Cupcakes

One of the cool things about being a missionary is that I have missionary friends who live all over the world. I think that I pretty much know someone on every continent, except Antartica. I enjoy hearing about other cultures, their food, weather, cooking, and all those cool things! After talking with people all over the world, I've realized that American baking is very unique and very different. Some of the countries, I found out, don't even use ovens. Sometimes I sit and think about how different my cooking and menu planning would be if I did not have an oven at my disposal.

Whenever we go places here, to people's houses or get togethers, I always try not to come empty handed. So I usually bring what I know, some type of American cake, pie, or pastry. I've not yet learned very many Spanish recipes, since my focus so far has been mostly on the language.

So I offered to teach some woman from the church, who have expressed interest before, how to make cupcakes. I have a really good basic white/yellow recipe courtesy of Ina Garten that I knew would not fail! A few ladies from church came over to learn how to make cupcakes.

My dear friend Loida helped me translate this cupcake recipe, as well as a basic cream cheese frosting (Of course!) into Spanish. This was a huge blessing and I learned a bit of cooking vocabulary in Spanish. The ladies crowded into my kitchen so I could walk them step by step through the process.

One lady couldn't believe how much butter was in the recipe. Yep, that's kind of a downside of American recipes!! They also were surprised that I added the eggs in one at a time, beating well in between each one, instead of adding all 3 eggs at once.

I made sure to use everything that I had bought here in Spain, to show the ladies that they could replicate the recipe too. It was fun showing them some of the tools I use. They gasped when I used the ice cream scoop to transfer the batter from the bowl to the cupcake molds. I very quickly reassured them that I am not this smart! But I had stolen the idea from a cooking blog.

After the cupcakes were in the oven, we all sat down for some coffee. Love the Spanish coffee. Even the cheaper, store brand coffees are just fantastic!! Have I mentioned how much I love Spanish coffee?

Once the cupcakes were out of the oven and cooled down, we made the frosting. Then I put small amounts of frosting in plastic baggies and snipped off the ends so everyone could decorate their own cupcake. I also provided several types of sprinkles. It was SO fun to see the ladies get creative! And I love that they really enjoyed the finished product!!

It was so fun to sit around and chat once we were done eating. These ladies are such a blessing to me personally and I really enjoyed the time getting to know them more and making cupcakes together!!