When people ask me why I started a cupcake business, they often look at me like I’m crazy. They try to reason me out of it with facts: the market is saturated, it’s a trend that will eventually pass, and I have a BA in Literature. Well, I can say with confidence, I never thought I’d be here.
While I was baking last night, with the house to myself, except for the cats, I was reminded of when I was going to school in Oregon. I rented a tinny apartment across the street from campus with enough room for the cats and me. I would bake cookies and cupcakes in the evening to avoid silly things like homework, and would bring the treats with me to meetings or work. It was really nice in the winter when it snowed. I would fight off the cold by running the heater and baking, while homemade hot chocolate simmered on the stove.
The last winter I was in Oregon was a really hard winter. It snowed a lot and was so cold, I felt like I would never get warm. One night I was talking to my mother on the phone and she warned me that my pipes might freeze. Now being a young adult on my own, I thought that I had everything under control and that if my pipes freezing was going to be a problem my landlord would have told me since he knew that I was from southern California, and the coldest I had ever been was probably when I went to an ice skating rink. So I didn’t listen to her or call my landlord to inquire about the possibility. The next morning, sure enough, my hot water pipes were frozen. To make matters worse, my car was snowed into my parking spot in the ally behind my apartment.
Kicking myself, I went about my morning routine, minus anything needing water, when my boss called to check on me.
“Celeste just picked me up for work. Do you need a ride?” Stacie asked.
“No I think I can make it.” I said pulling back my curtain to a white world of snow dumping from the sky. “Wow, it’s really coming down!”
“Yeah, We are going to close early today. Just come in when you can and we will talk.”
“Okay. See you in about an hour.” I assured her.
I got dressed, put on my floor length wool coat, hat, scarf, gloves, boots, kissed the cats goodbye and went stomping through the snowy campus to the bookstore.
The snow came up to my knees and my glasses fogged with my breath as I trudged on. People were walking around with skis, throwing snowballs, building snowmen and making snow angels. It was like walking through a movie set. My ten-minute walk to work took half an hour. When I finally arrived, the girls were just opening the store, and discussing closing back up in four hours.
“You made it!” Celeste shouted as I clocked in.
“Yeah, you are lucky you just live upstairs!” I laughed, shaking off the snow.
We made coffee and watched the snow fall, wondering if anyone was brave enough to venture out, when John, the local homeless man, came in for coffee and slumped down by the fireplace, and instantly fell asleep.
When two o’clock rolled around we closed up shop. It still hadn’t stopped snowing. This time, it took me 45 minutes to get home and it was already dark when I got there. I was waking in the door when my landlord called.
“Hi, Bridgett. How’s it going?” Bob asked with fatherly concern.
“It’s a little cold, but I’m managing. ” I laughed. “I’m not used to this kind of weather.”
“Well, that’s why I’m calling. You should leave your water on so the water heater doesn’t freeze. There isn’t anything we would be able to do to fix it until it thaws out, so make sure you leave a steady trickle coming out.”
“Oh, okay, thanks.” I hung up, disappointed in myself. What an awesome learning experience.
Two days later, the snow stopped, the sun came out and my water cranked back to life. I still couldn’t drive, but I was able to get friends to drive me to the store. I learned a lot that winter about having plenty of food when the snow starts, to leave your water on, but mostly, to listen to my mother.
Last night, in honor of my last winter in Oregon, I made Mexican Hot Chocolate cupcakes with Spiced Whipped Cream frosting. Also, since Starbucks and the craft stores have decided that fall has begun; I made Pumpkin cupcakes with Cream Cheese frosting as well. Lastly, because I wanted to play with some decorating techniques featured in my holiday newsletter, I took my Applesauce-Pecan cupcakes out of the freezer and played with those.
The Pumpkin cupcakes I dressed like pumpkins.
The Applesauce-Pecan like Scarecrows.
The Mexican Hot Chocolate, like hot chocolate.
