Let me introduce you to my pound cake, just in case y'all didn't get a chance to meet earlier this summer. She goes by Finicky, and she definitely lives up to that name!
Pound cake is my family's absolute favorite dessert that we make, but it's also the easiest to overbake. You have to know your oven very well, so maybe take it out to dinner, grab a drink together, really get to know one another!
Typically, we leave it up to my Nana to make--she seems to have the magic touch. But today, Mom and I are taking things into our own hands and kitchen!
Typically, we leave it up to my Nana to make--she seems to have the magic touch. But today, Mom and I are taking things into our own hands and kitchen!
We decided to change it up a bit, though, and experiment with pound cake cupcakes.
Here we go!
Here we go!
Y'all. I finally taught myself how to crack an egg with one hand, and I'm over-the-moon excited about it! It's the little things, right??
Even though we only live a couple minutes away from each other, Mom and I don't get the chance to bake/cook together nearly as much as we'd like, so it's always extra enjoyable when we're able to slice some time out for it!
I almost forgot how much I love playing in her kitchen. Don't get me wrong, I love my kitchen to pieces, but Mom's is a bit more spacious--plenty more room to make a mess!
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| Y'all. I LOVE my Kitchenaid mixer. It's such a great tool and doubles as a fab kitchen accessory when not in use! :) |
Mom provides the kitchen, I provide the mixer! Teamwork makes the dream work, y'all.
Does it get any bAtter than this?! The answer is no. Batter is probably 70% of why I grew up loving to bake so much. It's arguably tastier than the final product, and honestly if you don't eat leftover batter than I'm not certain you can bake with us...just kidding!
Aunt Susan came by just in time to commence in the batter eating. We cleaned the bowl. She loves her pound cakes undercooked to say the least, we call her version "Pound Cake Pudding!"
We used a silicone cupcake pan (mostly because I left my metal one at home). With this kind of pan, you don't necessarily need cupcake tins, so we did without them.
We baked two different batches so we could play with baking times. We began checking on the first batch at 15 minutes. They were still raw as all get out, so we popped them back in for another 5 minutes. At the 20 minute mark is when we performed "The Jiggle Test."
"The Jiggle Test" is obviously the scientific way to tell if your cakes are ready to come out of the oven. You just jiggle your pan a little bit this way, a little bit that way, and if none of the cupcake bellies are jiggling around, then they are ready for you to take them out of the oven and put them in your own bellies!
Total, we kept the first batch in for 25 minutes.
Following our taste test, we concluded that Batch #1 was deliciously successful--not too dry, not too undercooked. BUT we still had another batch to play with.
You know the old saying, "A watched pot never boils?" Well, I came up with a similar one: "A watched cake never bakes!"
I am no stranger to parking my behind in front an oven, watching the goods bake. I'll open the oven every now and then to see if whatever is in there looks different than how it appears through the glass. You would think that in my ripe old age of 25 I would've learned by now! Nope.
But I did see what a difference not opening the oven during the baking process makes on your timing! We kept batch #2 in the oven for 20 minutes without opening the oven once. After "The Jiggle Test" we decided to let it sit in there one more minute, for a total of 21 mins.
I felt like we had just won a game of Blackjack because 21 was our winning number!
Sadly, I had to run so couldn't stick around for the icing, but Mom did a pretty sweet job if you ask me!
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| 1. These Karen Walker sunnies are my new favorites and are currently 20% off HERE! 2. A similar version of this sweet pink and white striped top is at Banana Republic! |
Ran so fast I forgot to take my apron off, so here's me riding around town embracing it! Not a bad outfit if you ask me.
You can do so much with these cupcakes! Pair them with your favorite icing, fill 'em up with something yummy, or top them with whipped cream and berries. Can't go wrong in my opinion!
