Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Rainbow cupcakes!


Celebrating my daughter's birthday is always stressful. I love her, I do, but why do I stress so much about a child's birthday party? I have no idea (because I'm an anal insane person who revels in idiocy). Most people might find it a breeze to throw together a shindig for a bunch of 6th graders, no worries- but not me. No, I have stress. As my sister says my creative plans are awesome, detailed, and wonderful. The execution? Not so much. So when my daughter's birthday comes around I am not one of those lovely easy-breezy wives/moms who just says "Happy Birthday!" gayly. No, I take an idea and complicate it as much as possible. I ask- how exactly can I make this situation more stressful?

Enter the lovely idea of rainbow cupcakes from Spearmint Baby's blog that I just had to replicate for her birthday. Because I'm a lunatic cheap inspired person I decided to make 48 cupcakes for her birthday party. Yes, instead of being a normal, sane working mom with little time on her hands who buys them from the bakery, I took on the endeavour of these cupcakes. I spent only 5.00 (instead of 25.00) but was it worth the headache? Well, I can honestly say it was (now) but at the time...not sure.

First, I started with boxed white cake batter. After mixing the batter per the directions, I dispersed the batter in 6 separate bowls. I used food coloring (already had) to make each batter a red, green, yellow, blue, orange (combo of red/yellow) and purple (combo of red/blue).
If you could mix your colors in mismatched bowls like this I'd really appreciate it. I'm no Martha, fo' sho', and I'd really be grateful to know I'm not the only one.

We started with one color and drizzled a spoonful into the bottom of each cupcake liner.

Then I added the next layer of color:

And so on and so on...you can find detailed instructions at Spearmint Baby's Blog in the link above.

After baking they came out great:
Look at the rainbow! Sooo pretty!


But really, we're talking about ME here so, can it be that simple? (even though it was easy, it was time-consuming.)
But of course not! Stupid me-I made them, was pleased, and put them in their containers to take to her party the next day.

And because I hate Florida and Florida hates me (it's a symbiotic relationship, see?) I forgot how hot it gets in our house despite the astronomical electric bill we incur each month.

So, the next day, this is what they looked like:

Yeah, the idiocy of me did not put them in the fridge assuming that they would keep okay in the house.
Nope.

I wanted to cry. But of course, those little kiddies didn't worry their pretty little heads about it. The cupcakes still tasted good and the kids said they looked cool--like tie-dye cupcakes (awwww...I think they were just being nice cuz they knew I was upset about it).

So, rainbow cupcakes? YES! Organizing birthday parties? NO!

Was it an epic fail? Meh. Not really, they still looked totally awesome inside and tasted good.