I was never really bad at it, mind you, I had a great teacher (my mom ❤), but there are things that I can make that my mom doesn't really attempt. I don't have a big kitchen or any fancy equipment, in fact most of my stuff is very low-end and my kitchen is super small. People seem impressed when they see what I make despite having so little to work with, and I guess I'm just used to my limitations. I just...do it. I knew I did want to become good eventually, but I didn't really think about it in the moment when I was making my popcorn cookies or my thousandth batch of pancakes. But as I look at these cupcakes I made for a friend's birthday, I realized something. These were made from scratch, not a doctored mix. I made a frosting from a different recipe, and a drizzle on top of that. These cupcakes are perfectly baked and uniform size. They're rich and decadent, but not too sweet. They taste like they came from a bakery. When did I get that good?
Another similar moment happened when I was driving. Dallas traffic is awful, and scared me to death when I first moved to the area. I'm not a particularly good driver, and it just made me so nervous. The lease little unexpected event would give me a heart attack, and I played every lane change overly safe. Everything was a potential worst-case scenario, and it was exhausting. This last week, I was in a traffic jam due to an accident. Great. I was leaning on my elbow, watching my GPS estimate go up in annoyance, when I realized something: I was calm. I was surrounded by cars in stop-and-go traffic, and I was thinking more about how irksome this was than imagining every scenario in which I make this wreck traffic into double wreck traffic. When did this stop bothering me? I'm still not a great driver, but I'm definitely a much more calm and collected one.
In day-to day life, we often don't notice the little bits of progress toward whatever our goal may be, but they are there nonetheless. Sure, there are setbacks. I made some recipes that weren't very good, I had a few (okay maybe more than a few) close calls while driving, but they slowly just got fewer and farther between. I know that a lot of people get very "eyes on the prize" when looking toward their goal, but sometimes that's not the best thing. Sometimes we need to just enjoy the process and take every day as it comes. Then someday that goal may come and we don't even notice it. It's just there.
I'll keep improving my cooking, driving, and everything else I work toward.Setbacks are part of the process and big improvements are part of the process. Take both, and embrace it. Now, enough with the inspirational sunrise quotes, it's time for some CUPCAKES. I offered to make some tasty treat for each of the coworkers in my department (there's only six of us, so not a huge undertaking). I asked what this coworker wanted for hers, and she requested boozy and chocolate. That is definitely something I can get behind. I had had the honey whiskey buttercream recipe for a while, but I wanted a chocolate base rather than the vanilla one from the recipe. Also, this chocolate recipe just sounded delicious. And lemme tell you, the honey whiskey definitely comes through despite the strong chocolate, and it should. I used probably 1 1/4 cups of Jack Daniels in 2 dozen cupcakes between the cakes, the buttercream, and the drizzle. The alcohol is mostly cooked out, but that rich flavor remains. Please eat responsibly 😏.
These beautiful little masterpieces
Here's the recipe I used for the cupcakes:
Whiskey Chocolate Cupcakes
Sprinkles of Kim:
-Dutch process cocoa is the best thing here. If you're unfamiliar with it, it's cocoa powder that's treated differently and has a richer, but less "chocolatey" chocolate flavor, like an Oreo cookie. Hershey's Special Dark cocoa is dutch process, and it plays well with the flavors in this recipe.
-I used honey whiskey and highly recommend it
-To counteract that extra sweetness from the honey whiskey, I under-measured the brown sugar just a bit to ensure the cakes didn't get cloyingly sweet.
And here's the recipe that had the frosting and drizzle:
Honey Whiskey Buttercream and Drizzle
Sprinkles of Kim:
-I didn't measure the ingredients for the frosting, just added until I got a good piping consistency and flavor.
-The recipe for the drizzle makes way more than I could see feasibly using, so I'd recommend halving it
-The drizzle soaked into the cupcakes and made them all moist and delicious, but also a bit sticky and messy to eat (tragic, I know). Plan napkins accordingly.
Whatever your goals are, try to enjoy the process as much as you can, and let the goal come when it comes. Then maybe reward yourself with a cupcake!
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