Now that most of our neighbors have burned off their fireworks stashes, how was everyone's Fourth of July?
Everyone in our neighborhood was slightly more restrained with their fireworks this year than last. We only had a slight haze in the air. Last year, we had an honest-to-God London fog. You could only see about two or three blocks ahead in the smoke. The fireworks were a constant earsplitting crackle well into the night, and the stink of burning metal seeped into the house even though I remembered to shut the door. I know it was a miracle the entire county didn't go up in flames (there's a lot of dry grass at this time of year), but I missed the exuberance this year.
For this fourth of July, I wanted to introduce everyone to the absolute delight that is graham cracker cake. Then I decided to eliminate the hassle of paper plates and plastic forks by making cupcakes instead. That is how I learned that not every cake recipe makes good cupcakes.
Because I grew up in the nineties, I had to dye the icing turquoise. (Turqouise was everywhere in the nineties, whether it was the color of your entire car or just the logo on your normal-colored T-shirt.) I didn't realize until too late that I had color-matched the mixing bowl.
 |
| So many of my friends' parents had bathrooms in this color. |
The icing came out exactly as I planned, but the cupcakes were not so great. You know how I wrote in the original recipe that it really likes to stick to the pan? Well in this case it stuck to the paper no matter how carefully you tried to peel it off. You couldn't remove the paper without ripping away huge chunks of cake.
Even if you extracted the cupcake intact(ish), the batter seems to need a large pan to bake right. These were a little gummy and just a smidge on the wrong side of underwhelming. But at least they looked cute!
Happy belated independence day, everyone!
Graham crackers are distinctly American, so I feel like graham cracker-based desserts make sense for a July 4th celebration.
ReplyDeleteYou know, that's a good point!
DeleteWe were suffering through a heat dome for the 4th. A friend and I decided to go to the first ever drone show that the city was going to do. We dressed for the heat and rode our bikes. Then the temperature dropped 20 degrees, we really didn't like the band (a brass band that talked a lot between songs we didn't know), and decided that there were too many people, so we left before dark... and got home right before it rained. They did eventually get the drones out, but I will watch festivities from the comfort of my own Internet.
ReplyDeleteI was impressed with the color in the bowl even before I knew what was in it. I remember a lot of bad sponge painting involving hunter green or burgundy in bathrooms of the late 90s. Otherwise that's a decade that I have mercifully forgotten parts of.
Now I'm thinking that you could just crush graham crackers, mix them with frosting, and roll them into balls. It's cake ball adjacent and cooler than making a cake.
I stayed the heck at home on the night of. It was sweltering, but it always is this time of year.
DeleteThose graham cracker balls sound like a variant on "Oreo truffles," which really made the rounds among my friends who don't cook but do use a stove at least semiregularly.
Before I scrolled down all the way, I was trying to figure out whether the icing was actually white and the lighting made it look like it matched the bowl or whether it actually DID match the bowl. I'm glad you commented on the match (though I would have figured it out anyway once I saw the cupcakes). They are remarkably flat! It would be nice if layer cakes came out that flat.
ReplyDeleteIt really would be nice if they did! I usually stack them anyway, even if the top layer bends really badly over the dome beneath it.
Delete