Cupcakes 101

The weekends are always hectic for me - with lots of work. I usually don't post much because I'm just too tired. Yesterday I did a pastry shift, which is always fun.

Today, Peggy and I drove to Portland to attend a culinary class at the Oregon Culinary Institute titled "Cupcakes and Cookies." Just a note: I did not sign myself up for this class! Ugh! Anyway, it was kind of fun. The instructor demonstrated brownies, cookies, and a frosting. Then we were all set loose with ingredients and equipment to make things from the list of recipes she provided. I was disappointed that the recipes were really basic. I don't think we learned much. Peggy and i agreed that we'd give each other a secret signal if we wanted to ditch the class early. But we ended up staying anyway. The nice part was that we got to take home everything that we made.

A funny story about this: There was a couple working next to us. During the chaos of mixers whirring and people shoving trays into the oven left and right, we ended up grabbing their cupcakes from the cooling rack. All we did was put their cupcakes on a cooling rack. Anyway, the teacher came up to us and said, "Oh, I think these other cupcakes are yours." And then the lady made this big fuss saying "Oh, that's where our cupcakes went!!" and Peggy was joking with her to try to lighten the mood and said "Sorry. I guess i managed to piss you off." and then the lady said "You just about did." ha ha ha ha what a b*tch!

Anyway, Peggy offered some of our cupcakes for her to take, if she wanted, but she refused. "I just want my cupcakes!" ha ha The funny thing was that our cupcakes came out really beautifully, and hers hadn't risen as well. She also had made some chocolate chip cookies, but they all came out flat and runny. I mean, chocolate chip cookies! C'mon! it's not rocket science!

I started chuckling and gave Peggy a pat on the back to make her feel better. What was absolutely hilarious was the lady put her entire tray of cupcakes on their work table for the rest of the class and refused to put them back on the cooling rack! So, she and her husband ended up having very little free space on their table to work because it was taken up by the tray! Lady, we don't want your freakin' cupcakes! ha ha ha

Whew! Maybe it was all of those Kitchen Aide mixers going at once "reeeeeeeeeereeeeeeereeeeee" at a high squeal that made that lady fritz out. I just feel bad for her poor husband. He seemed very nice.