The Birthday Trade-off

                    In late June, I started my first ever summer class. There are so many courses that I wanted/ needed to fit into my schedule for the fall semester that I felt the summer was a good time to get a required course out of the way. So, I decided to sign up for CAS 100 (Effective Speech) through my local branch campus.  Luckily, the class only meets twice a week, Mondays and Wednesdays from six to nine, and it only lasts for roughly eight weeks. Also on the positive side, my professor is very relaxed and capable of putting the class at ease (which is very important when you have to prepare and give five speeches in front of that very class). So overall, even though I’d rather be out in the summer sun or spending time with my friends, my first summer class has not been an unbearably painful experience.

                There was one major downside to this particular summer class. It’s not the exams, or the speeches, or the three hours of sitting in a cold room. It’s that one of those Wednesday classes happened to fall on July 25^th. What’s so special about July 25^th? Well, it just happens to be my birthday. Through my 13 years of public school, having a birthday right in the middle of summer meant I never had to endure class, or worse, an exam on my birthday. I never had to wake up early or study or impatiently watch the minutes tick by on the clock while a teacher lectures on my birthday. It made for 18 years of blissful, stress-free birthdays. But, do to my first ever summer course and an unfortunate coincidence of dates, I had to endure not only a class on my birthday, but also, one of the two exams that the class requires. Instead of the typical birthday dinner that is our family tradition, I spent my evening studying for and taking an exam on effective speech tactic. Truly scintillating!

                Ok, I’m being a little dramatic. It really wasn’t that bad.  The exam was really easy, even comical. (My professor has a very pronounced sense of humor) The family dinner was rescheduled and was just as delicious a week after my birthday. I still didn’t have to wake up early and one 3 hour class is much better than an entire day of school. The occurrence of class on my birthday actually provided me with an opportunity that I had always wanted to have as a kid.

                In elementary school, the “cool” thing to do was to bring in your favorite baked treat to share with the class on your birthday. I saw and ate everything from homemade gooey chocolate chip cookies to the store-bought, brightly colored, whipped cream frosted cupcakes, depending on the tastes of the child whose birthday was being celebrated.  The treats were handed out by the birthday boy or girl on neatly folded napkins while the class sang “Happy Birthday” to him/her. I always enjoyed the treats and the singing, but there was a part of me that was a little jealous that I wouldn’t be able to share my favorite treat with the class.

                So, in true kindergartener-at-heart fashion, I decided to bake my favorite birthday treat for my class full of adult students.  I chose the chocolate cake that my mom always baked for me for my birthday, and formed it into individual, easy-to-handle cupcakes. I loaded the cupcakes with delicious peanut butter buttercream frosting, once again reuniting my two favorite flavors. I even brought my own colorful napkins for serving. The best part, though, was when my class decided to sing happy birthday to me! Even though I was celebrating my 19^th birthday, I felt like a little kid again, savoring the moment in the birthday spotlight.

                So, all in all, having class on my birthday was a nice trade-off for the opportunity to serve my cupcakes while being sung to.

Chocolate Cupcakes





 

• 3/4 Cup Salad Oil
• 2 Eggs
• 1 tsp. Vanilla
• 3/4 Cup Unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 Cups Flour
• 2 Cups Sugar
• 2 tsp. Baking soda
• 2 tsp. Baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. Salt
• 1 Cup Milk
• 1 Cup Hot Coffee

1. Preheat oven to 350 degress F.
2.  In a mixer bowl, combine salad oil and sugar. Blend well. Add in eggs one at a time. Slowly add hot coffee and milk, making sure not to cook the eggs. Add vanilla.
3. In a separate bowl, sift together cocoa, flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
4. In small batches, combine the dry and wet ingredients.
5. Scoop batter evenly into a cupcake pan. (The cupcakes will rise so do not overfill).
6. Bake for 25 minutes. Check centers with a toothpick for doneness.

Peanut Butter Buttercream

• 3/4 Cup Butter
• 1/2 Cup Creamy peanut butter
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 3-4 Cups powdered sugar
• 3-4 tbs. milk

1. Combine butter, peanut butter and vanilla.

2. slowly add in powdered sugar, being aware of the texture.

3. Add in milk (amount depends on desired texture).

 

COOL THE CUPCAKES, FROST AND SAVOR!

 

Cupcake CRAZY

It's Birthday time... Let's get a little bit CRAZY!!! Cupcake crazy, that is. It was my friend Anna's birthday last week, and she invited me over to have homemade Indian food at her house with her. Her dad, though he is a typical caucasian male, made the best naan I have ever had in my life. Anna has promised to teach me how to make it. Of course, I just had to bring dessert as pay back for the delicious food and to appropriately celebrate a 19th birthday, but with Anna, I couldn't make just any old cupcakes.

You have to know a little bit about Anna to understand why I went to such measures to make the most colorful, crazy cupcakes possible. She is the most wild yet caring person I have ever met. When you meet Anna, the first thing you'll notice is her small stature. She stands just over 5 feet tall. The second thing you'll notice is her voice. Her normal speaking volume is about 10x that of an average person. When Anna is talking, you know it. I think she is one of the only people I know who can speak to an auditorium full of people in her normal voice without using a microphone. When you get to know Anna, you realize that she is a fun-loving individual. She is always willing to try something new, but, most importantly, she is always willing to be there for her friends. Though she is blatantly honest, her words are never hurtful, and she has a way of bringing people together with her natural warmth and friendliness. Her distinguishing feature, though, is her genuine passion. As a child who grew up with a pediatric oncologist father, she is all to familiar with the ravaging emotional and physical effects of childhood cancer. Throughout her life, she has spent much of her time supporting the weak, cancer-laden children who cannot support themselves. She participates in fundraisers and is active in THON, Penn State's student-run philanthropy that helps pay for pateint care for children with cancer. So, of course, someone as passionate and exciting as Anna deserves birthday cupcakes that are equally as colorful and memorable.

 I started with Magnolia Bakery Vanilla cupcake batter and plit it up into five bowls using a ladel. I then added neon food coloring drops to each bowl, resulting in these surprisingly edible batters.

Then, I spooned the batter, alternating colors into the cupcake holders until they were about 3/4 full.

And so, the wild, rainbow cupcake was born!

I used a typical buttercream for the frosting. Unfortunately, I ran out of confectioner's sugar and tried a combination of regular sugar and cornstarch. The texture tunred out a little gritty but overall. The rainbow look came from

The Family Kitchen.
The Magnolia Cupcakes recipe came from Food Network.