Читать книгу Cupcake Envy - Amy Eilert - Страница 7

Introduction

What Happens When You Think

Outside the Wrapper

It was a Thursday afternoon and I was on my way to my son’s preschool to help with the Jingle Bell Holiday Festival. My job was to bring the cupcakes. As I walked into the assembly room, I was overwhelmed by what I saw. There was Suzanne, scrap-booker extraordinaire, setting up an elaborate origami snowflake project. Near the teacher was Dana, handing out handmade snowman costumes for each child to wear during the sing-along portion of the festival.

It was obvious that the parent volunteers had spent countless hours on their contributions. And then there I was, like a deer in headlights, clinging to a container of store-bought cupcakes covered in florescent icing that was sure to stain every child’s teeth (as well as Dana’s hand-made costumes). I felt defeated.

This was my life story when it came to desserts. I always wanted to create something special for Office parties, holiday dinners, and neighborhood barbeques, but would inevitably succumb to confusion and intimidation and hit the grocery store bakery department instead.

Clearly, things had to change, so I rolled up my sleeves and faced my fears head on by putting myself in charge of desserts for my oldest son’s kindergarten class. I was determined to make sweet, memorable treats that the kids, teachers, and parents would enjoy.

This time, I didn’t waste hours worrying that my ideas might not work, or wait until the last minute before deciding it was too late to start. After putting my boys to bed, I spent a little time each night trying out different ideas using sprinkles and candies and whatever else I’d found in the baking aisle. I soon realized that decorating was the fun part—and the part that made the biggest impression.

I had decided to focus on cupcakes, because each child would get their own, thus avoiding tantrums over who got a bigger piece and who got the piece with the icing flower on top. I came up with a few really cool ideas and couldn’t wait to try them out.

When my son brought home a school flyer for the annual Thanksgiving Feast Party, I knew this was my chance.

I made a batch of cupcakes and topped each one with a miniature, edible rendition of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting. On the tiny dinner plate were turkey slices made from sliced almonds. Surrounding them were nonpareil “green peas,” mashed potatoes made from a dollop of plain white icing, and cranberry relish made of chopped red gummy bears. I even impressed myself when I added some brown-tinted piping gel as a smooth, translucent gravy that pooled in the “mashed potatoes” and gently blanketed the “turkey slices.”

I proudly brought my cupcakes to the school. The children loved them, but even more interesting were the reactions of the teachers and parents: They couldn’t wipe the smiles off their faces. As I answered countless questions (“Did you make these all by yourself?” “How did you do it?” “How long did it take you?”) it finally hit me: I didn’t need a culinary degree or years of baking experience to make really cool, really delicious, and really impressive treats. I had what I needed all along.

From that moment on, the fire was lit. I went from messing with cupcakes and store-bought candies to creating a new kind of “cupcake”—mini cakes carved and decorated into fun three-dimensional designs. Before long, friends and neighbors had me creating all sorts of cakelets for birthdays, showers, and special occasions. People just couldn’t get enough of these adorable, customized, personal-sized cakes.

That’s when I launched Cupcake Envy, specializing in custom cakelets and coordinating cupcakes. When we figured out how to ship our cakelets, we quickly received orders from all over the country for cakelets in every design imaginable.

As impressive as cakelets look, the truth is anyone can make them. I’m proof that you don’t need any baking skills or artistic talents to bring one to life. As you’ll see in the following pages, all you need are a few tools and a lot of imagination to transform a single serving of cake into edible art.

Let’s face it: There’s only so much you can do to dress up a cupcake. But once you think outside the wrapper, the possibilities are endless—no experience required.