I don't do cupcakes. The Boo Platter is as fancy as I get.
But it's her birthday, and I'm learning that little things matter and accumulate on the landscape of a child's soul. Lord help me embellish these cupcakes! I search for cupcake decorating ideas, and I'm astounded by the beauty and intricacy of cupcakes made all over the world. Cupcakes have gone entirely gourmet. In someone's kitchen, right at this moment, some parent has fondant butterflies and flowers neatly trimmed and little bows to tie around cupcake holders. Another parent has frosting piped out in whimsical designs.
I don't do cupcakes. I'm the furthest thing from gourmet I can think of. Can't I just phone the Cupcake Boutique and get this delivered?
But then, we find a picture of the most curious little cupcakes. Someone has made a stack of cupcakes made to look just like hamburgers.
"That's so cool, Mom! Can we make the hamburger cupcakes?"
I buy the ingredients, brace myself, and actually pray for God's creative genius to somehow flow into me. God invented gourmet, after all. Nothing is too hard or too elaborate for him.
I move forward. I bake chocolate and vanilla cupcakes. I slice them in half. I let my youngest sprinkle sesame seeds on the cupcake "buns."
Then, we color our frosting to resemble ketchup and mustard. Our chocolate cupcake is the hamburger patty.
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| Hamburger Cupcakes |
It takes longer than I anticipate, and we destroy the kitchen. But I did something gourmet this day.
Gourmet: elaborate, rich, sensuous, and small. A small prayer, as small as cupcakes, as small as a child turning 9. I'll remember this small afternoon as we sprinkled sesame seeds on cupcakes that we transformed into buns. Living with flair means I learn to be a little gourmet.
PS: Folks have asked for the recipe, and I actually didn't find a real recipe--I improvised from a picture I found here.
Here are the ingredients:
1 box vanilla cake mix
1box chocolate cake mix
Sesame seeds
Frosting colored yellow and red