For Whiskey, I have smokey maple bourbon chocolate cupcake with a rich chocolate bourbon frosting and a piece of sea salt bacon dark chocolate bark on top. My man loves chocolate, and his road name is Whiskey, so putting bourbon in a cupcake sounded like the perfect combination for him.
Ring has what I call an unhealthy love of caffeinated sodas, especially Mountain Dew, so his cupcake is a lemon and lime citrus creation that I altered from a recipes online. There is actually has Mountain Dew in the batter and frosting, so I knew he would love it.
Steel’s favorite cupcake is one I never would have guessed in a million years. The man who only wears black loves rainbow sprinkles. Who would have thought? His recipe is really the simplest of them all. White cake with sprinkles mixed in and buttercream frosting with sprinkles on top.
Now Hammer is the one who really made me work to make his different. With Ring’s flavor already leaning very lemony, when Hammer asked for lemon too I had to put my thinking cap on. I altered an old recipe I found in one of my grandma’s old church cookbooks, one with real lemon zest, sour cream, milk, and vanilla in it, these cupcakes have a creamier taste. Add once you add the lemon tart buttercream frosting, they are like mini magic.
I bucked my own tradition a bit when I picked Smoke and Haze’s flavors . . . because they didn’t ask for something specific. I picked.
Smoke was the most excited I’ve seen of all the guys when he got his flavor. The first thing that came to mind when I thought about his road name was marshmallows. You roast marshmallows over fire, and fire makes smoke, so that’s how weended up with s’mores cupcakes. It’s a bit of a tedious assembly process, but so delicious in the end. There is a graham cracker bottom, creamy chocolate cake, graham cracker cream cheese frosting, and more chocolate on top with mini marshmallows.
Since Haze is in a throuple relationship with Smoke, I wanted his cupcake to be something chocolate too. Opposite of the busyness of Smoke’s, I went with the simple and sweet flavors of mint chocolate cupcakes. The frosting is even green, which is Haze’s favorite color, so I thought it was perfect for him.
Mountain’s favorite cake is actually because of Blue. The morning after they got married, she baked him a cake. Because they ran off to the courthouse to get hitched, there was nothing traditional planned. No flowers, no party, no cake—so she woke up early the next morning and baked him a cake . . . a red velvet cake. Every anniversary since, and for even for Whiskey’s birthdays since he turned eleven, she bakes the same cake. With her blessing, and her recipe, I made Mountain a red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting.
When General gave up his Nomad bachelor status, and moved back to town with an Old Lady who was six months pregnant, her cravings for rocky road ice cream made the decision for his flavor easy. To make a chocolate cupcake different than the others, I decided to make this one filled with chocolate ganache as well. Then on top of the chocolate buttercream frosting, I add crushed chocolate chip cookies, sliced almonds, and mini marshmallows.
Giving Tiny a holiday cupcake was kismet. Two years ago, a baby was dropped off at The Lodge and it turned out to be his son. Dressed in a Santa suit because he was pretending to be the jolly man for an afternoon full of kids wanting to sit on his lap, he read the note left behind with the baby and found out it was his son, Nicholas. Put two and two together, Santa . . . St. Nicholas . . . what is more Christmas than white chocolatepeppermint? And you want to know something even crazier, Tiny took a page out of Mountain’s playbook and claimed his son’s aunt as his Old Lady.
The latest Brother to get a flavor was Buzz. We he claimed Star, who was also pregnant with their baby, giving him a flavor accidently fell by the wayside. I didn’t not give him one on purpose, but he claimed her and announced it to the club without any of us having a clue, so I had no time to prepare something special or ask what he wanted. It wasn’t until all of us ladies started planning our joint wedding that I realized he was left out, so when I asked Star what flavor he might like, her answer was quick—strawberry shortcake.
With help from my two OG helpers, Angie and Lynn, we split up the tasks and have been baking and frosting all morning. It’s a few minutes until noon and I just pulled the last pan of bake cupcakes out of the oven. The first couple batched just went in the walk-in refrigerator, and these will follow shortly once they cool just a bit. Depending on what day I can come in later this week, between the three of us, we will figure out later who is going to frost and decorate everything. At some point on Friday I will have to come to town to box everything up and hide them somewhere, probably at either Angel or Sunshine’s, so I have them for Saturday.
BOOM!
I drop the whisk I’m rinsing in the sink as the loudest sound I have every heard echoes through the bakery as the walls shake around us.
Just as soon as the noise starts, it stops. We all freeze for a good ten seconds before all three of us run for the back door. I pull it open and freeze again. Not only because it’s cold as a witch’s tit outside and I’m not wearing a coat, but I am stunned by what we see about fifty feet from where we’re standing.
My truck is on fire!
“Holy shit, woman,” Angie gasps from my left. “Your truck is on fire.”
“I think she can see that.” Lynn’s reaction would have been funny if not for the flaming four wheels that we’re looking at.
I don’t know what propels me to try and step outside, but Angie pulls me back before I even make it out the door. “Don’t even think about it, missy.”
“But . . . my truck.” I point at it like they can’t see what I’m seeing.
“And it’s full of gas and on fire.” Lynn puts a hand on each of my shoulders and gives me a small shake. “You will go nowhere near it until the fire department puts it out.”
“I just called 911,” Lynn’s voice calls out from further in the kitchen. “Apparently there are calls from all over town. Vehicles are on fire at The Lodge and the tattoo shop too.”
Before I can even think of what to do next, my cell phone starts ringing. I pull it from my back pocket and see Whiskey’s name on the screen. I slide the green circle over, then tap the speakerphone button.
“Hello?”
“Duchess, are you okay?”
“My Dragon. He’s on fire.” When I named my fire engine red truck Dragon, this is not the ending that I thought he would have.
“Duchess. I don’t care about your truck. Areyouokay?”
I’m nodding yes but he can’t hear a nod.
“She’s fine Whiskey,” Angie answers for me. “Lynn is here too. She called 911 so the fire department is on its way.”
“Okay.” I can hear the relief and worry in his voice. “The building isn’t on fire, is it?”
