"It's not hard to find a cupcake that's pretty enough for a pageant. Walk into any bakery or party and chances are you'll encounter an array of squat little cakes peeking out underneath picture-perfect mounds of frosting, nary a sprinkle out of place.....Alas, this is too often where the allure -- not to mention the baker's attention - ends, given that few cupcakes are able to back up their outer beauty with inner qualities other than dry and boring. Perhaps it's time to free cupcakes from their usual confines, to rethink them as tiny, irresistible versions of your favorite full-size cakes, in all their varied appeal...."
Martha Stewart Living, February 2009 from the cover article, "Sweet Indulgences" by Deb Perelman
Ain't it the truth.
It's good to know that, in this world of woe, at least someone like Deb is all over the brewing culinary crisis surrounding the innocent cupcake. Just like real life. We can probably blame it on Paris Hilton, as with all things concerning the conflict and debate between inner beauty and a shallow, overdone exterior.
I know I feel better today, knowing that -- not only did Martha already write the definitive cookbook just for cupcakes (it's not in my collection, but it could be some day), she devoted the February, 2009 cover to humble mini chocolate cupcakes and classically dressed them. In the food styling equivalent of their underwear and bare feet.
Just frosting. No layering of accessories. No sprinkles, flowers, beads, three-dimensional add-ons. To be sure, they're attired in a rainbow of colors that recall a parade of bridesmaid dresses in a rich girl's wedding.
Arranged them in a heart shape on a pale blue limbo background and instructed the stylists to just spread the frosting on top with an offset spatula and forget about earrings and shoes.
Sometimes, it's good to be reminded that the simple things in life are often the best things in life. Anything presented this simply will taste incredibly good. That's what Martha delivers. This issue contains 15 new recipes -- supposedly. I guess that means that they are new since the book or new since any other time MSL has featured cupcake recipes.
But, with Martha, you never know. It could just be more of her able cross-merchandising techniques at work. The best part about the magazine, regardless of whether it steals from a book across the room, is that all the recipes and assembly instructions eventually go online.
None of it was yet available online yesterday, when my subscription copy arrived in the mail. Membership has its privileges. MSL habitually uses dual covers -- one for subscribers and one for the newsstand. So, I don't know if non-subscribers will ever see the cover I have. If not, I am deeply sorry.
Nothing says "let's make cupcakes" better than a cover like this one. It fairly made my day. Not that I was having a bad day; I've been sequestered since the weekend, trying to stay well after Shannon left a trail of bronchitis and prospective strep cooties in the house. Except for those jaunts up the hill to Meredith's school in the pouring down snow, I've successfully stayed out of the public arena where germs are freely and unapologetically shared. I might need to actually go inside a grocery store today, and that probably won't be a Good Thing.
Of course, to accomplish Martha's rainbow cover, you will need to borrow my Spectrum gel paste food color set, the 24-pack of bottles that I bought from her back when she had an online store. I think Ateco now repacks and distributes all things Spectrum. If you have never used gel food coloring before, not only have you missed most of the potential in your frosting bowl, you have also missed every nuance of tone and hue between every color.
With names like "Egg Yellow," "Tulip Red," "Avocado," and "Terracotta," you can imagine the possibilities. Things get even more interesting when you dare to mix the colors. It's packed in the U.S., but has the English-French labeling required for distribution in Canada, too. Wilton also sells gel paste, so it's widely available in the States.
I see that we're getting low on "Deep Pink." Back in the day when Americans could only color their frosting with the four-pack of water-based food coloring from the grocery store, we never had a pink like this one. "Real" pink. A shade from the garden that you can't get just by dropping Kroger "red" into a bowl of white fluff. Trust me on this one. That we're down half a bottle signals that Valentine's Day has taken its fair share from this color box.
Martha had to already know that pink is better loved in my box than, say, "Peach." She already knew that subscribers would be thinking a month ahead about this important baking "holiday" and, once again, nailed the salient baking quandry of the moment.
"Tailoring sweets to Valentine's Day doesn't mean you have to feel beholden to convention. These decadent cupcakes, from chocolate to strawberry, are anything but predictable in both appearance and underlying appeal. They're perfect for an office party for 20 or a quiet dinner for two."
Git it, Girl.
www.marthastewart.com
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