Sunday's Plate

Yesterday afternoon I stood in the kitchen and decided to make a cupcakes. Terry and I like a nice dessert with our tea in the evening. But junk cake and high sugar desserts don't taste good to me anymore. Besides, I want to invest my calories into my body, not make what I am eating a test to my intestinal fortitude!

Now it seems to me that the perfect cake or cupcake needs to be light and dry and delicious with that soul ingratiating wonderful deep flavor. Cake needs to have body and substance, but it can't ever be wet or soggy or sticky or heavy. And because it is a genuine food, it also needs to be a healthy food.

So I thought about making a cake that I could depend on as a basic batter that I could change for variety but still use plain if need be.

First step: I measured three cups of whole wheat pastry flour into a bowl. This flour makes the difference between a cake that equals white bread and one that equals whole grain.

Step two: I used 1.5 cups sugar or 62 teaspoons. If you divide the cupcakes into 24 there are about 3 teaspoons of sugar in each cupcake. A cupcake made like this probably has less sugar than store bought yogurt, cold cereal and packaged junk like granola bars per ounce.

Step three: I used one stick of real butter because margarine is one molecule from plastic, and it's a big no, and 1/4 cup of canola oil because canola oil is good for you. It's an antioxidant. You can skip the butter and just use the oil, but butter is such a nice ingredient, it's hard to nix it.

Step four: I used 2 free range eggs. One was green the other white. Such fun to see the difference in yolks from free range eggs.

Step five: I used 2 teaspoons of baking powder and 1 of baking soda and1 of salt.

Step six: I used about 1.5 cups of milk. The resulting batter should be heavier than pancake batter but not as heavy as cookie dough. It should taste good. Water is an OK substitute.

This is the basic batter.

Turn the mixer on high and beat it for about three minutes. So necessary to whip a batter on high for a couple of minutes because this gets a lot of air into the mix.

Now for the flavors: I had just made my William some fresh granola, so I took a cup of the granola and added it to the batter. I added an extra cup of coconut too. Then I beat it again for a couple of minutes. Coconut is the healthiest and most nutritious nut there is, and when you use it in cakes or muffins, it lightens the batter.

A good basic cake batter can take any flavor or addition at this point. Chocolate, nuts, jam, juice, fruit, veggie bits, cream cheese, spices, candy bits or anything that sounds good can be put into the cake once the basic ingredients have been added.

Into the baking cups - greased foil works best - I added those caramel balls for baking to the bottom of the muffin tins, and then placed the batter on top and baked them in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes. Otherwise you only need paper cups or none at all.

I frosted my cupcakes with a mix of powdered sugar, almond flavoring and butter. They were delicious. I only make enough cupcakes or cookies at home for one meal. The rest of the batter I keep in a jar that I use through the week. This way, while I'm making dinner, I can slip another six or so cupcakes into the oven for a fresh dessert any night of the week.