Fallen Cupcakes

I had some REALLY great news today!!! It sort of takes my mind off of my cupcake fail yesterday.

Yesterday was my son's “friend” birthday party. When my daughter turned 10, we celebrated “double digits” by having a regular family party, and then we had a “friend” party somewhere fun. My daughter chose the indoor rock climbing center not too far from us.

My son's party for turning 10 was at a local video game store. For about 3 hours, kids can play video games on all the different consoles. We got to choose (and prohibit) any games we wanted. At some point, the pizza and soda (included with the price of the party) were delivered. We ate pizza, sang happy birthday, had cake, and the kids still had a little time for gaming. They seemed to enjoy themselves.

So what does this have to do with my cupcake fail?

Well...

I decided to cheat for the sake of saving time. I used a cake mix instead of one of my usual recipes, and I decided to do cupcakes instead of a cake. So much for saving time.

The batter was actually delicious. After I filled the cupcake liners (with my new cupcake scoop which works pretty well), I scraped the bowl to taste the batter. It was good. Really good. The cupcakes baked beautifully. I tested a few with a toothpick, and they seemed done so I took them out of the oven. They had beautiful little golden domes. It almost seemed a shame to cover them with frosting. About 10 or 15 minutes later, I walked past them and they had fallen! Like a miniature souffle after you cut into it! I've never had that happen before and I wasn't sure what to do, so I put them back in the oven.

Don't do that.

When I took them out of the oven, I ended up with flat (but not as flat as a cookie) and crispy/crunchy cupcakes. Since it was about 11:00, and we needed to be at the party site at 2:30, I went to a local grocery store and bought a cake.

I've had their cakes before, and they are pretty good. Usually, for me, it's the frosting that I find inedible when it's from a bakery. Theirs isn't bad. I got spoiled because I think my sister's frosting is perfect. It's fluffy and not overpoweringly sweet. Mine isn't hers, but it's kinda close.

So I've been thinking about my cupcakes falling (more like imploding) yesterday, and then I got some really great news! I'm not being deliberately vague, but I can't share exactly what the news is because it's not my story to tell. Just know that anyone would have their day instantly brightened with this news.

What I decided about the fallen cupcakes is that it's the Universe telling me that I shouldn't bother using cake mixes anymore because really, what kind of time did I save by having to go to the store to buy a cake? Or, it was the Universe shaming me for having schadenfreude while looking at Cake Wrecks.

I didn't take a picture of my cupcakes because I never dreamed of using the saga of the cupcakes as a subject for a blog post. Lesson learned; photograph everything. I got the pictures I used from Marshmallows and Margaritas

By the way, I think Fallen Cupcakes would be a great name for a band.