over and over in my head. I verbally repeated the steps. It was like a bad date- how could I? Week after week, I test, I bake, I eat...not these!!!

Needless to say, I went back to the drawing board. I studied my first recipe draft. Did some editing, rewriting, rewording etc...

This time, I sifted a little more flour, used baking powder instead of soda, omitted the distilled vinegar (I knew that was a mistake when it started to foam). I was ready. Here we go....

Take #2

Mix the batter; add pink gel food coloring, add the melted white chocolate, flour, baking POWDER, skip the vinegar. It was deja vu all over again- it looked perfect!! I baked them again for 20-25 minutes. Remove. Let cool. I decided this time I couldn't take the pain for the gain, so I asked my husband to bare witness...he looked at them, looked back at me-as I stood on edge. I say well....he says well, what?, I say what do they look like...and he says, what else....Pink Velvet Cupcakes-without the hole!!!




by Nicole Friday for the Cupcake Craze