Mannendri Olivares's Food Memoir

Mannendri Olivares # 25                                            6.1

ELA – Food Memoir

5 – 30 – 16                                                          Red Velvet Delight

“Red velvet cake mix!” I saw it sitting on the table waiting to be opened. It had been sitting there for a long time. The thought of baking it filled my mind. It would be as enticing as it would be eating it.

“Let’s bake cupcakes,” my brother and I said to our mother in unison.

“Okay, I guess we can,” responded my mom.

“Come on, Mami, get the cupcake pan.” We dashed into the dim, small, and warm kitchen.  It was crowded with all sorts of foods and items in all different places. The low hum of the refrigerator met my ear. I knew that Brios, my brother, was dancing on his feet, waiting to open the mix. However, I was quick enough to grab it and open it. I used a pair of scissors to cut open the box. The cake mix had a look like colored sand or plaster mix. I saw some of the breaks in it and how it fell all around inside the bag as I shook the bag. We  worked on top of the of the almost marble -  looking kitchen countertop. My mom got out the metal bowl we used to pour the mix in. The glistening metal surface met the soft touch of the cake mix as I poured it in slowly. The mix was a grayish red color and it sat in the bowl piled up in a mound. I knew there were a few more ingredients left to add before putting the mix in the oven to bake.

The back of the cake mix packaging box was what would lead us to success in baking these cupcakes in addition to our experience in baking cupcakes. The back of the box had all the ingredients needed. The recipe required three eggs. I loved to crack the eggs in the bowl. I opened up the refrigerator and the cool air met the dry skin of my face. I took out the carton of eggs.

“I am going to crack the eggs,” I shouted.

“No, I want to crack the eggs,” Brios responded.

I hoped to be able to crack the eggs and I knew I had a chance of losing that opportunity with my brother complaining about it too. However, I had a brilliant and simple, plan.

” Let’s share the work evenly among ourselves. I crack one, you crack one and Mami will crack one.”

“Okay,” says my mom.

I watched as my brother used his “technique” to crack the eggs and get the yolk in the bowl. He would hit the egg against the bowl in a swift motion and at the same time get the yolk inside the bowl. Once it was my turn, I tried his technique and managed to get the radiating yellow glob of yolk in the bowl. Even though the recipe called for 1 cup of water and 1/3 cup of oil, we also added milk to that list. We dropped a bit of milk in the mix along with the water and oil. You could see little bits of the mix floating on the clear water. The aroma of the mix drifted to my nose. It smelled sweet and chocolate -  like.

Now the mix was ready to be stirred. I turned my head to the glistening silver whisk sitting on the wall. We had recently bought it and now was the best time to put it to use. I wanted to whisk the batter first, but my brother had already grabbed the whisk and was happily stirring away. I watched as the mix turned into cake batter while waiting for my turn to stir. The intersecting mesh of metal strands danced inside of the batter. I could see the new texture of the batter. It had took on a more fluid feeling with lumps here and there. The batter was a deep red and splashed inside the bowl.  I heard the scraping and crunching noise of the batter mixing in the bowl.

“It’s my turn to stir,” I told Brios and, as expected, Brios responded ”Wait.”

We both loved to stir the batter and I knew Brios would want to stir more, but finally it was my turn and I stirred the batter using my own special style. I would let go of my hold on the bowl and spin the bowl with the whisk while at the same time stirring the batter. I watched as the batter spun, coming up on the edges of the bowl with a creamy and almost perfect look. The batter would gather around the interior of the bowl.

“Be careful,” my mom said. “Don’t stir like that”.

“Mami, it’s not going to get out of the bowl. It’s just spinning around”.

As the batter got gradually closer to being done with stirring, my arms were begging for a rest, so I handed the whisk to my mother and she completed the stirring. Once the batter had no more lumps in it, we got the cupcake pan ready.

The cupcake pan had twelve cupcake shaped holes in it for twelve cupcakes. My mom took the job of pouring the batter inside the cupcake pan, but first we had to line the pan with cupcake sleeves in the holes to put the cupcakes in. If we didn’t, the cupcakes could fall apart. My mom took some old ones we had since we didn’t have any others. The sleeves had an intriguing design with zigzag grooves all around which would give the cupcakes a nice shape. My mom handed me the sleeves and I put one in each hole. Then, my mom started pouring batter into each sleeve. The batter slowly dripped in overlapping layers like a lasagna inside each of the cupcake holes. After having done a few, my mother handed the slightly heavy bowl to me to pour some batter too. I did a pretty good job, judging by the fact that the batter poured in overlapping layers inside the holes and filled the entire hole. My brother did the same. We had to pour batter until it reached just below the rim of the hole, otherwise, when put to bake, the cupcakes would rise too high.

This was my favorite part.

“Let’s eat the batter!” My brother and I have a tradition in which whenever we bake something, we always eat the leftover batter. It is a very enticing event.

“NO! You’re going to get a stomachache, plus, the box says not to eat raw batter,” shouts our mom.

“But we’ve done this more than once. Mami, we’re not going to get sick”.

Getting sick was the least of my worries. I was just waiting to throw my fingers in the bowl and wolf down all that sweet tasting batter.

My brother and I got right to eating the batter while my mom set the cupcakes in the oven to bake for about eighteen minutes at 325 degrees Fahrenheit. I dipped two of my fingers into the soft batter and brought it to my lips. The sweetness of the red delight bursted in my mouth and I couldn’t stop eating more. I kept on dipping my fingers in the bowl. I didn’t care if it was double dip. I was lost in this dreamy and red world that trapped me inside forever, but I still knew I had to stop at one point. Once the sweet, filling, smooth, and thick red velvet flavor got boring, I washed my hands well and started to wait for the cupcakes to finish baking. I went on with life’s daily activities such as homework, until a warm aroma reached my nose. I knew instantly that they were the cupcakes. It had that sweet tang along with the warm and friendly smell of freshly baked goods. I ran to check on the cupcakes to see if they were ready. “Overload!” Some of the muffin -  looking cupcakes had risen far above the rim of the cupcake holes, but I liked it that way. That means bigger cupcakes. The cupcakes were fluffy as clouds from my view of them, but they still weren’t ready to be taken out.

After a few more minutes, the cupcakes were ready. My mother pulled the steaming pan of fluffy cupcakes out of the oven and we set them to cool. In order to make sure they were ready, we pushed a knife into one of the cupcakes and it came out clean. That means they were ready. After cooling, the cupcakes were standing at attention for the next step of the cupcake making process, frosting. Now we had to frost the cupcakes, so we took out our creamy white frosting from the fridge. It wasn’t so creamy now that it was frozen after having been in the fridge for a while, but it was malleable. Using a spoon, my brother, mom, and I took turns frosting all the cupcakes. We used the rounded side of the spoon, as its curve would provide an advantage in spreading the frosting across the cupcakes. I considered myself to be the best at frosting. All the cupcakes I worked on had a nice and plump swirl on them. In my eyes, it looked as though a professional baker had done it. The frosting mixed well with the red velvet cupcakes. There were speckles of red in the frosting here and there.

It was ready to eat now.

“Can I eat two cupcakes” I asked mom.

“Sure, just as long as you don’t make a mess. Here, use this piece of tinfoil to put the cupcakes on.”

I quickly took hold of two of the fattest cupcakes and indulged in them. The creamy white frosting and red velvet cupcake pleased my mouth and I knew these cupcakes were indeed very good. They had a rich flavor and the frosting added to the sweetness and softness. By themselves, the cupcakes tasted only a little dull, but the frosting changed everything. It was a red velvet delight!

Red Velvet Delight Recipe:

Ingredients –

1. Red velvet cake mix(Any brand is fine)
2. 1 cup of water
3. 1/3 cup of oil
4. ¼ cup of milk
5. Three eggs
6. Creamy white frosting (Any brand is fine)

Steps:

Blend cake mix, water, oil, milk, and eggs in a large bowl at medium speed until moistened. Make sure there are no lumps in batter. Pour batter in pan and bake in oven for about 15 – 20 minutes at about 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Once ready, let cupcakes cool to a warm state. Once cooled, use a spoon or any readily accessible utensil to spread frosting on cupcakes in a circular motion to form a swirl shape. Enjoy!