The Cupcake Project

A few weeks ago, I bought Julie and Julia in an airport bookstore so that I would have something to read on my flight to...somewhere. I can't remember now where I was flying to. I think I was flying home.

Anyway, so the book (which was just made into a movie) is about a woman who decides, just after her 29th birthday, to cook every recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, by Julia Child, over the course of a year. She does this, and blogs about every recipe along the way. I enjoyed the book thoroughly, and began thinking of a similar project. Copying Julie Powell and cooking through the Julia Child cookbook is pretty much out of the question because:

a) I live in Lubbock, Texas, and don't have access to a lot of the exotic ingredients required for French food, and

b) Too many of the recipes Julie Powell made sounded really disgusting. I have no desire to make aspic or to split bones for marrow to use in some sort of sauce. 

Then, last week, Stephanie gave me Martha Stewart's Cupcakes. It contains, by my count, the recipes for 75 different cupcakes that I would make. It's not as daring as Mastering the Art of French Cooking, but it is definitely do-able, and I am pretty sure it is something I will actually enjoy. It will be one more thing to keep me from working on my theory of therapy paper. Plus, it will give my blog a theme. Not an original theme, I realize, but a better theme than "How many times can one person go to Washington D.C. without actually seeing anything cool?" or "Posts about times when men have said stupid things to me."

I forsee potential problems with this plan:

• I will have to make at least one batch of cupcakes, sometimes two, every week to meet this goal.
• I live in Lubbock, Texas, where it is not easy to find things like unsweetened shredded coconut or vanilla bean.
• I am already more excited about some recipes than others.
• Some of these recipes are going to require me to buy equipment, like a food processor, which I had to use to make the coconut cupcakes, and a kitchen torch for things like meringue. Conveniently, Martha includes a list of places where you can buy such things. Again, most of them are nowhere close to Lubbock, Texas.
• I will end up with a lot of cupcakes. However, I think I can find people to eat them, which might be a fabulous way to connect with other people, such as neighbors, coworkers, and my visiting teachees.
• Martha is not afraid to use booze in her cooking. And some recipes call for coffee or tea. Hence, there are a few recipes I will not be making. I know alcohol is supposed to cook out of things, but there are a fair amount of people in the community who know me as their therapist and as a Mormon who I wouldn't want to run into buying it.
• Many of the cupcakes are as much about the decor as they are about the actual taste. Hence, many of the cupcakes call for ridiculous shapes made out of marzipan, or, in one bizarre case, mushrooms made from meringue, white chocolate, and milk chocolate.

I made the first recipe from the book on Friday night--coconut cupcakes with coconut frosting. I took them over to a garage sale my friends were having on Saturday morning, and they were a huge success. The leftovers made it to Stephanie's house, and then a game night with some people from my branch. I have no pictures to post on my blog, but there are some on the page with the recipe.

Substitutions: I did not have pure coconut extract or pure vanilla extract. I used imitation for both. Also, I could not find unsweetened coconut flakes, so I sprinkled the top with some sweetened shredded coconut instead. Nobody complained.

Equipment purchased: A food processor and a candy thermometer.

For those of you who have a hard time with the texture of coconut (I've heard it described as like eating cuticles), I ground mine up pretty fine in my food processor, and it was almost unnoticeable. Also, I am a big fan of Seven Minute Frosting, although it took me longer than seven minutes to make it. It is light and fluffy, almost like marshmallows or meringue. I didn't try piping it, but in all other aspects, I liked it as an alternative to buttercream. If you like coconut, I would highly recommend trying this recipe out. If you do, please let me know what you think of it.