Cupcake terrorist

When I was a kid, my mom baked all the time. One of my fondest memories is licking the beaters at the end, a tradition I’ve maintained all my life. My mom had one of the Sunbeam stand mixers where the bowl went around and around and the beaters were metal and had a crease down the middle. I remember the way they felt on my tongue as I groped for every last bit of cookie dough, cake batter or frosting. There was always a competition for the beaters, bowls, and spatulas at the end of the mixing process so it was important to be right there in the kitchen at mixing completion. Sam’s a lucky kid though; as an only child he always gets the beater and he usually scores the spatula as well. Salmonella be damned!

In hindsight, I have to say that I’m impressed with my mom’s patience through the process since after Sam has his way with the beater and spatula he needs a bath and the kitchen needs to be hosed down so imagine the mess multiple kids could make. That reminds me and yes, it is an aside, in food processing plants they have C.I.P. – clean in place – systems where there are sprayballs inside the equipment. There are lines that attach the equipment to a washing and rinsing tanks so you just need to hook it up and turn it on. I maintain that all kitchens and bathrooms should come with C.I.P. systems.

I’ve been in a baking mood lately. Sam is on the same wavelength – he asked to make more cupcakes. He wanted them to be green but I wanted them to emulate the flavor of the elusive lemon Tootsie Pop Drop and I’m the mommy. Does anyone remember these things? Tootsie Pop Drops have been discontinued but I remember the combination of artificial lemon flavor with that kind of suspect chocolate flavor of Tootie Pops very fondly.

I used the devils food cake recipe off the back of the cake flour box and it has a very nice flavor and texture but it was much too delicate for cupcakes. They were falling apart as I frosted them. I made a cream cheese frosting with unmeasured amounts of lemon juice, lemon flavor, and lemon zest and it tasted great.

Sam’s constant refrain through the process: “Can I have the beater now?” Yes, I know he needs to say “may” rather than “can” but I’ve been about as successful with that as I have getting him to cover his mouth with his arm when he coughs. Apparently, the beater tradition is being passed to the next generation.

The cupcakes were cute since I used the same decorations, coconut and jelled fruit slices, as the ones in the picture. I liked the chocolate/lemon/coconut flavor combination even though it didn’t taste like lemon tootsie pop drops. We’ll see if others appreciate the flavor combo because in order to prevent a significantly larger Anne, Sam and I terrorized the neighborhood with cupcake offerings. They won’t realize the extent of the cupcake reign of terror until they try to eat them and end up with a shower of chocolate crumbs.