Meet My Apprentice

My apprentice filling mini cupcake pan.

I thanked my daughter for being my baking assistant this afternoon and she corrected me:

“No momma. I’m your apprentice.”

My apprentice indeed. She was all business with me while we whipped up a batch of zucchini muffins (cupcakes to the kids).  The recipe, complete with zesty orange, cream cheese frosting, is the best thing that I ever got out of my long-ago lapsed Cookie Magazine subscription.

Usually when my Future Farmgirl helps me in the kitchen, she’s just in it for the mixing. Maybe she’ll stick around or re-appear to be a taste tester when I make the icing. Of course, everyone’s a mommy’s helper when we pull the goodies from the oven.

This time though, my little apprentice wanted to be part of everything, from zesting the orange and lemon to carefully blending all the dry ingredients.

She even wanted to taste everything…raw.

Chillin out.

Here’s what she learned: Flour, baking soda and baking chocolate do not taste good on their own. Neither, she was surprised to discover, does vanilla. She was more pleased with the flavor of plain cinnamon. But she wasn’t asking for seconds.

I generally don’t let her eat batter with raw eggs. But to keep the taste-test experience going, I let her check it out.

That removed any remaining skepticism that zucchini could be transformed into a dessert.

She wasn’t as much of a fan of the cream cheese icing. So I just served hers topped with whipped cream and a few M&Ms for presentation.