In the beginning...

After being coerced into starting this blog by the lovely and talented Caroline Evans, I feel a quick explanation/warning is needed. All of my future posts will be directly tied to a particular recipe, but I feel I need to start off by explaining my baking experience, or more correctly lack thereof.

 I've always liked baking, you just need to dig up a video of me baking a cheesecake in spanish for espanol 3 to verify (I'm surprised it's not on youtube somewhere), but the turning point was around 3 years ago. It was October 2008 when I found out a certain young man I was after enjoyed cupcakes.  That was the excuse I needed to bring back my baking ways.

I found some muffin tins while shopping at a Shattuck Ave. Lucky's, and I knew it was meant to be.  For some reason cupcake liners were a rare commodity, but I eventually found some of the little bastards, and I was on my way.   I know I could have just greased the tins, but who doesn't love unwrapping cupcakes?  It's a taste bud strip tease.  

As a broke college student, box mixes were the way to go, and I honestly can't even remember which I made first at this point. If I was a betting woman I'd go with red velvet.  Followed the instructions, minus a few minutes off the suggested time (always under-bake people), and ended up with a nice batch of cupcakes.  They must have turned out well because I got the guy. Let that be a lesson to you ladies, men love bitches who can bake.

Being a chocolate addict I soon ran out of mix options, so I had to expand.  Plain white cake with vanilla frosting sounded horrible to me, so I added some chopped dried apricots to the batter.  Turned out amazing!  Soon I was tired of the mixes, you can only dress them up so much, so I entered the dark realm of homemade baked goods.  Don't ever make homemade cupcakes unless you plan to ALWAYS make homemade, because they taste better and you won't be able to go back.  You really do get back the time and effort you put in.  Besides, after you are successful, you'll realize it's not as hard as it's made out to be.  It'll expand your options, and not to mention give you the excuse of "I'm trying out a new recipe" for any time you feel like baking for no apparent reason.

Since then I've been baking as much as time and money allowed.  I'll be catching up with past recipes and continuing with new recipes in my future posts, saying what went well with each recipe, what I might try next time, or what went horribly wrong.  If I spot any cool baking products or supplies I'll be sure to mention them as well.  If you're not a cupcake fan, something might be wrong with you, but not to worry, I've done things from cheesecakes to dog biscuits, so there will be something for you as well.

Rambling completed, my next post will be simple and sweet!  Until then lovelies.