Recipe fail

[jethrien]

All right, Mr. Pastry Chef/Cookbook Author, let's have words.

This cupcake recipe called for 1 1/2 cups of cream in the cakes and 1 cup of cream in the filling. That totals to 2 1/2 cups of cream for the recipe.

I bought one pint and one half pint. That totals to three cups. (A little less, actually - I've found that the pints don't quite contain two cups.)

In the directions for the cupcakes, you call for 1 1/2 cups of cream. For the filling, you tell me to mix the peanut butter with 3/4 cups of cream. Then, several steps later, you have me whip and fold in the other 1 1/2 cups cream.

...what?

That brings the total to 3 3/4 cups cream. Do you see a problem here?

Also, for the record, if step 3 starts "Pour ganache over batter" and ends "Pour batter into cupcake tray", there should not be a "chill four hours" hidden in the middle of the step.

And perhaps it's because of the insufficient chilling, but if you fill the 12 specified cupcakes 2/3 full as directed, there's way too much batter. When filled 5/6, there's still enough batter for 16 cupcakes.

Clearly I didn't read the recipe quite carefully enough when doing the shopping trip or planning the evening. But then, generally, recipes don't require you to redo the math or hunt for Easter eggs. If they're actually written well. Just sayin'.

Comments

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Not necessarily - it's just that it sounds more like accounting than editing. There's someone out there who is perfect for this job, I'm sure.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I bet there's a lot of crossover between cookbook copyeditors and indexers, another job that sounds like death to me.

On the up side, you'd get a lot of money per project. (Though divided out over time...no better than any other copyeditor.)

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

I've got just enough OCD to see how some people might enjoy that kind of thing without quite enjoying it myself.