We had a Christmas party at our house Tuesday night. Mark’s company party. The food was being catered. But we needed dessert.
And so the illusions of grandeur began in my head. Lovely cupcakes like you see on t.v. Homemade with mile high frosting swirled beautifully with little confectionary finishing touches. They would be tasteful to the eyes and the palette.
Now I should know myself well enough by now that that is a complete fantasy. I love baking. Delicious is my goal and essentially a goal that I am always able to attain. Beauty in baking? Not so much.
I would have two different kind of cupcakes to display on my new cupcake holders. Raspberry cream (vanilla cupcakes with raspberry filling and raspberry cream cheese frosting – all from scratch) and peanut butter chocolate (brownie base filled with chocolate and peanut butter chips with a peanut butter/butter cream frosting). I licked the spoons. Flavor was divine.
After the cupcakes were finished baking and cooling, I began the task of applying the icing with my new cake decorating kit. A gun-type instrument that you can put different tips on to create beautiful textures and designs. I began with the peanut butter frosting. It had the perfect consistency and was going to be tall and lovely atop the chocolate cupcakes. Until….I failed to remember that I had used crunchy peanut butter and each time I tried to pull the trigger, the nozzle would get plugged with a peanut. Long story short, I had to smear the frosting on the cupcakes leaving them to look, well, just plain ugly.
Next I tried the raspberry cream cheese frosting. A lovely consistency, delicious flavor. But the strangest color. A kind of gray-pink. Not at all appetizing to look at. The swirl factor was good, but the lovely factor was marred by the less than pretty hue.
I ended up with cupcakes that looked like mud and worms. (Tip – I remedied the problem by placing strands of red Christmas berries throughout the cupcake stand to draw attention away from the ugly…kinda like the ketchup on liver affect…)
Before....mud and worms
After...a little help from some berries...
My mom always said, as every other mom has always said, that “it’s what’s on the inside that counts.” Fortunately for my cupcakes it was their flavor, not their appearance, that won people over. For us as people, I think it is the same.
We have all seen pretty desserts and pretty people that initially get our attention. But if the beauty doesn’t go all the way through, if the inside is not delicious, we don’t stick around long. We “leave the rest on the plate.”
One time, many years ago, I made the mistake of putting cumin in some cookies instead of cinnamon. They looked fine on the outside. The color and consistency were the same. But as they baked, what was inside began to make itself known. The aroma of sweet smelling cinnamon didn’t fill the air. The aroma of cumin (the spice you put in chili) did. Not pleasant when you were hoping for a delicious cookie. Which put off anyone who would have taken a bite and enjoyed the chewy warmth and taste of a true gingersnap.
I want my insides to outshine my outsides. I want to be the cookie or the cupcake that is less than perfect on the outside, but satisfies a hunger when people experience what I carry inside. I can live with my “frosting” being lumpy or a funky color if I know that my true ingredients give warmth and fill others up.
I think that’s what Jesus meant when He said, “The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7) The idea behind, “Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.” (1 Peter 3:3-4)
I also thought about the verse Psalm 34:8 – Taste and see that the LORD is good. We can’t see God yet, but we can taste His goodness. He has set the example for us of being flavorful to those around us.
I wish you were here to share an ugly cupcake with me. I promise, you would want another…:-)
