Last June, I went into my new school to meet my new set of kids. Smartly or stupidly, I told them that I liked baking cupcakes and that I would probably bake them some if they were good. Things I learned/were reinforced from that visit:
a) middle schooler's remember everything you tell them unless it's related to something upon which they will be assessed,
2) especially if it's about food, and
iii) it's silly to make promises like that before you find out whether you're going to be on the 40-student team or the 60-student team.
Not even a month in, they wore me down. "Remember you told us you would bake us cupcakes?" "When are you going to bring us cupcakes?" "How 'bout them cupcakes?" So, I promised them all NECAPcakes, to be given at the end of NECAP-testing week. Which, oh right, was also the week progress reports were due and we had 50 parent conferences. 5 dozen cupcakes? No problem.
I had it all planned out. Bake the cupcakes Wednesday night after the first set of conferences and frost them after Conference: Part Deux. You know what happens when you get home after meeting with 25 parents and it's 8:30 pm and you don't have a microwave so you turn the oven on low in order to thaw out your frozen butter so that it's softened but not melted because you can't use melted butter to make swiss buttercream frosting because it just won't whip up like it's supposed to and then you get on your computer and have three e-mails from parents and teammates regarding tomorrow and you decide it's important to answer them and by the time you remember the butter you have a plate of melted butter in your oven? You throw in the limited amount of powdered sugar and cocoa powder you have, whip it into submission, and hope for the best. Turns out, it tastes a lot like the frosting version of a Wendy's Frosty!
Whew! Interesting part: the next day I had a couple of kids walk up and say, "Huh, peanut butter. Not what I expected." To which I replied, "Huh, peanut butter. Not what I put in." That one still perplexes me.
