Mendolonium

I’ve got plenty of food stored in the house to sustain us (and my sister*) through an earthquake, zombie siege, or comet strike – whatever apocalypse du jour may come, but there are some products that you just can’t store – like cream.  When I went to make some much desired yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting this afternoon I realized that the cream (called for in my frosting recipe) in my fridge was far, far beyond cream at this point.  I contemplated going out to the store, however, organic cream is at a minimum a 1 mile walk + train ride and then back again or a car trip away.  I thought about going without frosting as well, but that just wasn’t going to satisfy my craving.  I didn’t want to waste the time and energy going to the store and I didn’t want to go without.   So I did what we’ll probably all have to do more of in the future – I made do.  Thomas and I got together and came up with a fabulous, creamless  recipe.  Should you ever find yourself without cream, but with a hankering for some chocolate frosting here’s what you can make do:

Ingredients:

• 6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 8 Tablespoons (1 stick) butter, cold
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 Tablespoons milk

Directions:

1. Melt the chocolate using either a microwave set to 50% power (stirring every minute) or a double boiler.  Stir until smooth and then set aside.
2. Mix the butter, sugar, and milk together until light and fluffy.  An electric mixer on a moderate to high speed works best.
3. Slowly pour in the chocolate (while mixing) and mix until frosting is smooth and homogeneous.

Yield:  Enough to spread a thick layer on 16 cupcakes.  If I was going to pipe the frosting on I would likely make a double batch.

Today’s lesson is that in a world of constrained energy and resources I need to remember to make do with what we have more often.  And the bonus is that I came up with a fabulous frosting recipe that I never would have made otherwise.  Sometimes making do is making it better.

*I assume Sara Ann would definitely want to hang out here during the end of days, and besides, we’ll need someone to nanny for the kids while we rebuild a new utopian world.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 7th, 2010 at 11:38 pm and is filed under Change of the Week, Someone's in the Kitchen with Mama. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.