A Kitchen Snafu!

That about sums up my weekend - the only thing I was successfully able to make was Annie's Shells and Cheese, which, let's be honest - YUM! I set out to make cupcakes, as a "welcome new baby" surprise for the family I babysit for. I was undecided, chocolate or vanilla, so I tried to make a half batch of each. I was trying new recipes, which, in the end I will try again - and follow a little bit better. I tried the "Silver White Cake" and "Best Chocolate Cake" from Betty Crocker's New Cookbook. I mixed both batters, poured the cupcakes and put them in the oven. They smelled yummy, and in 15 minutes were perfectly done. I decided to sample one of the silver white cupcakes, and it tasted LIKE EGG! It's then that I realized that I halved everything in the recipe EXCEPT the egg whites. FIVE WHOLE EGG WHITES, gross. They all got tossed. Now, the chocolate cupcakes had something already working against them, as I ran out of sugar while making them. I tried to supplement with some confectioners sugar - between that and my egg faux pas (yes, I forgot to half the eggs in BOTH recipes) they weren't great. Pretty bland. But, a true cook keeps going, right?! So on with the frosting. Yes, Mel - I fight with it too. I have no idea why. I dread it. And it gets everywhere - I had some behind my ear this time, no lie. I made a new frosting, that I should have realized would taste like Fluff, as it required me to boil sugar and corn syrup to 242 degrees (aka, soft ball stage). The idea to use my mechanical pastry bag to "pipe" the frosting was a horrible one, as this "frosting" just oozes - everywhere. It was disgustingly sweet, but worked to hide the blandness of the cupcake itself decently. In the end it was a mediocre mess of cupcakes, that I embarrassingly delivered as a present. I'm so thoughtful!