title: The Crazy Cupcake: Baking Basics
author:  Allison Winfield 
description: Allison Winfield is a baker, photographer, and writer. She and her husband, DJ, have owned The Crazy Cupcake for 3 years. When not at the shop baking, they are at home with their 5 children. Allison also writes a blog, The Winfields, at alwinfield.com. You can find her online at: Facebook: http://facebook.com/the.crazy.cupcake.tn Twitter: http://twitter.com/thecrazycupcake Instagram: http://instagram.com/al_winfield Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/alwinfield
zlib_text: Always for my family.
  
  Acknowledgments
   
   
  Thank you to Amber, Marie, Mary, and Amy.
  
  Chapter 1
   
  “AT LEAST you tried, Robbie.” Doris patted my hand gently in her usual reassuring way. I didn’t need
  reassurance. I needed the damn cake to bloody work. I mean, how difficult could it be to not fuck up
  something when I had the recipe sitting in front of me?
  I poked what was left of the applesauce cake with a fork. The mess let out an audible “bleurgh”
  as it collapsed in on itself around the massive hole that had somehow appeared during the cooking of
  it.
  “I followed the recipe.” And I had followed it, to the letter. Every single cup of flour and
  tablespoon of butter, every teaspoon of nutmeg, and I’d even performed algebra to work out what
  two-thirds of a cup was compared to a whole cup. Doris patted my hand again and nodded in her
  most reassuring fashion.
  “Maggie made this cake for nearly ninety years. You’re not supposed to be able to get it right
  the first time.”
  My chest tightened in g