keeping my day job

Mike asked me last night what we were doing for Nick’s cake. See, this year we thought we’d wait to have his “friend” birthday party until after everyone was home from traveling. So, yes, we’re still celebrating the birthday. Whew. Today is the final stand.

I replied to Mike that I was going to make mini-cupcakes, to which he literally sneered at me.

I defended my mini cupcake decision wholeheartedly, since I only had enough cupcake tins to make minis and was thus saving him money (which we joke about often.) So we joked the rest of the night about his sneer. He claims he was only thinking of what would be easiest for me–or what would result in the least drama from me. I told him if we were ordering mini cupcakes, we would have needed to do that days ago, which we did not.

So I got up this morning and made mini cupcakes. (My first time, by the way.) And they turned out pretty cute. Very moist, and therefore a tad crumble-prone, but cute. Then I whipped up the frosting which also turned out really well.

Then we left for Maggie’s basketball game leaving the cupcakes to cool and the frosting in the fridge, since it had butter in it.

Dun dun dun dun…

Or should I say duh duh duh duh…

The frosting hardened back up to a brick-like consistency. Not ideal for frosting. I let it sit out for 20 minutes or so and dove right in. Upon realizing it was going to crush my sweet mini cupcakes, instead of backing off and waiting longer for it to soften, I pushed right along and crushed my mini cupcakes.

It’s OK though, because I covered up the mauled mini cupcakes with a few tiny sprinkles which are going to totally distract from the crumbling edges and uneven globs of (very tasty) frosting, all the while shielding my project from the eyes of my sneering husband who thought mini cupcakes were a crazy idea to begin with.

So for future reference:

1. When making frosting, make it when you need it

1b. If you make it ahead of time, leave it out at room temperature.

1c. If you leave it out at room temperature cover it with something thicker than just syran wrap if you have a cat who likes butter. (I knew this ahead of time about my cat, so no frosting was lost due to cat-licking.)

2. Mini cupcakes would be much easier to frost with a piping bag, than, say, trying to smear it on with a spoon or spatula. TRUST ME.

I will hold my head high as I take these hella ugly cupcakes into my son’s birthday party. They were made with love and that’s all that matters. (Well, and I’m kinda high on extra frosting right now. Pure sugar to the bloodstream. Wowza.)

Tagged as: birthday party, mini cupcakes, parenting - my way