The Cupcake Catastrophe...

Lessons learned from making cupcakes
(for your son's birthday treat at school):

1. Don't trust the Western Family yellow cake mix label on the back of the box. No, it does not make 24 cupcakes, filling the tins half-full (only 18 cupcakes 1/4-1/3 full).

2. Don't ever let your oven go crazy on you and not turn off, even when you push the "off" button on said oven. It is no fun to have to trapse out to the circuit breaker to turn the oven on and off (then you'll have to run to your parents' house to cook them because your oven will keep getting hotter and hotter and you can't control the temperature). No fun. No fun.

3. Don't mix up another box of Western Family Devil's Food Cake, hoping to fill up the remaining space in each cupcake hole (to make them half-full), hoping to make a marbled effect, which, did not work. Marbled cupcakes...in my dreams.

4. Oops, half-full turned into 2/3 full or more. I could tell when they came out of the oven.

5. Don't use kitchen shears to trim the edges around all of your cupcakes. It takes way too much time, and they sure don't look very pretty.

6. Don't frost the cupcakes afterwards, because the tops are all loose from the cutting, and they'll come right off with each stroke of the knife. We're seeing desserts called "muffin tops" these days. Maybe I should've just used the tops. Noted for next time.

7. Only two good things came out of this ordeal. 1. Eating the cupcake edges with frosting (yum yum) and 2. A very happy boy the next morning.

8. You may be asking yourself why I didn't just start over, buy something, etc. (we can all tell that they're not pretty). Truth be told, the thought did not even cross my mind (I was in the "zone," the "cupcake zone.")

Was it worth it?

For William?

Any day.