Thursday, August 09, 2007

There's No "I" in "Team Cupcake"

...but there are two "I"s in "Team Icing." I'm not sure what that means, but I'm putting it out there anyway.

Having just revived from the sugar-induced coma I entered yesterday as a result of just the sugar that was being absorbed through my skin by the end of a day which included preparing over 60 cups of icing, which we then put onto 150 cupcakes (not to mention baking a layer for actual wedding cake too!), I can now share with you, gentle blog reader, the adventure that was Team Cupcake.

As you know, my friend Erika is getting married this weekend. And weddings require cake, in this case, of the cup variety. Erika's good friend and labmate, Linda, is making the wedding cake, and when I heard that she was to be making scores of cupcakes (for the eating) in addition to the actual wedding cake (for the ceremonial cutting and looking pretty), I offered to help out, as did some of Erika's other friends. Thus was born: Team Cupcake! Go Team Cupcake!

In addition to Team Cupcake, there was Team Icing, a sub-team of Team Cupcake, consisting of Linda and I. Team Icing spent the day retrieving un-iced cupcakes from the bakery, perfecting the protocol1 for making icing, sending Linda's sister to the store to procure us further supplies2, using this protocol to produce ridiculous amounts of said icing and preparing the facilities for large-scale assembly line cupcakery. Also, upon discovering that the ridiculous amounts of icing we had prepared were insufficient for our hyper-ridiculous number of cupcakes, we later whipped up another double batch during the cupcake assembly protocol, impressing our fellow Team Cupcake members with our domesticity and skill. Go Team Icing!

Of course, no event would be complete without me whipping out my digicam to take pictures of even the most mundane things, so now I give you a few pics of the day....

We used 4 lbs of butter...

<span class=
This is just 1/2 lb. So picture this times 8.

... and 5 kg of icing sugar

<span class=
Again, this is just a portion of the total used.


...to create over 60 cups of glorious white buttercream goodness...

<span class=

...which then went onto assemble-line production of an effing large number of cupcakes, which were further garnished with hand-made icing decorations...

<span class=

...and a good time was had by all!

So props to our fearless leader, Linda, the captain of Team Cupcake!

<span class=

I'm very much looking forward to eating one of these cupcakes on Saturday!!


1Linda is also a scientist and in the lab you don't have recipes, you have protocols. Like recipes, protocols are developed by trial and error and what works at any given time seems to differ from lab to lab (er, kitchen to kitchen) and from day to day.
1 we ran out of clear vanilla. Clear vanilla is the secret to this icing.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Beth - this totally seems like a team sport I could get into!!

Hope all is well - I feel like I haven't talked to you in forever!!

Beth said...

omg, Courtney! You are still alive! That's good to hear! I've missed chatting with ya!