Mise en Place

I have to admit, since I started baking with blogging in mind, I’ve been doing a lot better at getting things measured and ready to go before I start. It really makes life a lot simpler. I even applied the “mise en place” concept to the drywall taping & mudding I did this afternoon. I got all my tools out, cut the pieces of tape for the corners to length, made sure all the screws were countersunk appropriately, got my wet rag I’d inevitably need out… *then* got the joint compound out.

Anyway, back to cake. Jay got me a beater blade for Christmas, and I finally had a chance to use it! This is the first cake we’ve done since Christmas that has required the paddle attachment.

Look ma! No spatula!

I found it was really good at funneling the small amount of butter down into the bottom of the bowl, making it easier to beat to a nice and fluffy consistency. I’ve been having a bit of trouble with that with smaller quantities of batters since getting this larger mixer last year, so this is a really great tool. The only thing the beater blade can’t do is scrape itself, so I had to get a spatula out to get the stuff stuck between the spokes out.

This recipe is really simple to mix up. Beat the butter & superfine sugar (I made my own in the food processor again — still too cheap/lazy to go pick it up). Beat in the eggs and vanilla, then add the flour & sour cream in batches. It may just be this recipe, but I found that after adding the eggs and vanilla, my batter seemed a lot fluffier & thicker than it usually is at this stage of a ‘creaming method’ cake batter. I think the beater blade may be to ‘blame’, though I’m not complaining.

Ready for the oven

Like gartblue, I found there was a bit more batter than I would have expected for 12 cupcakes, but I went ahead and filled them right up to the top anyway. I also had way more streusel than I could reasonably see putting in the middle of the cupcakes, so I sprinkled the last bit on top, which resulted in interesting cracking and a nice crunch to the tops of the finished cupcakes.

Yum!

I haven’t decided yet if I’ll take these into work or keep them all to myself (and Jay, I suppose. He did a lot of work on our house this weekend, so I guess I should share). If you’re a colleague and you want one, prove to me you’re reading my blog, and I might bring you one tomorrow.