Can We Talk 2

Decorative Baking

         Well, that magazine misled me! Imagine that. It seemed like such a simple process. I spent a fortune in supplies, made cupcakes, and had everything ready. Whew. That process was a challenge to adults, much less young children. A few things were left out of the article.

         The first thing we discovered was that the cupcake, standard size, was too flimsy to serve as the base for the Frankenstein heads. When you press on your sculpture, absolutely necessary, it topples over. The paper pops free from the cake which is too tender to stand up to the weight or the handling. Certainly, in their extensive test kitchens, they could have tested and recommended a sturdy cupcake, since they obviously pulled it off. Either a recipe to do from scratch or a particular brand of mix. The most popular brands focus on taste and moistness and just don't work for a project like this.

         Mrs. Frankenstein took one chocolate donut, but Mr. took two. I went to several stores and bought the only chocolate dipped donuts that either store had-the same brand, and same sale. They were too big for the cupcakes. I needed a smaller donut, like the ones I remember; the ones in my memory were not very good, but maintained their shape and didn't crumble. The only ones available were like a gourmet version, quite tasty, but easily crumbled despite the waxy coating. So the very essential parts for the body and head didn't go together. Toothpicks didn't work well, either, holding them together.

         A standard buttercream frosting didn't look like the picture either, no matter how green we made it. The chocolate didn't frost the upside down wafer cones for Mrs.' hair like they showed. The sprinkles for hair worked perfectly. The faces didn't look like theirs, but they turned out pretty cute. The Twizzler black bolts for Mr.'s neck worked perfectly. Our finished products were monstrous for sure, but nothing like the photo. I had to find egg cartons to hold up their cakes to take home, one carton for each child's set.

         I did expect a big clean up job afterwards. I got it. I did expect the adults would have to help the little hands. we did. I didn't expect the adults to face so many problems. The kids were good about not eating the materials, but they dipped their fingers into the frosting quite a bit. I hoped what we accomplished was to feed the children's desire to be creative, to try new things. Maybe we won't repeat this particular project, but there will be others. And they had fun. You don't have to have a perfect result to be successful.