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Saturday, June 16, 2012

The science of baking

A few weeks ago, two of my greatest loves came together in a most glorious way.  That's right, baking and science.  Alright, I have a lot of greatest loves, I'll admit, but these are high on the list.

A good family friend graduated from Georgia Tech and I HAD to make this as his gift:



That's right, a periodic table made of cupcakes.


I can't begin to tell you how many hours of work went into this, but it was truly a labor of love.  


I began on Wednesday by baking 12 dozen cupcakes.  Half chocolate, half yellow cake.  They were stored in ziploc baggies in the freezer until Friday.  I had another friend come over to help, because I knew there was no way I could ice and decorate all those cupcakes with the 4 kiddos running around.


I worked her like a slave until lunch, when she had to get her own to little one's home for naps, and then once I got done sticking on about a million fondant circles, I got down to the nitty gritty...piping on all those darn symbols and numbers!


Confession time...I did not do this from memory.  I know, I know, you would think I could just recall all 118 on a whim, but I can't.  I blame all the pregnancies.  I'm sure if it were not for the many times my body was forced to reroute blood from my brain to my growing fetus, I could.  But I had to use a cheat sheet...you know, just to make sure they were all in the right place.  


Once at the party, it was a thing of beauty.  All those cupcakes, all that fondant, all those noble gasses...

It is my greatest cake creation.

So far.