Maple Mouse Mama

How To Bake From Scratch…Well, Not Really

By: MapleMouseMama54 Comments

to bake from scratchSo it’s no secret that I do not like to bake, or cook or spend much time in the kitchen for that matter, but a few days ago I found myself needing some cupcakes and fast.  The kiddos were heading to a birthday that afternoon and William, due to his food allergies, needed a safe treat to bring to eat during cake time.  We are usually prepared ahead of time for this sort of event, but it had been moved up a day and well, I was caught a tad off guard.  No worries right?  I’m a mom and I can handle this.  After all, it’s just cupcakes.. Famous last words.

Recently my hubby, the true baker in this family, brought home a new boxed cake mix from Betty Crocker.  The intent is to make cupcakes, but I am sure you can do a cake to, right?  If I really knew much about baking I would probably not have hesitated typing that sentence.  Correct me if I am wrong foodies of the blogoshpere! This new mix looks pretty easy to make and I am sure that for most people it is. The first time out we tried the Vanilla Buttercream Cupcake Mix and they were pretty good!  I love that the boxed mix comes with it’s own icing!  You can’t get much better than that.  The package gives you two pouches of icing for the dozen cupcakes it makes, but with the Buttercream we only needed one icing pouch.  And that was even with being generous!

to bake from scratchto bake from scratchSo, back to the emergency cupcakes I made. I pulled out the box of mix called Ultimate Chocolate and set to work.  Being a blogger I wanted to document the whole event and I even took extra care to set the stage for my photos properly, something I do not always do. I normally leave that to the real food bloggers like Food Retro and MBAMamaMusings. I laid out all my ingredients and measured items like water and vegetable oil.  I was in control of this situation! Photographs ensued and I stated to bake!

Things were going along fine and I thought to myself that this might be the first food related post I write that does not involve a disaster in some form or another!  Sweet, something to be proud of.  Alas, putting the cart before the horse was my downfall.  Moments into the mixing process I was covered in wet and sticky chocolate cupcake batter, the counter was speckled and the walls, well the walls needed to be repainted anyway. Despite the directions right on the box saying to use a mixer this batter was not mixer friendly.  It wanted to go everywhere!  So with incident number one out of the way I used the whisk instead. ( Are you surprised I know what a whisk is? Ya, me too..)

to bake from scratch

This was all over everywhere!

Once the batter was whisked together I set about filling the cupcake paper things in the cupcake baking pan. Now in my defense I only wasted about two cupcakes worth of batter trying to pour it straight from the bowl.  How was I supposed to know I needed to somehow spoon it into the cups? The box didn’t say anything.. I still managed to fill the 12 cups, careful not to fill them too much.  I was stymied as to why I had a good amount of batter left, but figured I could always make up for the two I lost earlier in the process.  Maybe this was the food fairy’s way of fixing things for me 🙂  Who was I to question it?

to bake from scratch

And you thought I would share a photo of the mess, LOL

Just as the pan went into the oven I was joined by my daughter Emily.  Emily loves to help in the kitchen and is, dare I say it, way more competent than I. As the cupcakes headed toward the end of the recommended baking time of 15 minutes Emily started to read the ingredient list and directions out loud. ( She has been around long enough to suspect things might go awry in the kitchen when her mama is left alone.) Just as the timer sounded and I opened the oven door I heard Emily say, “two thirds a cup or 150 ml of water.” I think the look on my face was partly from her pronouncement and partly from the mess I saw in the oven.  My cupcakes looked like puddles of soup, albeit heavenly smelling puddles of soup.

It appears I had put too much water into the mix.  Way too much in fact. What was I gonna do now? The birthday party was just a couple of hours away, the kitchen was a mess and I was still in my chocolate batter speckled jammies! The first thing I did was have a laugh with Emily and breathe a sigh of relief.  My track record in the kitchen was safe. Next I turned the timer back on and spent the next thirty minutes cooking the heck out of those cupcakes!  It took about an extra twenty minutes, checking them every five, but they turned out fine and guess what? You would never know the difference. 🙂

to bake from scratch

Almost 45 minutes later..the end result!

Did I mention that William loved his special cupcakes?  In fact all 19 of that “dozen” cupcakes were gobbled up!

FT&PD

Suz

Comments

  1. 1

    Gemma Nicholson says

    I hope I can stop laughing and type here! You are a riot, Suzanne! Nice to know it wasn’t a total disaster! And also good for Emily that she is following in the footsteps of her father in this situation! 🙂

    Reply
    • 2

      MapleMouseMama says

      LOL, thank you Gem, I aim to please 🙂 And you are so right about Emily. At least she can read directions 🙁

      Reply
  3. 5

    Sandy says

    LOL! Oh boy this post had me laughing! It reminded me of a few of my kitchen mishaps! So glad they turned out in the end, Suzanne! Don’t give up…you’ll become a top baker in no time 🙂

    Reply
  6. 11

    paula schuck says

    I don’t understand not loving baking. It makes no sense to me. It’s easy and yummy and what’s not to like about baking? Well, other than the dishes. 😉

    Reply
  8. 15

    Maggie K. says

    Smart thinking to just cook them for longer. I am glad that it worked out. I love that the package came with its own icing.

    Reply
    • 16

      MapleMouseMama says

      Ya, they are so easy to make, well, unless you mess them up like me, but… thank heavens for prepackaged stuff, LOL

      Reply
  14. 27

    Yan Birog says

    i can’t imagine the mess the mixer made! i don’t know a thing about baking but from some cooking shows i watched they usually set the mixer to the lowest first while covering the mixer with cloth or something to avoid spatters, then turn it to med-high when it’s all mixed well hehe >XD

    Reply
  16. 31

    alexasantos says

    I love baking! But i love it more when i am the one whose just eating. lol Its nice to know that there is a way for easier baking! Good for emergency purposes! lol loved your article 🙂

    Reply
  24. 45

    Krista M says

    What a funny story. I wish I could’ve seen a picture of the mess those cupcakes made! I like the googly-eye candies on them. We just bought those at Walmart to make our Xmas cookies more fun.

    Reply
  25. 46

    Jeff Skidmore says

    Thanks for sharing such a funny story! Its always nice to be able to laugh about life’s little mishaps!!

    Reply
  31. 52

    Debbie White Beattie says

    I’m sorry for laughing but this is so hilarious. I too have had bad days and mix ups and you wonder if that day will ever end.

    Reply
  33. 54

    Leslie Crosbie says

    Thank you for this post, it makes me feel much better! I am a messy baker who recipes never look like the picture!
    Thankfully my daughter (12) has taken over and does a way better job!!

    Reply

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