PhDCupcaker

So, how did you like the title of this post? These cupcakes were one  of those ones that were in the works for quite a while. I am part of a center called the Center for the Study of Mathematics Curriculum (CSMC) and I have gotten to know a lot of really great people from other universities. Many of these people are my Facebook friends and have seen my cupcake posts. So, when it was time to head to Indianapolis for a conference my friend AJ asked if I would make some cupcakes and bring them to the conference. Since we were driving to the conference I thought it might be possible. I asked AJ for some ideas… the conference theme was Geometry: Constructing and Transforming Perspectives. The first idea he suggested was origami shapes – AJ does not mess with the easy stuff :-) I toyed around with different ways I could actually make edible origami (e.g., rice paper, edible origami wraps), but then decided that I didn’t have time to mess with that. I then came up with the idea to make some geometric shapes. I was going to do the trick I always see on Ace of Cakes and CakeBoss and use as Buddy calls them “cereal treats” to carve the shapes and then either use candy melts or fondant to cover them…. Well, I tried this and it just did not go very well… Josh and I just ended up enjoying Rice Krispie Treats for dessert! So, I did some searching on the Internet and found a recipe for creating your own modeling chocolate. Here is what you do: Melt about 10 oz. of chocolate or candy melts. I used Wilton Candy Melts and I just melted it in the microwave. Stir until the chocolate is smooth. Once the chocolate is smooth add 1/3 C. of light corn syrup and mix until you form a thick ball (it will be similar to the consistency of a melting tootsie roll).  Then I placed the ball into a freezer bag and used a rolling pin to flatten it out. I let these sit at room temperature overnight. The next day I just broke up the big “sheets” into smaller pieces and started molding my geometric shapes. For most of them I wanted hard edges and so I would create the shape a little bit bigger than I wanted, put it in the fridge for a while and then take it out and carve it – I did this for pretty much all the shapes except for the sphere. The picture above is actually of the ones I made the weekend before NCTM for a party I had for my interns. These ones were red velvet with cream cheese icing. The ones I brought to NCTM were chocolate chocolate -chip with cream cheese icing. I carted these from my hotel in my collapsible cooler which was sitting in my nerd cart. If you are familiar with a “nerd cart” you now that it doesn’t keep things parallel to the ground and I obviously didn’t situate the cooler very well because two tipped over… (well, more than two, but Funda and I were not able to get these two upright). Here is a picture of Funda and AJ (the one who encouraged me to make the cupcakes in the first place). Thanks AJ and Funda for letting me take this picture! I was pleased that I did not have to take any of these cupcakes back with me!

So, has your  perspective changed from reading about these geometric cupcakes? I hope so!