Let the Cupcake Obsession Begin!

I’ve spent the last ten minutes desperately searching around online through blogs that I have read before in an attempt to figure out a seemingly very elusive topic: how to do a first post. With a blog, you’re working under the assumption that you have an audience. Though a blog may be viewed as an online journal that you use to chronicle your daily (or weekly) activities, simply by putting your thoughts online you are submitting your work for consideration —and possible ridicule! — by those who surf the World Wide Web. This may come as a surprise to you, but there are actually many, MANY people who surf it. DAILY.

That left me wondering (and fearing!): how do I begin? Do I start typing like I’m already familiar and friendly with my audience? Like I already know my readers? Do I begin my blog saga in the middle of my story as though everyone has been following along the whole time? Or do I start from the beginning? For purposes of my sanity, I will begin as though you know me and save the rest for my personal profile. In that case, hello, dear friend, and welcome to my blog.

Last night was, in short, amazing. I have never been so frustrated, sweaty, aggravated, or pleased. I spent five hours (yes, five) making 24 assorted cupcakes for my aunt to share with her friends and I really wanted them to be special. I planned on making two batches of cupcakes, one white, and the other chocolate. I decided I would take twelve of each and use different frostings and fillings to come up with four different cupcakes, six of each.

I started off by making a batch of chocolate cupcakes. Easy peasy – no brainer. I figured I would make a chocolate-chocolate cupcake and use the other six for a black forest cupcake complete with cherry filling. I baked, I cooled, I started the chocolate buttercream frosting and BAM, first speedbump. The frosting came out runny. Really runny. The frosting came out the consistency of cake batter. It was chocolate soup. Really good chocolate soup. I have no idea what went wrong. “Did you use a new recipe?” You might ask. No, no I did not. I used an old one, tried and true. I attempted to remedy the situation with some extra powdered sugar but to no avail. I even dumped in a little extra cocoa hoping for a miracle. No go.

I decided to move on from the failed frosting and begin filling six of my little pretties. For the black forest cupcakes I wanted to fill them with cherry goodness so, to save time, I purchased a can of cherry pie filling and then liquefied it in a blender. The result? Runny, sticky, cherry goo. What is with me and everything getting runny!? Of course when I went to fill a pastry bag with the lovely red syrup I tried to do it single-handedly. The only thing I ended up doing single-handedly, though, was turning my kitchen floor into a visual reproduction of the Red Sea. Thank heavens for quick-thinking husbands who know when their tired, PMS-ing wives need a hand!

From there, I attempted filling the cupcakes, drizzling the runny chocolate frosting in an artistic manner, and making cream-cheese frosting stripes on the tops. You can imagine the melty, drippy hilarity that ensued. After consulting my Executive Cupcake Analyst (aka, above mentioned quick-thinking husband), we decided to nix the black forest cupcakes and try for something else.

The white cake cupcakes went off without a hitch, though, and I began to make the vanilla buttercream frosting when it crossed my mind that I could just make a giant batch and then separate it out, turning some into light chocolate, some into dark, some into lemon, and keep the rest as vanilla. That probably was what saved my night right there. To solve the dilemma of a second chocolate flavor cupcake, I pulled out my handy-dandy cream cheese frosting from a wonderful previous experiment with flourless chocolate cupcakes (pictures to soon follow) and filled six of my current chocolate cupcakes with it. Then I proceeded to fill the lemonade cupcakes with their lemon filling and topped off each cupcake with their appropriate frostings.

The results are below:

(Clockwise from top left: Chocolate Fantasy, Vanilla Cloud, Chocolate Cream Cheese Delight, and Lemonade Dream).

Needless to say, I'm really pleased with how they came out and I hope that they are a hit!