There is not a week that I miss Cupcake Wars. The show quite frankly amazes me. How can bakers be handed cheetos, licorice, and pickles and make a gourmet cupcake in 30 minutes?! The things that those bakers do makes my jaw drop every week.
Our department at work has turned into something of a competitive group with lots of competitive activities. We've had mini-golf challenges and a handful of bake-offs. The bake-offs typically fall around a Holiday. Since I've been named co-leader of the Talent Acquisition Activities Group, I figured I should probably participate and bake for today's Valentine's Day bake-off. This begins my search for a good dessert recipe to make for the bake-off.
Wednesday night, I attempted to make a brownie that Courtney had made as favors for my Birthday Party. They failed miserably. I watched them baking in the oven, and they just didn't look right. They crystalized on top, but yet were mushy on the bottom. With this baking failure, I opted to try a different recipe Thursday night.
My darling sister went straight to the Food Networks website and found the recipe for one of the cupcakes that was recently made on Cupcake Wars!
Raspberry Cupcakes with Champagne Frosting... Mmmmmm! I mean these cupcakes were adorable, and I'll be lucky to create something that is half this cute!
Come Thursday night, Kate and I set off on a mission to create these cupcakes. I won't lie, I was super nervous... I mean, these are professional bakers making cupcakes in 30 minutes. I'm only keeping my fingers crossed that WE can get these made in 30 minutes, too!We head to the kitchen, and start with the preparation of baking. We start by doing what any person would do - by preheating the oven. 325 degrees.
I head to the pantry, get out the flour, sugar, and some other things we need. All of a sudden, I hear Kate, "FIRE! FIRE!"
HUH!??!
I look in the oven and there are some flames coming up from the bottom of the oven.
Well, this is new! I've never had this happen before! What do you do when a fire busts out in your oven? Because to be honest, I haven't a clue! Thankfully, our quick thinking was able to get the small flame out with no damage or sign of anything happening.
At this point, I say - FORGET IT! I'm not making anything. I'm done. The first dessert failed, and now my oven needs cleaned (which I had JUST cleaned a few weeks ago...) from the massive amount of baking soda hanging out at the bottom of the oven. I just don't feel like moving forward in the baking. Kate convinces me otherwise, and says we needed to continue on...
Alright, alright... let's do this!
We clean the oven.
We puree raspberries.
We sift flour.
We mix the cupcake batter.
We start to preheat the oven AGAIN, with our fingers crossed that no flames pop up again.
We put the batter in the cupcake liners.
We say a little prayer, and throw them into the oven.
20 minutes later:
We pull out some grayish looking muffin looking cupcakes? Hmmm... I am not so sure about this! We let them cool, and give them a taste. They aren't too bad! Pretty good as a matter of fact, just an odd color!
The cupcakes are removed to cool.
Now, onto the frosting.
Frosting attempt #1: It's lumpy. It's weird. It's separating. It's just not right. Down the garbage disposal it goes!
Frosting attempt #2: We mix the butter like CRAZY to avoid lumps. We add the powdered sugar... slowly. Looking good! Tasting good! We say another little prayer and... we add some champagne... We were impressed by the taste testing that this frosting turned out pretty well!
We add some food coloring to make them a little festive.
We add a raspberry to the top.
We add a Dove chocolate to the top.
We add some clear crystal sugared sprinkles.
We stand back and take a look...
Sadly, my cupcakes didn't win the bake-off today. However, all 19 cupcakes that I took to work were gobbled up and were raved about! Even though I didn't win, I'm happy to say we had a great turn out in participation and I'm thrilled with the way everything turned out.However, watch out newbie bakers of Talent Acquisition: I'll be back for the next bake-off and 1st place will be mine ... once again! :)
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