Cupcake meets microwave.
As an American, one of the most boring groceries I can shop in is Ralphs. Why? I can read *almost* everything. When I’m craving something other than chicken, hamburger, or Chef Boyardee, I prefer to relocate my food purchasing adventures to a store where I’m surrounded by foreign products. One of the great things about shopping illiterately is that new discoveries are imminent.
“Oh, I thought these shrimp chips were ready to eat! How the heck to I cook these?”
-or-
“Hm…this doesn’t taste like string cheese…I think it’s a fish stick…”
Indeed–the laughs my food misshaps would get on episodes of “Stupid white people try to cook your food” (the pilot episode will be out this fall on Channel 18).
It’s no surprise that I fell for the colorful packaging on this cupcake container. Besides, it says it’s “kantan”! How could I fail? For the record, this was the vanilla cupcake, although there was a chocolate option.
Thank God for the clever Japanese instructions that provided easy to follow pictures for illiterate fools like me:
The container is basically just a waxed carton like a miniature popcorn bucket. Inside is a singular shiny pink cupcake mix packet.
I dumped this into the original packaging and added 1 egg.
Whipped it up with a pair of chopsticks, which btw, work pretty darn well compared with my normal fork egg whippage.
From what I could make out on the packaging, it’s ideal to mix it until the egg is incorporated, but not overmixed. Here is my impression of the ideal chopstick to cupcake batter manipulation:
If I recall correctly, the container had a lid that needed to be applied before cooking. That done, I popped it in the microwave for 1-1.5 minutes. What emerged was a scorching hot eggy sponge cake that paired wonderfully with brut champagne.
Here’s a clip I found on Youtube of a similar cupcake in action!
This is cool. I wonder if was the source of inspiration for Adrian Adria.. he he
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVf0OMYewcg
30 sec. sponge cake at 01:20 mark
oops meant to say albert adria..
Nice clip! I wonder if his tastes better…ha!