King Cupcakes

Alright... truth be told, I created my first post with no problems: it is SO easy to talk about yourself! But even though I've had this second post planned (practically for years) I have been hesitant because I realized... if I am going to become a "blogger" and share my cooking and baking accomplishments... I have to be a bit of a writer as well

HA! Just kidding - that burning meme is NOT how I feel about blogging... anymore. At first I was scared because, well, I'm not the greatest writer. But it's part of the journey, and I've decided I don't really give a f*** if whoever reads this (if anyone) doesn't like my writing. The purpose of this is for me! And to enjoy this whole writing experience, I'm just going to be myself. :)

That meme however, COMPLETELY sums up my first month back at teaching during COVID 19 (thanks for the laugh, Sally). I'm teaching nearly 150 students, both online and in person, and I'm not getting paid any amount extra for yet another job added on to my "teacher" label. Do people even know how much sh** teachers have to do, truly? It's getting a bit ridiculous.

Everyone is expected to wear masks in the building at all times, unless you as a teacher are alone in your room. Which for me, is basically my lunch. High school teachers are supposed to have at least one "prep" period per day that they can use to plan and grade. I teach extended, and the one prep period I have on the other day (I teach on an A B block schedule) my room is usually occupied by students recording the video for the school's broadcasting show/class in the back of the classroom. So I'm basically in a mask all day, which is whatever, but having to project your voice for nearly 8 hours straight in a mask is quite difficult!!

ANYWHO.... Enough venting. Let's get to the point of this post....

Mardi Gras!

Yep, I know that I am way off for the time during the year it should be to make King Cupcakes. However, when I first began working on my "interactive project" in an attempt to get a new teaching endorsement, I only planned on creating one post featuring the King Cupcakes- not an entire web site. I didn't want to just leave my work from that day in some old folders on my computer so... I'm sharing it out of season. Whatever!

For those of you that don't know, a "king cake" is a dessert traditionally made in Louisiana for the Christian holiday "Fat Tuesday"- also known as Mardi Gras. People would celebrate their last day of eating "fatty foods" before giving it up for lent, or the fasting season. If you're living in Utah like me, you probably haven't seen or noticed this holiday being celebrated as often, considering the religious make up of the state is mostly LDS members. But- I'm a Houston native, which is real close to Louisiana - famous for their Mardi Gras celebrations.

The fun part about the traditional Louisiana king cake is there is usually a plastic baby hidden somewhere inside the cake. The person who finds the baby inside of their cake becomes the king or queen of the evening, symbolizing luck and prosperity.

Now, I grew up in an LDS family, so we didn't traditionally celebrate Mardi Gras at all. There was no king cake or muffuletta or hidden baby doll, it was just something that I had heard of growing up in Houston so close to Louisiana. It wasn't until college that I actually began celebrating the holiday one way or another - this time with lots of beads and of course, alcohol.

Back in the day, my friend Sami knew I loved baking and bought me the cutest little cupcake recipe book, 500 Cupcakes. I'm not sure why, but I went for a long time mainly using Pinterest for the recipes I was using. I think I had looked in the book and noticed that there weren't as many traditional cupcakes- you know, cupcakes with big piles of buttercream frosting on top. But eventually I got around to making quite a few of the recipes from the 500 cupcakes book. When I was thinking about what I would do for my interactive project, I knew it was going to have something to do with baking. I chose the King Cupcake recipe because Mardi Gras was coming up, but also because I liked the idea of creating holiday themed graphics in Illustrator - masks, beads, etc.

These tasty things were vanilla buttermilk cupcakes topped with a lemon glaze and sugar sprinkles. Definitely would make again... maybe with a baby hidden in it somewhere this time ;)

And that's it. That's all I've got for now! I've procrastinated actually sharing this blog and web site long enough. I think it's time to just... fully jump in and see how it goes!

Want to make these cupcakes too? Here's a link to buy the book!

See y'all soon!

-Whitney