General

If you're a regular reader you may have remembered my goal of saving for a mixer. Well, I found out today that goal will be put on the back burner for a couple of months.

My husband went to the auto repair guy in town to talk to him about our suburban and pick his brain about our front end. Turns out it is the ball joints and it is going to cost about $800 to get it fixed. Nice. Instead of putting $800 into a gas guzzler we're going to buy another car. We've been talking about it for awhile but I guess we're going to have to jump into action. Of course it's going to be a couple months before we can make up the money for another car.

Figures though.

When we went to the store yesterday I got eggs so I could bake. And for some reason I like to bake in the hottest part of the day. Go figure. When I began getting everything ready to do my thing I was sweating like a pig! I figured it was going to be too hot and the frosting was going to poop out and not turn out well or anything really. I was pretty pessimistic about the whole baking time because of what happened last time. I was like the baking destroyer in that kitchen. Revisiting the scene of the crime where cupcakes went horribly wrong is never easy.

I decided to try the Hershey "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate cake recipe that is on the back of the Hershey baking Cocoa mix. I mixed the dry ingredients together and was pretty happen about how awesome it was looking. Then I put all the rest in and mixed it up. On the back of the cocoa mix it does not say the batter will be thin. So I panicked! Oh boy I screwed this up again! Maybe I'm not cut out for this baking thing after all. I put more flour in just to see if I could thicken it up. Nothing. So I figured I'll just throw it in the oven and see what happens. If it doesn't turn out then I can't do anything. Turns out the batter is supposed to be thin. I read it on their website while writing it down. Hey thanks Hershey for giving me a panic attack and not putting it on your container. Well, they can out fabulously! They were gorgeous. They rose beautifully, were super moist and fluffy. Best cupcakes I think.

On to the hard part...frosting. Ugh. I hate this because it hasn't turned out how I wanted the last couple of times I've tried to make frosting from scratch. This time I have the shortening and even real butter. I was taking no chances with it! I wanted the ingredients 100%! I creamed the butter and shortening and slowly added the powdered sugar. Big smile on my face because it was turning out good! Imagine that! I thought adding the milk and vanilla would surely mess things up but it didn't! It turned out great! It was soft but not runny and I was able to pipe with it! Beautiful! I used my colors and made the icing royal blue which was just stunning on the chocolate cupcakes.

So, of course, let's get to the pictures!! I did my regular swirl with the frosting and then I tried something new with it. Which do you think looks better?

Have you seen the show called Queen Bees? It comes on The N and it is about these girls who were nominated by their friends or family to go on the show. They nominated them because they are mean girls that have horrible attitudes and need a wake up call. I have noticed that a lot of them are on the wealthier side with fancy cars, expensive clothing, expensive jewelry, expensive home gym equipment, you get the point. Every time it is on I miss it or it's too late. Well, the episodes are right on the website! I'm going to catch up now!

I ended up not baking this weekend. I was going to do it today, bought the shortening that I needed and everything. Got home..forgot the eggs. So I said forget it and I will do it during the week sometime. Besides I am trying to get back to a semi-normal sleeping pattern and waking up early and it is kicking my butt. Right now it is not even nine and I want to go to bed. Unfortunately I still have to walk the dogs, shower, and put on some acne cream.

I haven't decided if I want to do some baking today or if I want to wait until tomorrow. I will probably be waiting for tomorrow since I haven't decided what type of cupcakes I want to bake yet. I'm again going to try to make them from scratch and hope for the best. Same thing with the frosting. I am going to try another frosting recipe that doesn't require me to double boil the eggs and sugar. I don't know if it will help any. Who knows. Here's hoping that I can actually get a finished product that looks good though.