Cupcakes, cheese buns

For my birthday this year I asked for a casual dessert party--however instead of Miss Keri and I making one of our mainstays (pie anyone?) we decided to do some experimenting.

I have to come clean on something. Miss Keri and I both have perfectionist streaks that usually aren't visible except in the kitchen. We both get some standard of what is "right" for whatever we are going to make and only that will do. I'm especially picky about baking--I don't like to spring untested recipes on friends. Too much can go wrong and I usually can't handle the idea that someone will try something I make and only have a "polite" serving followed by faint praise. The thought actually gives me a stomach ache.

I don't know exactly what got into me but I was lent a cook book from a friend --The Momofuko Milk Bar book. I have over 100 cookbooks--many of which I've never used. But for some reason I couldn't bear returning this book without trying at least one recipe. And for some reason I had to try it at this party.

As I read through the book I had the sensation of my enamel sliding off my teeth...everything seemed so over the top crazy sweet! But at the end of the book is a small selection of savory items based on the Momofuko "mother dough" recipe. After a week of vacillating I decided to do Bagel Bombs and put my own spin on them.

Similarly driven, Miss Keri cracked open her new Martha Stewart cake book and asked me to pick a recipe. Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting of course! Should be simple enough, right?

Cupcakes of glory!

The baking was chaos.

Every single one of my buns (which were stuffed with a blend of sharp cheddar and cream cheese) exploded rupturing the top of each bun with a lava flow of cheese. Also, despite an extended time in the oven, they came out barely brown. They should have been shiny, round and deeply bronzed--not pale, deformed mini volcanoes. I considered not putting them out. But I ate one and it wasn't horrible so I said fuck it, popped them in the over for another ten minutes and put them out anyway. At least the oven didn't catch on fire.

Miss Keri planned to pipe graceful soft-serve like mounds onto her cupcakes but found that we had no bags to pipe with. Miss Keri grabbed her car keys to go to the store. However, with less than a half hour before our friends were supposed to arrive I begged her to simplify her vision.

This suggestion was not well received.

After a short heated discussion regarding reality, time and space, Miss Keri simply spooned the extremely soft butter cream into little mounds on each cake and finished them off with a candied violet petal. The butter cream wouldn't smooth out and kept making little points. I kept getting dagger looks so I busied myself with the bar.

But guess what? Everyone loved our ugly buns and not perfectly smooth cupcakes. I guess that was because they were AMAZING! The cheese volcanoes disappeared. Everyone went back for seconds on the cupcakes (or in my case fourths).

Nancy's bitchin' axe.

We chatted, ate and drank for a solid two hours. Nancy brought out her newly finished cigar box ukulele. Holly shared her book idea. Tigger made our dog, Liebchen, feel like the most special lady at the table (I need to step up my game on that front--at least with Liebchen). And Jackie gave me a "random acts" box to store artifacts from my various personal experiments (I love this thing--Jackie has a black belt in perfect gift giving).

I spent the evening in a hazy sugar/champagne coma feeling extremely loved up and happy. I'm really glad the afternoon didn't end up being about my fixation on turning out perfect baked goods.

I'll let someone else worry about how shiny their buns are.