I’ve been cooking up a storm lately. Over the past six months or so, it’s become my new hobby/pastime/daily source of enjoyment. Cupcakes are all the rage in certain circles (ahem, Post Punk Kitchen) so, even though I haven’t had much of a sweet tooth recently, I felt the need to try my (shaky ataxic) hand at ‘em. I bought Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and prepared for goodness.

I’d been mulling over what kind to make for a few weeks when a cupcake discussion with my best friend finally spurred me to action yesterday. I think part of why I stalled for so long was because the dual-recipe nature of cupcakes is somewhat daunting to me: nearly all cupcakes require making not one, but two things- the cuppies themselves, and the frosting. I simplified that somewhat by making my cupcakes yesterday and my frosting today; otherwise, I would have been in the kitchen for about 4 hours straight.

Don’t let this deter you from delving into the art of cupcakery. Everything takes longer for me. My unsteady hands make measuring challenging, and the slow way I move around the kitchen (I stand and shuffle, holding on to the counter) makes all my cooking take much longer than recipes’ indicated prep time. If you’re able-bodied, you should be able to accomplish complete cupcakes in far less time. I know I’ll cut down my time with practice, but cupcakes will never be a quick throw-together for me.

There are so many pictures of pretty, elaborately bedecked cupcakes out there, but I stuck to basics for my first batch: Chocolate Buttercream atop Golden Vanilla cuppies. (Despite its name consisting of two animal products, buttercream can be deliciously made vegan.) Lacking a pastry bag set, I glopped the frosting into a ziplock bag, sealed it, cut the corner off, and piped the (not)butter(not)cream onto the cakes. They’re not perfect, but my mouth doesn’t know the difference.

I think I did a pretty good job for an ataxic cupcake virgin with a plastic bag.