Cupcakes 101

When I was a kid, my mom used to make us cupcakes and sometimes my sister and I would help. It all seemed to easy then. So, when KB came up with the idea of making cupcakes at her house this weekend I said why not? Of course, we quickly discovered that we didn't know the ins and outs of cupcake making.

I decided to make southern style strawberry cupcakes (which means you put some strawberry gelatin in the mix) to make super fruity, somewhat gelatinous, yet delicious cupcakes. You do also use real fresh fruit all mashed up as well. Proof below.



I also took an idea from my mom, who is brilliant when it comes to these kinds of things, and decided to forego paper cupcake sleeves for ice cream cones -- the whole thing is easy to handle and entirely edible.

Filled try of cones below.



Now, if you've made cupcakes in the last 15 years (which I hadn't until yesterday) you can easily detect the rookie mistake I made right off of the bat. You got it. I WAY overfilled the cones.

They started bubbling over in the oven (but thanks to the deep pan no spills). I immediately called my mom. Of course, I couldn't let her know that I had already filled the cones. No, that would be admitting my folly. I asked her how much batter to use...she replied matter-of-factly that you NEVER EVER fill a cupcake sleeve or anything else cupcake related more than two-thirds full. Ever. End of story.

Here's how they looked when they came out of the oven a million minutes later.



Here's the one that I assumed I had underfilled which actually turned out okay.



Luckily, I still had a little batter left, so I was able to make 3 traditional cupcakes.



Which came out perfectly cooked and delicious. Of course, the strawberry butter cream icing helped too.



KB tried to come up with a way to salvage the 23 disastrous cones. She officially revolutionized the cupcake industry by slicing the bottom of of the cone and creating ice cream cupcake donuts. Looks delicious. Tastes marginally okay.



After snacking and trial and error, here's the best I was left with...





Well, lessons learned. Thanks for all of the advice, mom. Next time I make cupcakes I'll be prepared. Really. Or else I'll call you before I do anything...