I just made my family their first-ever batch of cupcakes, which is pretty amazing considering my mother-in-law is 66 years old.
But understandable considering we live in a remote village in Jordan.
And just a little bit dangerous.
My sister-in-law looked quite terrified when I mentioned I’d need to use the oven to bake the cupcakes. The moment she announced it was time to light it, everyone rushed into the kitchen to watch. She ripped a huge piece of cardboard off a box that contained my cooking equipment and lit it. Everyone rushed out of the kitchen, grabbing me by the arm and dragging me with them. I heard a giant POOOF! And she came out looking dishevelled and a bit shocked.
Oh-kay … thanks sis.
Since there are no packet mixes here, I made my cupcakes from scratch. Normally I just grab a Betty Crocker mix and voila! But here things are not so simple.
I started off Googling a simple chocolate cake recipe. It seemed easy enough. I had to ask my sister-in-laws for all of the equipment I needed. This was a little challenging as I only know the Arabic names for common kitchen items, such as glass, and pot. So getting a large mixing bowl was a bit tricky. After lots of broken Arabic and English, many hand gestures and a few games of charades, I had my equipment. Luckily for me I brought kitchen items like a hand-held electric mixer and a cupcake papers.