Tuesday, October 31, 2017

When worst case scenario isn't actually the worst that will happen...

I have a feeling the term “worst case scenario” shouldn’t be used in our house. I used to say “what’s the worst that could happen?” to Andy and he’d tell me what actually was the worst thing that could happen. Great – thanks – neat. Well, let’s talk rainbow frosting and how my kitchen and shirt will never be the same again.
Picture it – my coworker’s birthday. Well… several days before her birthday because she’s sneaky and takes her birthday off to try to hide it. Well some of us, being sneaky, discovered the date and that it was a special year this year. Operation rainbow cupcake was born. Ok, that sounds far more elaborate than what actually happened. I decided to make cupcakes with rainbow frosting to bring to work to quietly celebrate her birthday. It’s not uncommon for me to bring in baked treats – likely people wouldn’t notice.
Baked the chocolate cupcakes – they came out perfect. Decided on cream cheese frosting because the last time I made it, it was pipable and tasted great. I guess I should state this at the start… it was hot in our house… humid and hot. Andy says it wasn’t that hot, but humid? I was melting. Ok, that’s said. Well… my cream cheese frosting didn’t really hold it’s shape that great. I hoped with some refrigeration it would hold up. I colored the 6 colors – 2 (red and purple) of the 6 turned out awful, tried as well as I could and called it OK. I refrigerated the individual colors, then piped them onto plastic wrap and rolled them up like a tube of rainbow goodness. Oh, wait – the first one worked that well – yes. The second one – slopped all over and the plastic wrap didn’t seem to bond to itself so I grabbed another piece. In the process Andy came over and I told him it was worst case scenario, the frosting was soupy, the roll wasn’t rolling well, and with that, I flipped it over to roll it up – like I did to the other - and rainbow-colored frosting flew out all over the stovetop, the counter… and me. My shirt, my face, and hair. Now history shows me crying and being upset in these situations. This time? I could NOT stop laughing. I think Andy was even a little worried. Thankfully he cleaned it all up for me. We laughed and moved on.
I hauled out a can of white frosting from the cabinet and went to town. I did have the one tube in the fridge so I did some testing… wasn’t happy with my initial idea, so I did some simple dollops and they seemed to pipe OK but really not hold their form.
Lessons Learned from Rainbow Frosting (I’ll try not to swear):
  1. Use McCormick Food Coloring. Just do it. Stop trying the gels that just make things look weird. 
  2. A/C is your friend – just use it. 
  3. Buttercream – find a good recipe that holds up to all the stupid things you want to do to it. 
  4. Even when I think something looks like crap – other people love it and appreciate – so shut up.

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