The Making of Birthday Cupcakes

As you all know, since I have gone on and on, Sunday was Connor and Fiona's 5th birthday. Mike and I had a special party for them at our house since Mike was to be out of town during their party on Sunday.

We wanted to make something special for them and decided cupcakes were the ticket. Nana makes them special cakes, so it was a different twist. We settled on Hello Kitty cupcakes for Fiona (not even knowing that was her theme for the party on Sunday) and chocolate Labrador Retriever cupcakes for Connor.

The task was not without its lessons. The first batch of cupcakes I made, using a sour cream chocolate cake recipe, did not cut the mustard. I didn't put enough batter in the liners, so they were kind of empty and the cake was dense. I wanted fluffy, and should have used a different recipe. Those cupcakes went directly into the trash.

Batch number 2 (made the next night) was more successful. I chose a different chocolate cupcake recipe and they turned out great.

On to the icing. We made the icing on the day of the party. I made the traditional 7 minute icing for the kitties. It came out great. I tried to use the same recipe with melted chocolate to make the brown frosting. It didn't work (note, my trash was getting full). Take 2 was the recipe with cocoa added at the end. That came out pretty well.

Step 3 was preparation of the decorative materials. Kitty's ears were made from graham crackers, her whiskers and eyes were made from (sliced and cut) black licorice, and her bow and nose were from (warmed, rolled, and cut) Starburst. The doggy's eyes, nose and mouth were made from black licorice (sliced and cut), his toungue was from Starburst (warmed, rolled, and cut), and his ears were from Tootsie Rolls (warmed, rolled, and cut).

We assembled and tada!!!

Connor and Fiona seemed to like them, which in the end, is all that matters.