So I love to bake and make sweet treats. I can’t help it, I am a sugar fiend. In the past I have become obsessed with Chex Mixes, Homemade Truffles, pizza crust, and cheese bread. So I decided to formalize each obsession into a year long quest to fully explore that particular type of baked good. The year starts in my birthday month, to celebrate getting to be one year older.
Aug 2017 to July 2017: The Year of the Cupcake
I really enjoyed the year of the cupcake, even if the family has stopped eating them. I got to share a lot of cupcakes, try a bunch of flavors, and learn lots of new techniques. Cupcakes are easy to share on a plate, tote or bubble, and don’t need to be refrigerated so that made it easy to spread the love. I also sold a bunch to support a knitting club.
This past year I learned how to make a moist (don’t over bake! add pudding to the dry ingredients), domed cupcake (bake at 400 for 5 min, then reduce the oven temperature to 350 for the reminder of the baking time), that doesn’t stick to the wrapper (remove it from the tin as soon as possible and cool on a wire wrack), Swiss Meringue buttercream frosting (look it up! But make the syrup in advance and let cool, then start beating) and orange curd (look it up!). I liked the challenge of learning those new techniques.
Total number of cupcakes: 1026
Unique Flavors: 37
Aug 2018 to July 2019: The Year of the Cheesecake
The year of the cheesecake has begun. Keep checking back for individual posts on my quest for learning all about cheesecakes!