Last week, Jessica suggested we make punctuation cupcakes to celebrate National Punctuation Day. Because I'd written a column about that particular holiday last year, I immediately jumped on board the punctuation band wagon.
And when I learned that the cupcakes would have a ganache frosting, I may have even climbed into the driver's seat of said wagon.
Although I'm still a passenger in the kitchen, I was assured that this was a one-bowl cupcake recipe.
JESSICA: If Gregg's the passenger, I suppose that makes me the driver...
We were going to make the Moosewood Six-Minute Chocolate Cake, a recipe so familiar to me it's like driving the roads I've always known, the roads that wind through blueberry fields and along the lakeshore in the little corner of Michigan where I grew up...
GREGG: I filled the muffin papers about two-thirds full of batter, eliminating their bounce, and put them in the oven for about 18 minutes.
Then, to create the ganache, I chopped four ounces of Lindt 70 percent chocolate (wondering what the other 30 percent was made of......asparagus?!?), and once again manned the whisk while Jessica poured hot heavy cream over the chocolate.
JESSICA: While the cupcakes cooled, I melted a bar of Ghiradelli white chocolate to use for the punctuation decoration. I wasn't exactly sure how well it would work, but I thought we could freehand our favorite marks on parchment paper using spoons and/or toothpicks as our writing implements.
GREGG: Jessica tackled the more difficult punctuation, forming a semicolon, comma, question mark, and quotation marks with precision, while I made a daringly oversized period with a generous dab of white chocolate, along with a dash and a hyphen (which prompted questions of usage concerning each from those who ate them), and my favorite punctuation...the ellipsis.
Anyway, enough with the driving analogy.
I asked Gregg to fill the muffin pan with twelve papers, and he laughed when they bounced as they're a little bigger than the wells in the pan.
I confidently and quickly measured flour, sugar, cocoa, salt, and baking soda into one of my big pink Pyrex bowls. As I mixed up the wet ingredients...water, oil, vanilla, and espresso powder...in another container and added them to the big bowl, mixing all together, I asked Gregg if he was ready to see some true kitchen magic.
GREGG: You mean, like...pulling a rabbit out of a hat? Or making the Statue of Liberty disappear? Or the fact that I'm actually in a kitchen...baking?? The third is probably more magical than the second.
JESSICA: I added two tablespoons of cider vinegar as Gregg stirred until the pale brown swirls disappeared and tiny bubbles appeared. Magic!
GREGG: I filled the muffin papers about two-thirds full of batter, eliminating their bounce, and put them in the oven for about 18 minutes.
Then, to create the ganache, I chopped four ounces of Lindt 70 percent chocolate (wondering what the other 30 percent was made of......asparagus?!?), and once again manned the whisk while Jessica poured hot heavy cream over the chocolate.
JESSICA: While the cupcakes cooled, I melted a bar of Ghiradelli white chocolate to use for the punctuation decoration. I wasn't exactly sure how well it would work, but I thought we could freehand our favorite marks on parchment paper using spoons and/or toothpicks as our writing implements.
GREGG: Jessica tackled the more difficult punctuation, forming a semicolon, comma, question mark, and quotation marks with precision, while I made a daringly oversized period with a generous dab of white chocolate, along with a dash and a hyphen (which prompted questions of usage concerning each from those who ate them), and my favorite punctuation...the ellipsis.
JESSICA: Hey, that's my favorite punctuation too...
We placed the punctuation in the freezer and frosted the cupcakes using the glossy...
GREGG: Ganache!
JESSICA: As I frosted my fifth cupcake, Gregg meticulously finished frosting his...second.
GREGG: It's like peaches all over again, except this time it's with cupcakes! (I learned earlier this summer that I'm not the world's fastest peach peeler.)
JESSICA: That's only because you're so detail-oriented...
As the time on the clock ticked away and wine club awaited, we carefully placed the frozen punctuation atop the cupcakes before the white chocolate warmed to room temperature.
Pull up a chair and dish:
What's your favorite punctuation...and why?!?
~~•~~•~~
Pull up a chair and dish:
What's your favorite punctuation...and why?!?
How cool! You guys are so cute. :)
ReplyDeleteI love dashes. They allow writers to offer relevant information, provide meta-commentary, or make productive digressions without straying too far from the point of the sentence. I like how they add layers of meaning--sometimes nuanced, sometimes explict--to the larger sentence package. And, aesthetically, they look so much cooler than parentheses.
ReplyDeleteSorry to offend any lovers of parentheses.
Lovely cupcakes. I especially like your question mark. You did that freehand? Wow...
I see what you did there, with the "pull up a chair and dish" question. Clever!! And cute!!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite punctuation has to be whichever one happens to adorn a delicious chocolate cupcake that I get to eat. Mmmm.