Ugly Cupcakes

So, I've realized something about my baking self... I hate ugly cupcakes.

Last week I made some decent tasting Devil's Food Cupcakes. I couldn't get the frosting to set up (Martha Stewart's frostings are pretty stinking impossible) so I googled some recipes for "easy chocolate frosting." I tried two batches and both were bad. The first was way too thick: when I piped it on a cupcake it looked like a wonderfully swirled piece of dog poop. The next batch was more runny but I felt like it was promising: when I woke up the next morning the frosting had melted and dripped all over the sides, it looked like the chocolate monster had dripped its saliva all over my cupcakes. I gave a few of these cupcakes to my friend Ben with the preface, "You can have these cupcakes, but they are the worst cupcakes I've ever made." The truth is, they tasted fine, they were just the ugliest cupcakes I've ever made. So I kept the rest of the batch around the house, thinking I'd eat them despite their hideousness... but I didn't. I ended up throwing away about 10 perfectly good, ugly cupcakes.

Tonight, I'm back at it, baking a new kind from Martha's cookbook called Brown Sugar Pound Cakes. They looked delicious in the book and they have lots of brown sugar (I love brown sugar, sometimes I sneak spoonfuls of it... no lie) and not too many expensive ingredients so I thought, "Let's go for it!" I did exactly what it said, the batter looked beautiful (in fact, I took a picture, because I'm lame and think batter is pretty) and put them in the cupcake cups just like it said. But they turned out ugly. Either Martha Stewart uses huge cupcake pans or she can't count, because I ended up putting too much batter in every cup and they overflowed to this ugly mess. I'm disappointed, really disappointed.

The good news is: they are delicious. The recipe is good and easy (it just makes about 35 cupcakes instead of 28 overflowing, ugly cupcakes like the book says). The bad news: I have to eat them or give them away ("These are the second ugliest cupcakes I've ever made.") So, if you are interested in some ugly cupcakes, I've got some. 28 of them, in fact.

Anyway, I've had more failures than successes lately. But I'll keep trying... don't you worry.

The ugly cupcakes and the ONE that got away.

The note I left for my family...