| I am living through a baking tragedy. I was recently given a cookbook of 500 cupcake recipes, which is honestly one of the best gifts anyone could ever give me. Today I decided to finally bake some its delicious cupcakes. So I picked out two recipes, zucchini and feta muffins and chocolate mud cupcakes, made an inventory of what ingredients Amberly and Nate already had in our kitchen, and then walked the mile to the grocery store to pick up the remaining ingredients. I almost bought my own box of butter, even though Amberly and Nate already had a box, just to be on the safe side but I decided using their butter would be fine. First I made the zucchini and feta cupcakes, and they turned out fine. Then I made the chocolate mud cupcakes. The cookbook had a picture of them showcasing their molten chocolate filling! Yum! I was so excited. So I made the batter, everything went smoothly, and the kitchen smelled deliciously of warm chocolate. As I filled the first cupcake tin some of the batter fell on the counter so I naturally swiped it up with my finger and licked it. "Hm, this tastes too buttery," I thought. A half-second later I realized that wasn't butter I tasted but salt! How could they be salty? There was no salt in the recipe. I rushed to the fridge, pulled out the box of butter, and saw that Amberly and Nate had bought SALTED butter! Why on earth would anyone buy salted butter??? I didn't bother to read whether or not their box said it was salted before I used it because I only buy unsalted butter and I've never lived with anyone who buys salted butter. Well, leave it to Amberly to buy salted butter! I was so disappointed. The tin hadn't even entered the oven yet the pessimist in me already knew the cupcakes were ruined. 20 minutes later, I pulled the tin out and the cupcakes looked a little funny, but the recipe said that they were supposed to look warm and gooey so I took them out and set them on a wire rack to cool anyway. Then I put the next batch in the oven. While those were baking, I took a bite of that first batch. The cupcake was in my mouth for a second before I had to spit it out. Absolutely disgusting! 20 cupcakes wasted. They look delicious, they smell delicious, they have a gooey chocolate center, but they are the most dreadful cupcakes anyone could ever eat. So salty and so buttery. They're so salty that they burn the tongue. I never thought it was possible to bake something chocolatey that would taste awful. Sometimes chocolate and salt can be a good combination, right? Not this time. I mean, I've baked chocolate things that didn't turn out quite how they were supposed to (remember chocolate brownie sludge?), but they were still good. These are unbarable. SALTED butter, honestly??? Why??? I would give Amberly and earful about buying salted butter when she gets home from work, but she's working late and probably really tired. Instead, I'll probably just have a cosmo and watch a movie with her. |
