dry run

This is marshmallow creme. It was supposed to be the magic secret ingredient in a semi-homeade frosting.... the lighting is weird because her two kids were going to bed and we had to work by the light of the stovetop.

This is my friend playing in the marshmallow creme. A month or so ago she asked me if I'd help her make homemade cupcakes for her daughter's birthday at the end of the month. We decided it'd be a good idea to practice once before because even though we're two college educated women, neither of us are bakers.

At the time this picture was taken it was probably 10 or 11 at night. We're having to keep everything at or below a whisper and still working by the light of the stove.

She's still smiling because we're still hopeful.

It's midnight or so and there's no caffeine in her house. We've followed the directions to the letter, but the frosting isn't light and fluffy like in the picture. We've tried putting it in the fridge. And now she's convinced that it'd be better if she stirred it by hand, but note her smile has faded.

We ended up consulting Chef Google and figured that we might as well add more powdered sugar because it couldn't hurt anything. Between the butter and the marshmallow creme we couldn't imagine that 1/2 cup of powdered sugar would be enough - so we threw in the rest of the two pound bag.

It's about 1 am. This was her first run using a piping bag. Please note the dribble down the side. It was so hard laughing quietly and trying not to pee on myself while keeping it down so the kids wouldn't wake up.

To make the story complete these are strawberry cupcakes made over reverse oreos (vanilla cookie with chocolate frosting). We started this process about 8pm. Note that her smile has turned upside down with complete disappointment after about five hours of work has yielded frumpy cupcakes.

They were really pitiful. The icing never set up. It was tasty, but it didn't look anything like the picture. These are not cupcakes worthy of a princess.

About 1:30am Saturday morning. As we put the cupcakes into the fridge we saw the instant-whipped cream can and started laughing again because we knew we could've saved four hours if we'd just gone with that instead. We discussed another practice run.

And then we started talking about the logistics of five dozen cupcakes from carrying them across town without cupcake holders, keeping them cool, when we'd actually bake/ice/prepare for said party... and then we decided there's a reason that people just buy cupcakes when you're having a princess themed venue birthday party for a four year old.

The end.