Lily's birthday cupcakes, part 1

Baking mini chocolate cupcakes for Lily's birthday parties has become something of a personal tradition. I do it partly because it's sweet, but mostly because I love when her friends say, "You made these?!" with surprise, before pounding down another three or four tiny creme cheese frosted cakes. Of course, I did make them. But I had help.


You see, the secret to Lily's birthday cupcakes is boxed cake mix with double pudding. I know there are those who find this to be a cop out, those who'd rather spend a lot of time and money to make a decent to good cake because it helps them see themselves as better people. But I say with total earnestness that I believe in boxed cake mix because, after all, it's about baking better cakes. Yes, Uncle Duncan (Hines) and Aunt Betty (Crocker) are the originators of my "secret" "family" recipes, and I take no shame in admitting it, because if they got cake so incredibly right, which again, is so much better than your Aunt Sally, why mess with it? Note: I feel this way about Heinz Ketchup as well.

When I was little, Nancy Silverton and her kids used to be at all of the family birthday parties. The gatherings were almost always pot-lucky, always a little pastiche-y, and everyone contributed their specialties. So when it came to dessert, my mom would bake a cake (from a box), cousin Licia would make the creme cheese frosting, and Nancy would frost the cake (because it requires artistry). As my mom likes to tell this story, at the first of these parties, Nancy's kids (who already had pretty refined palates, as you can imagine) took just one bite of the dessert collaboration before their minds were blown by its perfection. "Why don't your cakes taste like this?" they asked their mother, the world-renowned baker.

Boxed cake mix is simple and delicious. But perfect creme cheese frosting is a little more demanding of its maker. However, since I must get down to real work, I'll save that for Part 2 of Lily's birthday cupcakes.