A bizarre and slightly alarming habit has formed with me since I have taken up baking. I have found myself buying books. This in itself is not a personal revolution; as an English and American Literature student, it is a positively encouraged personal trait. The new and unusual part of this phenomena is that they are baking books. Where once I perused the fiction section for hours, I now find myself devouring cookbooks before I go to sleep. I wake up surrounded by books about doughnuts and sponges. The latest addition to my growing collection is dedicated solely to the delicate and widely variable treats that are cupcakes.
The first recipe I tried was a chocolate cupcake with a melted chocolate centre. I felt this reflected my motto that adding chocolate to chocolate can never be a bad thing, and, also, I like chocolate. Instead of using the plain chocolate suggested by the recipe, however, I chopped up a Cadbury’s flake and scattered the crumbs on top of the Hummingbird Bakery’s chocolate icing.
So far so good. As it turned out, there was only one problem; the chocolate didn’t melt. Or rather, it may have done, but because I was desperate to ice the cakes I let them cool down and the chocolate solidify. The mixture also did not quite spread to the recipe’s eight, and I ended up with six instead. As it happened this was perfect, leaving one cupcake for everyone and enough fridge space for everyone else. The piping of the icing did not go quite as smoothly as I had envisioned, despite the useful tips in my new book.
Although my basic chocolate logic was correct, the application was problematic. However, this book has proved to be a lovely addition and a source of inspiration for a few upcoming cupcake escapades.
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