4 Levels of Cupcakes: Amateur to Food Scientist | Epicurious 

What I learned Stephen: Doesn’t like regular frosting Gabrielle: isn’t fancy schmancy Penny: Borderline alcoholic

Penny: alcohol Gabrielle: espresso Stephen: cheese

4 levels of Chefs is basically 1: I can cook 2: I love to cook 3: I cook to live 4: I'm a scientist

Everybody gangsta ‘til Stephen starts icing the cupcakes with a spoon

Stephen is overqualified he didn’t use cake mix and store bought frosting.

I wonder what pro chefs make when they’re actually hungry and dont want to wait for their cow to grow

Man I love that level 1 cook. He's so goofy and happy. He's the kind of guy you want to be best friends with.

Frank making cupcakes: First, we're gonna start with short ribs.

I’m surprised Steven didn’t put half a cheesecake into the batter

Officer pulls me over: Sir, have you been drinking? No sir. I just had a lvl3 cupcake.

I’m just surprised that Penny didn’t grow her her own coconut and pineapple

I feel like as time went on Penny has become more casual and funny. She’s one of my favourite level 3’s now!

I love Penny's fascination for alcohol. She's like the embodiment of "two shots of vodka".

I was like “wow this level 3 chef is making a time friendly cupca-...” Her: “now this will take 9-12 hours to brown” Me: “oh..”

Level 1 chef: Put two sticks of butter in the batter. Level 2 chef: Take some organic butter and put two sliced pieces into the batter. Level 3 chef: Saturate the oils to counterbalance the zesty lime flavor and use fresh olive oil imported from France with some lemon zest and then begin to create your butter, after you create your butter, slice it into cubes to make the batter fluffy after that sprinkle your butter cubes in cinnamon, and a four spice blend, then use coconut butter with a certain texture, after that slice open a coconut and drain the juices with the coconut butter, add the coconut butter with the butter cubes then fry with freshly made sunflower oil, made from my own sunflower garden, after two hours of frying, put some white white in the mix, and don't forget the molasses and sugar, after that refrigerate for two days, then add six cups of organics butter I got from the farmers market, add it with your own made butter, and then add some full-fat milk that I milked from my own cow with my bare hands.

Gabrielle :caffeine addict. Penny: alcoholic. Stephen: Normal person

Stephen then: * literally mixing brownies into store baught ice cream by hand * Stephen now: *homemade cake batter* There's some big improvement going on around here.

“ Just like a caterpillar, this batter will turn into something new”- Steven, 2019. *Inspiring*

Penny: They're soaked in rum, aperol, some sugar and some vanilla bean. me: ... more rum? Penny: Yep, more vanilla bean!

Steven: Machines can’t take the jobs of humans. Uses a hand mixer

Penny totally missed the opportunity to say, “And this is my PENNYcolada Cake.” 😂

Honestly I’m impressed that the level 1 chef didn’t use box cake

10:34 *and this was the day that stephen became a level 2 chef

Penny's my second favorite level 3 chef I am assured that wherever she appears, she'll add some form of alcohol into her recipe, and she's proud of it.

Cream cheese Instant flashbacks to “half a cheesecake”

Stephen isn’t a lvl1 chef, he’s just a lvl2 who is lacking in self confidence

I know this might not be weird but I actually am so proud of Steven and I really don't know why...

10:12 Level 1: what the teacher taught in class. Level 2: what the homework expects you to understand Level 3: What shows up on the test.

Steven: "that looks professionally done" Epicurious: *instantly shows the professional chef*

Food Scientist: *taps* board Everyone: Cool time to read the comment section

Stephen: I don't like regular icing

3:11 If that wasn’t the purest moment Idk what is.

I feel like this is Chef Penny's personal "feel good, treat yourself" cupcake. I also feel like she would have added more rum if it wasn't being filmed 😂

If Emily was there she would disguise her ketchup as red icing

Stephen’s Cupcake: Cupcakes you get at Vons; for Kids’ Birthday Parties Gabrielle’s Cupcake: Cupcakes you get at specialty cupcake places; for Parent Mixers Penny’s Cupcake: Cupcakes you get at a fancy restaurant; for drunk uncles (and aunties) and their parties.

You ain’t ever going to sleep after eating that level 2 cupcake

Steven: machines can't replace the human touch *Uses a machine like everyone else anyways

She said “yep more vanilla bean” nah I was thinking about the damn rum

level 3 chefs are amazingly impressive. like can you imagine waiting for days to make a recipe and then fail and have to do it again or of it was great then u would do it endless times cause its a success? i feel like people under appreciate their work because we all eat at restaurants and finish our plates in less than an hour but never acknowledge the hatd work behind it

Penny looked so thrilled when she said "and this is my pina colada cupcake"

One day Steven will become a level 3 chef and he will slaughter his own cheesecake

Y’ALL SLEEPING ON STEPHEN’S PURENESS

Lvl1: Plain Lvl2: Caffeine Lvl3: Alcohol Lvl4: Weed Lvl5: Cocaine Lvl6: Heroine Joe Rogan: Have you tried DMT?

penny: alcohol & dulce de leche Gabrielle: espresso Stephen: cream cheese *Emily: ketchup*

Real talk: We need the scientists to really make their own versions of the food.

I wish they would eat each other's cupcakes.

Gabrielle's face is so priceless when she's covered in chocolate LOL

The real question is... How does Gabrielle maintain that physique

Penny: “Yep more vanilla bean” The 3 litres of alcohol used: “Am I a joke to you?”

Steven says he's sick of the "traditional" and "monotonous" but really, he just wants to put some form of cheesecake in everything. I can respect that, though.

I breaks my heart people skip the food science section! Rose is one of the main reasons I watch these!

My favorite part of every one of these videos is when the chefs try their food and they're all so happy with it. It's not always about the skill, it's about whether you love what you make.

No one: Penny in every video: And 2 shots of vodka

Penny mouthing “I love rum.” Made me chuckle.

I'm drooling for Penny's cupcake. They look majestic

somebody give Penny a vacation, cupcakes arent a good enough substitute for her, she deserves so much more.

Everytime I see Gabrielle I’m overwhelmed with how beautiful she is

Penny has got to be like the most informal, the most casual and the most optimistic Level 3 chef in the history of the 4 Levels challenge.

I liked that little talk after everyone finished cooking, as a home chef I find it really useful!

3:25 They did him so dirty! Even the music stop is so well-timed.

Steven: “the only thing I would do different is add half a cheesecake.”

Gabrielle is so wholesome and she obviously is just having a lot of fun. She and Lorenzo are my faves

Gabrielle is cute and seems like a fun person

10:04 she looks so happy. Look at her smile 😊

I thought our homeboi here was gonna pull out another cheesecake for this

Steven: *uses half of a cheesecake in his pancake but doesn’t use half a cheesecake in his cream cheese cupcake.* Cream CHEESE and CHEESEcake.

Food scientist: *Aggressively hits board* Me: why she look like she about to beat someone?

Can we appreciate how Gabrielle used environment-friendly cake liners 💖💖

to be honest penny's smile at the end when she said "this is my cupcake" was heart warming

Did Steven really just tell his cupcakes "no offense" when he picked the pretty one 😂

Stephen will forever be cheesecake boy, but I love him so much lol. And he's been making a few really good recipes. All of these cupcakes look so good 🤤 level 2's cupcakes are right up my alley and level 3's also look like pure heaven

Level 1, is a mood through out the whole vid, “oh no, yay!” “I was completely unprepared for this”

Level 1: No Cheesecake Level 2: E S P R E S S O Level 3: BOOOOOOOOOOZE Edit: Holy crap thanks for all the likes Edit 2: WOW! Gabrielle the Level 2 chef replied on this comment

I just love how always the level 1 and level 2 mention their levels while the level 3 just goes *I have been a chef since the revolutionary war*

Sometimes I randomly have flashbacks to Stephen mixing m&ms into ice cream as it melted all over the cutting board.... our boy has come a long way!

Penny: so anyway I started adding rum

Level 3: "It's important not to do X or it'll ruin everything" Jump cut to level 1 doing X

“Every time I have a Pina Colada, I feel like I’m on vacation” Mood right there

I love the breakdown at the end, and how the food scientist goes through what was successful and effective at not just the higher levels, but for all the chefs

Stephen is a lvl 1 chef but his awesomeness is lvl 100

The way they cut him off when he was talking about icing

Steven is making his own frosting... that's Level 1.5 at least!

It’s a miracle A level 3 chef smiled for the first time

Stephen, you are a treasure. Never change.

The people still want to see the different levels try each other's food.

Y'all need to learn Rose's name, she is not dropping all this knowledge to be called the old lady 😆😆😆

Penny seems just so nice and professional! I'm sure she's a wonderful teacher and friend

This is honestly the first time i saw penny smile.

Did y’all realize that Stephen doesn’t have one of his “no. absolutely not.“ stories for cupcakes?

Idk why but I find Steven very wholesome, He seems like a nice person

WHEN STEPHEN SAID ALL DONE AND SMILED, I DIED. HEEESSS SSSOOOO CCUUUUUTTEEEE🥺🥺

Gabrielle is so pretty tho- she looks like an actress

I feel like level one chefs are evolving into almost level two chefs

"Hey chef, what size scoop do you need?" "Yellow."

Level 0 chef: HEY ROOMATE CAN YOU GET ME CUPCAKES FROM WALMART!

Stephen: And we’re almost done with the cupcake, let me just bring over this cheesecake.

I like how the scientists do not criticize the other chefs

Shows the old food scientist again. Everyone: YAY

Gabrielle is so beautiful, I can't even

The level 3 chef in this video didn’t go really overboard/abstract with their food item and honestly that’s all I’ve ever wanted