The Cupcake Debacle

I've never claimed to be much of a Betty-Crocker, but really I manage my way around the kitchen very well. So well, in fact, that these days I think I can do anything... even get creative sometimes. Me... in the kitchen... being creative... Yeah.

Little Chief (that's what Hubby calls Step-son) wanted Spider Man cupcakes for his birthday. I had made some really cute Tinkerbell cupcakes for Princess's birthday and figured Spider Man was an easy feat. Boy oh boy.

There is nothing around town with which to make Spider Man cupcakes. Nothing. There are plates, cups, napkins, erasers, pencil sharpeners, balls... nothing for a cupcake. No worries. I'm so creative that I can just do red icing and draw a spider web on all of them. I was really excited about doing that. In my head they already looked wonderful.

Did you know that you can't just buy red icing? Actually, you can. It's in a squeeze pouch and costs twice as much as a regular can of icing and doesn't contain the same amount. Scratch that. Oooo... I know... I'll just use food coloring and turn white icing red. Won't that be easy! NO!!!

I bought the pack of food coloring that has four little jars of different colors in it. On the back of the box it said that for red icing, it would take 24 drops of food coloring. They must have meant per teaspoon of icing and not per can of it. I ended up using the whole bottle and still had pink. Nanna took Princess to the store and they bought me more. She came back with a big bottle of red food coloring. I had to use the whole bottle of it too before I had red icing.

Next problem: Adding two bottles of red food coloring and stirring for 30 minutes makes icing really runny! And I mean REALLY RUNNY! Usually, I ice cupcakes with a table knife. That wasn't working so I opted for a spoon. That didn't work either. Dad was here delivering the rest of my belongings. He was in the living room talking to Hubs while I was at the dining room table with this huge red mess. He doubled over in laughter when he saw me dipping the cupcakes into the icing bowl. What else was I going to do??? The icing was running every where.

Problem number 487: I wanted black to do the spider web, but they didn't have that either. I finally broke down and bought blue icing in the squeeze pouch I mentioned earlier. The tip on the pouch is really big, and I didn't think to buy any tips. So I squeezed it into a Ziploc bag and cut a hole in it. That worked, but the icing did not cooperate with me. Spiderwebs were not going to happen. Finally, I just put one letter on each cupcake and spelled out "Happy Birthday Jagger." It looked like a first grader had made them.

I was embarrassed to take them to his birthday dinner that night, but Hubs calmed me down. And so did the Princess. She never left my side the whole time. She also never hushed the whole time. "Those cupcakes smell soooo good." "I can't wait to get to eat my cupcake." "I like that red icing that you made. It's so pretty." "That icing sure does smell good." And on and on. In her little world I guess they were pretty but the fact that she was continuously talking gave me something to focus on other than the red debacle I had created.

They were so yucky looking that hardly any of the adults at the dinner at them. LOL. Nanny ate hers with a fork. Friend ate his, and when his wife got there, she almost freaked out when she saw how red his fingers were. "Oh gosh!!! What happened?" she cried! But the kids loved them and that's what was important.

Really, they tasted good. It was just hard to eat them because it would stain your hands. Oh well. Note to self: never get creative with icing again. Note to self #2: Next time, just buy a cake.