It's Party Time

Claire just had her 5th birthday Party. She decided with a little nudging to have a butterfly themed Birthday Party. I think it turned out pretty cute and hopefully a lot of fun for the kids. This year I decided that I was going to try to go really simple instead of inviting a whole lot of kids and their families. I told her she could only invite 6 kids. I also decided that this year instead of trying to come up with a cake I would try my hand at making some mini cupcakes; sounds great right? Have you ever really tried to make mini cupcakes? They are way hard. First off I sent my husband to the store and he got me some pans (24 cupcakes) and some liners. I got it into my head that I would try to make from scratch red velvet cake batter did you know its red only because you have to put a very large amount of red food coloring in it (A large amount of red food coloring and little helpers don't mix). Anyway the batter worked out ok for the most part but then I got to trying to place the liners in the pan, because the liners were not nice and tight they were a big fat pain then to try to fill them with batter was rediculous. So the next day I went to a craft store in hopes of finding some nice tight/not squished liners while there I convinced myself that I needed another mini cupcake pan (24 cupcakes). I came home and wanted to promtly try again so I grabbed a cake mix from the cupboard and got started. Every thing seemed to be going well it was still a pain to fill the cups, but then i pulled the cupcakes from the oven and they looked nice and fluffy and yummy. My first response was happiness until they cooled and I picked one up and the bottom of the liner was deflated. All of the cupcakes that I had made had sunk. At this point I called my husband and told him that I was done. However, the next day I went to the store and bought a new cake mix and decided that I would try one last time and they finally worked. Hooray! The valuable lessons that I learned from making mini cupcakes are. . . 1. use fresh cake mix its easier and tastes good 2. only buy cupcake liners that are really tight and not squished in anyway 3. Pour all the batter in a ziploc bag and cut a small hole in the tip to dispense into the pans 4. A cake mix makes about 60 mini cupcakes 5. They take about 15 min to cook. Anyway a long story short the party was a great sucess and I think the cupcakes turned out great in the end. Happy Birthday Claire bear!