Well now, child, gather 'round and wash your hands. We're gonna make red velvet cupcakes the proper way—none of that box mix nonsense. I’ve been making these since 1944, would you believe, back when I worked at the Oak Ridge facility during the war. Of course, back then, we didn’t know what we were working on—not exactly. Just that it was important. But never mind that right now. Get me the flour and let’s get started.
Ingredients:

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons red food coloring

Now sift your flour into a bowl—don't just dump it. Siftin’ makes it light, like the letters I used to get from your grandpa when he was stationed in the Pacific. Lord, those were the only things that kept me grounded during those long shifts.

Add in your cocoa powder too. Not much—red velvet isn't chocolate cake, despite what your cousin Cheryl says. And don't forget the salt and baking soda. Always measure level, not heaping.

Back at Oak Ridge, we used to be timed for everything. Had to clock in, clock out, all hush-hush. I worked in a building with no windows. The men in suits said it was about "separation efficiency"—never knew we were enriching uranium till years later. Just knew my job involved charts, dials, and not asking questions.

Alright, in another bowl, mix your buttermilk, vinegar, vanilla, and that red food coloring. Go on, pour it in—it’s gonna look like you’ve made a mess, but it’s what gives red velvet its sass. Funny thing, during wartime there was a ration on food coloring, so we had to barter for it. I traded an extra pair of stockings for a bottle of red once, just so I could bake a cake for the girls in my barracks.

Now beat your sugar, oil, and eggs together until it’s smooth. We didn’t have electric mixers then—you used a good whisk and elbow grease. My arms were stronger than most of the men’s, I’ll tell you that.

Pour in your wet mixture a little at a time into the sugar and egg bowl, then slowly fold in the dry ingredients. Don’t overmix, or you’ll get dense cupcakes. And red velvet’s supposed to be soft—like a memory you can still feel in your bones.

One time, I was walking across the compound with a cupcake in a paper bag—snuck it past the guards for a birthday—and a man came running by shouting about a leak in Y-12. Everyone froze. We didn’t even know what kind of leak he meant. But I’ll be damned if that cupcake didn’t survive the panic. And she cried when I gave it to her. Said it tasted like home.

Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C). Line your cupcake tins and fill them about 2/3 of the way full. Bake for about 18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let 'em cool completely before you frost—patience, child, patience.

Now, we weren’t allowed to bring cameras into Oak Ridge. Didn’t even know what we were building till the bombs dropped. I remember when we heard the news about Hiroshima. Silence. Then a kind of sorrow, mixed with awe. I didn’t bake for a week.
Cream Cheese Frosting (because nothing else will do):

8 oz cream cheese, softened
½ cup butter, softened
2 ½ cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Beat that all together until smooth and creamy. Frost your cupcakes high, like a Southern lady’s church hat. They deserve it.

And there you have it—Red Velvet Cupcakes, the kind I made before I even knew I was part of history. Every bite’s got a little sugar, a little cocoa, and a whole lot of secrets.

Now go on, have one while they’re warm. Just don’t ask me what building K-25 was for—I still won’t tell you.

Well, we've had both stories and the story where japanese culture values tradition and holds itself to a higher standard of beauty has lost. Instead lemmiites have upvoted the story that see japanese as backward and reluctant to change and then explains it as a nostalgia for the way things were.

It must be stamped out wherever we find it.

I want sloppily made mass produced crap, damn it.

I think it's more that people don't appreciate the wall of text that you copy and pasted from an AI.

Seriously, you are demonstrating everything that's wrong with AI. People use it instead of thinking.

Well sort of. But pretty much all of the current emoji are Western inventions. Seriously we added like a bajillion things to it.

The original Japanese ones were only about 25 or something.

I did not realize that lemmy doesn't trunkate excessively long comments and put a "read more" button like most websites do....
Hmm, that means posting anything long for any reason is annoying. Oh well... I guess long term that will make short 160 character quips the preferred form on Lemmy.

It's a creative country. They don't need a slopbot to make substandard garbage for them.

And do you think all the shrimp jesuses on facebook are made by and for young people?

I don't know what are those, and for some reasons, I am afraid to look it up...

You know, Japan...

It's okay. We all make mistakes sometimes.

I miss the good ol days when I could have a nice chat with the neighborhood cashier while I bought my used panties.

No, people are fine reading long comments, or just scrolling past them. Lemmy also has collapsible comments to make this easier. No one is down voting your comment because it is long. They are down voting it because you didn't write it.

I think it's more likely that a few C level execs just tried using AI to do their jobs for more than 10 minutes, said "man, this really doesn't live up to the hype", and wisely decided to hold off until AI wasn't a huge waste of time.

Shrimp Jesus is wery western phenomenon

I take issue with this article using the language "lagging behind in the use of generative AI". That language seems to imply there is something wrong in this behaviour.

Yeah, they'll just make substandard garbage themselves.

That Time I got Isekai'd into a World Where Everything is a Woman!

if any country has an actual interest in replacing their disappearing population with AI workers, it would be Japan

Youmay not be wrong, but it reinforces the notion AI is a new tiktok fad and nothing truly useful

Human created substandard garbage > AI slop

Yeah, I bet TikTok isn't really popular among the elderly people too..

Can't argue with that