Rainbow Cupcakes

Yum!

A few weeks ago I was not bored as much as wanting to do something both creative and edible. With a box of white cake mix, vanilla frosting, and some food coloring and the adventure began.

I made the cake mix per the instructions and then I divided out portions of it into 5 different bowls. I added food coloring to four of the bowls and then just started to make my cupcakes.

I took a spoonful of one color and then another and another until the cupcake cup was two thirds full.

For some cupcakes, I tried to layer the colors and others I took a toothpick and tied to swirl the colors around. In the end, it was a colorful mess.

Once the cupcakes were out of the oven and cooled I added the frosting. I wanted the frosting to also be colorful so I scooped it into a zip lock bag, I don't own pastry bags and didn't think to grab one earlier, squeezed all the frosting into one corner, added a few drops of coloring and then cut the tip off the bag and began to squeeze/pipe the frosting out. I can thank that idea to the show The Great British Bake Off.

You can see from the pictures a few cupcakes without frosting and then some with the frosting.

How did they taste? Okay, they tasted just okay. The adding of the food dye caused the flavors to change a little bit. Not enough that I wouldn't do it again, I think I would just want to make sure that the cake was flavored with something. Maybe some strawberry in the pink or some lemon in the yellow, or just some kind of overall stronger vanilla for the cake itself.

Since we don't need a dozen and a half cupcakes for just 3 people, and I didn't make enough for my workgroup or my husband's workgroup we sent them to work with the Broha.

However, to make sure the cupcakes made it through the night I had to kitty proof them.

I enjoyed making these cupcakes. If you've got an extra 30 minutes or so to add a little bit of color to your next baking creation I would highly recommend it.

Thanks for reading and if you've ever made colorful cupcakes like this before what did you think? What would you do different, or have done different the next time? Leave me a comment below!

Creative Writing - Coffee Shop

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

It all started out like a normal Tuesday in any big city. The cars started honking their horns before 7am like roosters. The small shops and stores were slowly opening up their doors. The sounds of hoses washing off cement and scraping of tables being pulled onto the sidewalk could be heard.

This sleepy predictability was Morris’ favorite part of his day. Though he did not know the shopkeepers by name he knew their routines almost better than they did.

Since today was Tuesday, he walked slowly towards his favorite coffee shop to enjoy a cup of overpriced coffee with a slightly stale pastry. While he waited quietly for his order to be up he sat down at a tiny table and pulled out his laptop as was his normal routine.

Before Morris could even type his password his name was called. He quickly got up to retrieve his coffee and pastry. As he sat there sipping his coffee he suddenly heard, “HELP! Please can someone please help!?!"

Morris, quickly looked up and around the cafe for the person asking for help. No one else seemed to hear this cry for help. His head swiveled like a top looking to the voice but saw no one in distress. Morris then heard the same cry again, “HELP! Please can someone please help!?!”

Again, no one else seemed to take any notice. The barista kept making other people’s drinks, the pedestrians continued at their same pace outside the cafe window and while everyone inside the cafe continued to stare at their phones. It wasn’t until Morris hear the cry one more time that he finally spotted the person needing aid.

It was a tiny little lego man that was screaming from the table next to Morris’. A 6 year old girl was slowly pulling the lego man apart limb by limb. By this point she had removed their legs and one arm and was slowly pulling off the other arm.