Cupcake 21 - French Toast - Maple Cinnamon Cupcake with Maple Butter Cream

I have two food items that stymy me. Jell-O and French toast. Both are easily mastered by most 5th graders, but not me. To admit my failure with Jell-O is much more complicated. I have strong southern roots and the south is home to the Jell-O mold. To this very day, family gatherings involve some sort of Jell-O based "salad" treated not as a desert, but a side dish to the main meal. Rob still can't wrap his head around the concept. Mixing Jell-O, fruit, cream cheese and Coowhip is a side dish served along side mashed potatoes and sauerkraut for Thanksgiving dinner? Yeah, that's how we roll in my family.

Most times my Jell-O does not jell and jiggle, it's more soup-like than jiggly. If it does jell, it's gritty. Its never worthy of cream cheese, Coolwhip and fruit. Maybe I don't give it the proper attention. Maybe I don't stir it the full 5 minutes as indicated on the box. Maybe I don't take day-glow green food seriously enough. Whatever the cause, it will never make it to Thanksgiving dinner.

French toast also eludes me and it's one of Rob's all time favorite breakfast foods. I used to study new recipes, trying different kinds of breads, I mix up the egg/milk combinations, I've tried adding cream and even cornstarch to help the batter adhere. Always a disappointment. If I get the outside crispy the inside is dry. Keeping the inside fluffy results in a limp outer crust. I've come to the conclusion that its a temperature thing that can only be achieved properly on a diner-like grill with a hint of sausage grease.

Rob's best bet for French Toast nirvana is on the rare occasions we have breakfast out, generally on vacations. A number of years ago on a trip to Key West, Rob found the Holy Grail of French Toast in a little coffee shop off the beaten path. This has become the gold standard by which all French Toast is judged – and most fail miserably. I can't compete. I turn to pancakes or eggs as a "go to" for Sunday morning breakfast. Maybe someday we'll go back to Key West, if we do we will eat French Toast every single day. I hope it is as good as the memory.

This weeks' cupcake is a tribute to French Toast. I had some local maple syrup on-hand and added a pinch of cinnamon and a grate of nutmeg to the batter. For the buttercream I again used maple syrup and enhanced the maple-ness with a touch of maple flavoring. I sprinkled the tops with cinnamon sugar. The taste took me back 40 years, eating breakfast at Reed's Drugstore after Sunday school. Funny how taste and memory are so connected.