Nothing could have been more tragic last night than my cupcakes. Let me explain the whole situation, from the beginning…
Yesterday afternoon I set out making cupcakes; some for a friend’s birthday lunch today, and the rest for a dinner meeting I’m supposed to attend on Tuesday evening. This is my normal routine. I make the cakes ahead, freeze them a day or two and then frost them the day of the event. Nothing unusual here. So, I made the cake batter, and it tasted fine. You can trust that analysis, I checked at least twice, maybe more. At any rate, I popped them in the oven and went about my business.
When the timer began beeping, I checked the cupcakes and they appeared to be finished baking. I pulled them out to let them cool on the counter. I stepped away from the kitchen for a while. I’m a mom, with many things to do – time to sit around in my kitchen is not a luxury I have at this time in life. So, you can imagine my surprise when I came back to gather my cooled cupcakes and put them in the freezer.
There were my precious little beauties, complete with a sunken center. And by sunken, I mean cavernous, huge valleys in the middle of every one. My heart fell to the bottom of my stomach with disappointment. Now what? I wasn’t going to have time to go back to the store to get all of the ingredients for a second batch…
I hid them away in a container in my deepfreeze, to wait there for morning. Surely things would seem better after a good night’s sleep.
I got the chocolate cupcakes back out this morning and there they were. Still sunk, just like I felt. My friend would arrive to celebrate her birthday in less than an hour. My peppermint butter cream was ready and waiting, but I didn’t have enough to fill those humongous holes. What to do, what to do?
hmmmmm…..
And then I remembered some chilled chocolate buttercream in my refrigerator. a moment of inspiration… Maybe…. just maybe. Could it work? Was there salvation for my situation?
I grabbed my tiniest cookie dough scoop and began filling each of the crater-like cupcakes with thick, cold, chocolate frosting. And then I piped peppermint buttercream over it. They looked like the most normal, cute, yummy, cupcakes decorated with delicious sweet creamy goodness. But I knew their secret which would most likely never be discovered by their devourers. (ahem, except in the situation that someone blogged to the whole world wide web about it.)
Do you know that these tasty morsels turned out to be some of the best cupcakes I’ve ever made? What was probably a small-ish tragedy definitely turned out better than good.
Here’s the rub. I want to quote Romans 8:28 here, but I can’t, because I don’t really believe it fits. He doesn’t promise me “all the time” happiness and comfort. He doesn’t say that He will make my mistakes turn out golden. He just doesn’t. But, He has given ability, and inspiration at just the right time, in order to help me do even the smallest tasks He’s given me to do, like bless a friend with a Birthday cupcake that’s delicious. And, when I need the strength and “know-how” He supernaturally seems to dispense it at just the right time. And ultimately, if He wants to, He can take any of my in-abilities and make them into something wonderful. For His good work.
He promises to give me the power to do this work that He’s called me to do, no matter how big or how small – and I think that includes sharing a little love from my kitchen with someone. I guess maybe this Scripture from Philippians 1 is the promise I need to remember:
6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Before, my man-made disaster.
After, a decadent success, by His mercy.
daily portion 