Spring is prom season and abundant details must be attended to, some familiar to this writer. Others not so much.
Viral pressure and old-fashioned teenage one-upsmanship have created a promposal arms race.
-Kevin Roose, Fusion
First up: the “promposal”: flash mobs and squealing; showy rose bouquets and surprises planted inside school lockers; messages written in giant letters on football fields. These formalized invitations to the end of year graduation prom are a feature of modern teenage life, limited only by imagination, budget, and in some cases, taste.
Courtesy of themash.com
Before you roll your eyes and cringe, or ask yourself does anyone ever say no, remember that John Cusack scene. You know the one from Cameron Crowe’s Say Anything, ranked by Entertainment Weekly as one of the greatest modern movie romances of all time. It was made back in 1989, B. S.(Before Selfies) and features the boombox serenade, now a pop culture trope.
These promposals tip their hat to that scene, that go-big-or-go-home terrain of splashy young love emotions, emotions Fusion writer Kevin Roose says are as old as romance itself.
They’re honest depictions of teenage life, unfiltered by the prism of the adult media apparatus. They’re opportunities for teens to make earnest, risky declarations of their feelings, and have those feelings affirmed. They’re a signal to teenage boys, especially, that being emotionally vulnerable in public is okay. Promposals also contain displays of this generation’s effortless tolerance. There are hundreds of same-sex promposals on YouTube—none of them show teens reacting with anything other than sheer delight. And no teen ever titles his promposal video “black guy asks white girl to prom.” It’s just “Justin asks Michelle.”I know it sounds weird, but I promise: watching promposal videos will make you feel better about today’s teens, who still blush, gasp, and cry when presented with evidence that the person they like may like them back, just like we did.
No teenagers in your life? You may have to reach far back into your own goofy gone years to grasp any of this. Those of us who do share quarters with teens must be prepared to move snarky side comment aside (and what will all of you do for a encore in the Art of Living?) for The Big Production. In our house, it involved an awesome homemade basketball cake (for a talented high school basketball player and hopeful prom date), bristol board, and some good pals to help with the final flourish. My job? Cake consultant only*.
You’ll need a ball-shaped pan for this, found at a local kitchen store.
Pan: $16.95
Fondant:$13.99
Food Colour: $2.29
Specialty Cake 101 skills earned: priceless
White Layer Cake adapted for ball pan:
What you need:
- 2½ cups cake flour
- 1 cup whole milk, at room temperature
- 6 large egg whites, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1¾ granulated sugar
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup unsalted butter (1½ sticks), at room temperature for ten minutes
What you do:
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- Spray cake pan well with nonstick cooking spray.
- Pour milk, egg whites, and both extracts into a 2-cup measure. Mix with fork until blended.
- In bowl of mixer, combine cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt until blended. Add butter.
- Continue mixing on low until it forms sand-like crumbs.
- Add half of wet ingredients (milk mixture) and beat well for about a minute, increasing speed to medium. Scrape down sides of bowl. Add remaining half and beat again for another minutes.
- Remove bowl from mixer and give the batter a swirl with spatula to make sure everything is well combined. Then scrape it into the prepared ball pan.
- Bake for approximately 40 to 45 minutes until a tester inserted in the middle comes out clean. For really thorough baking, use a heat cone in the middle. These can be purchased at baking supply stores.
- Let the cake cool completely in the pan. Invert onto cake rack and decorate.
Easy Buttercream Icing:
What you need:
- 1 cup ( 2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 3 to 4 cups icing sugar, siftged
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- pinch salt
- 2 to 3 tablespoons cream
- food colouring
What you do:
- Beat butter in mixer for 3 minutes until fluffy and pale in colour.
- Add the icing sugar, ½ cup at a time. Increase speed after each addition to blend well.
- Add vanilla and salt and combine well.
- Add cream and mix until smooth and easy to spread. Add more cream if it’s too stiff. Depending on the humidity of your kitchen, you may need more sugar. It is up to you but a good idea is to test a little by spreading a tablespoon on the cake (once cool) to see how creamy it is.
- Colour the icing (bright orange for basketballs!).
As for techniques: frost the cake with a thin coating of icing then put in the fridge for 15 minutes. Then cover the cake with another generous portion of icing. If a middle layer of icing is desired, then slice it carefully with a sharp bread knife and spread some of the icing inside. Roll out the fondant after you’ve coloured it and cut stripes to match the grooves on the basketball.
Enjoy!
*My only directive as I surveyed the kitchen fracas? If he doesn’t react well, or says no, you know what you can do with that cake.
He said yes.
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