Because Cupcakes Are Important

I like to cook and bake things from the ground up. Or, rather, the most basic ingredients up. I'm not at all opposed to cans although I plan on eventually learning how to can my own things. I don't like additives. Nitrates, monosodium glutamate, high fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated oils, and sugar substitutes have no place in my kitchen (haha, I can't really call it my kitchen. Whatever.). It is ridiculous how much better food is and how much more satisfying it is without all that junk. A side effect of how I feed myself means I'm generally very picky about my food. It's not a good thing when I've been invited to dinner and I try to find a gracious way to decline because I know the food they plan on serving will leave me feeling sick. It has absolutely nothing to do with their cooking skills. It has to do with what my stomach is used to.

That and I don't like politely lying by saying "It does," when someone has described to me chicken roll-ups (apparently, if I remember right, it's cream cheese mixed with chicken and ranch dressing powder that is then rolled up in those croissants you get in a tube and the whole thing is topped with cream of mushroom soup) when I'm really thinking, "NoNoNONONONO." I hate lying to be polite but I couldn't see a non-offensive way to get out of commenting at all. Especially when they directly ask, "Doesn't that sound delicious?" I request that when you ask me questions that they are not leading questions. I don't want to lie and I really don't want to hurt your feelings.

So, basically, I am particular about what I eat. I apologise in advance. Well...honestly, I eat nearly everything but when I have a choice I try to keep it good.

I eat some terrible garbage every once and a while. I also generally regret it something awful.

I am very much an omnivore. If I go too long without red meat I get anemic feeling and kind of cranky. I don't like cheese (I had a roommate whose favorite food was cheese, means more for her!) with the exception of fresh mozzarella and feta in small doses. My dislike of cheese also means I kind of don't like pizza (BLASPHEMY! I know.). I'll eat pizza and I won't complain about it. It's just not my favorite and I tend to favor the chicken & veggie type pizzas. I'm not a fan of greasy things. Or, rather, I always want the grease balanced out by something green. Like, if I get onion rings I'm going to want non-fried vegetables too. I've never liked raw tomatoes. I've found that if tomatoes are mixed with either basil or cilantro I will like and enjoy them. I don't know why. Seriously though, bruschetta, salsa, pico de gallo -delicious! Tomato on my hamburger? No. Whenever my family had BLTs mine was always a BL. I have met people who were deeply disturbed by this.

Look at that. I was really just going to link to my favorite chocolate cupcake recipe and then I went all blabby about food. I love food though. Could talk on the subject for days.

Anyway, here's a link to a super easy and tasty recipe for chocolate cupcakes: Clicky for Recipe

Do note that you really want to keep the dry and wet ingredients separate until the very end. My sister made this recipe and just dumped everything in at once which resulted in the vinegar and baking soda reacting. It's fun to watch but it somehow resulted in inedible cupcakes. They were bitter and metallic tasting -I don't know why. Baking is chemistry. Delicious, delicious chemistry.

Speaking of vinegar...this really is a good recipe. Just a touch harder than doing a cake mix too (in fact, you can put the dry ingredients in a ziploc with a note of the wet ingredients to add and you have a pre-made cake mix without nasty fillers all ready to go for some other time). I've always made it without organic ingredients except for the cane sugar, I only have cane sugar in the pantry (and I like it that way). I've never made the frosting she paired with this recipe, a plain powdered sugar +butter +milk +vanilla combo mixed up with a hand mixer has always worked for me.



It doesn't just make good cupcakes either, this is actually how we first used this recipe:

My dad made that for my sister's birthday cake, pretty darn cool, eh?