I’m invited to a small New Years Eve dinner tonight…and was asked, as per usual, to bake something for dessert.  I didn’t get home until 10 PM last night…and working today…so I didn’t want to then embark on some elaborate Zuger Kirsch Torte or the likes because I needed to sleep. 

One of my Favorite tips that I learned from The Cake Bible is to freeze left over buttercream and use it for cup cakes.  OK…check the freezer…I’ve got 4 zip lock bags of buttercream…Chocoate mousseline (My version), White chocolate mousseline, Coffee mousseline, Cream cheese/white chocoate buttercream.  The three mousselines looked like enough for 12 cupcakes…and what a nice presentation…white, light brown, dark brown!

OK…I did the math so that I would have exactly 12 cupcakes at 45 grams each…with a little extra batter left clinging to the bowl and beater.  For those of you who haven’t been reading this blog and forum for the past couple of years…I have a neurotic problem with cupcakes.  THEY NEED TO BE PERFECTLY EVEN!  And the papers need to stay on…and they need to have slightly rounded tops…and they need to be dense enough to support the buttercream…and well…it can sometimes get all too stressful! LOL.

AFter the calculating and figuring and coming up with the correct proportions I mixed up my batter.  I put by beautiful new Williams Sonoma cup cake tin on my scale and dutifully weighed out exactly 45 grams of batter for each cupcake.  I only 10 1/2 cupcakes.  Something went horribly wrong.  I put them in the oven…and then checked the math again…and I had to have left something out.  But What?  WHAT WHAT WHAT DID I DO WRONG?  I can do math.  I got an A in Calculus at NYU in 1979…why can’t I do a little figuring to make cupcakes?  I decided to make another batch of batter…because I figure…something has to be horribly wrong with the ones in the oven. 

I do the math again…and yes…I made a mistake.  I only put in 1/2 the amount of sugar.  Well…the second batch came out fine…the first batch…they tasted like something between a muffin and a biscuit.  (I dumped them…not sure what I should have done with them…but I was annoyed with myself.)

Here’s a photo of the three types of cupcakes.

Happy New Year to Everyone!

And here’s the dozen!  Yes, I buy those plastic cup cake boxes…I get them online…yes I’m neurotic and crazy…but alas, what can I do?

Bill, you are TOO funny!  And you forgot to tell us which recipe you used for the cake.  Your final cupcakes look fabulous.  I would NEVER have thrown away the 10.5 cupcakes.  I seem to remember making a whole pound cake so that I could get a few grams of cake crumbs to make the chocolate filling in the babka I made for one of our bake-offs - I couldn’t bear to use anything bought.  Now you know where my neurosis lies!

What time did you get to bed?  Happy New Year!

The cake part is actually not one of Rose’s Recipes…but one I’ve been tinkering with myself over the past couple of years.  I love Rose’s cakes…LOVE THEM…but I like a cup cake to be a little denser than Rose’s…but not quite as dense as a pound cake. Trying to formulate my own recipe has given me new respect for what Rose does.

What time did I get to bed?  2 AM.  I got lazy in the clean up.  I was working with the TV on…and got lost in stupid re-runs of old sit-coms…I probably could have been in bed by 12:45, but I wasted at least an hour.  Now the weather people are predicting snow in the New York area…and it is alread snowing in Connecticut where we are supposed to be going…who knows if this is even going to happen (It is abou 1 hour 20 minute drive)...hoping the snow won’t bring an end to the whole thing. I"ve got no food in my house!

And Happy New Year to you too!

The cup cakes look great Bill.  Happy New Year and safe travels.  Where do you get the disposable plastic cup cake holders? I have one that is non-disposable but would like something I can leave behind.

My dh would have loved the cupcakes with the less sugar, he is not a big sweet eater and is always asking me to make things with ‘less’ sugar.  Plus the idea of wasting them would have been too hard on me too.

Linda:
http://www.wesellcoffee.com  The company is actually called “Country paper products”  or something like that.  I buy cake boxes, gold cardboard circles etc from them.  The cake boxes and the gold circles are sold in bulk only…but the plastic cupcake boxes can be bought one at a time.  I think they are about a dollar a piece…they deliver them to my apartment (They are in New Jersey, close to my place in NYC)...or they ship UPS.

They are totally worth the money.

As far as wasting the cupcakes…I was angry.  In my right mind…I would have found some use for them…they weren’t horrible, actually…and I hate to waste too…but emotions emotions…alas…what can you do?

Have a happy new year!

Thank you Bill.  I will check out the sight and probably order, it will have to be UPS.  Unless they plan on visiting Mt. Rushmore and want to drop them off at my house on the way over.
I understand, I have done that in the past with frostings, and always wondered what I was thinking later.

Great cup cakes Bill!

Safe trip and Happy New Year!

Bill, I am so amused by your story, because that is a situation I have found myself in many times. I now have a rule to never start a baking project after 8 pm. I find that late night baking (or cooking) usually entails some sort of a snag or a frustration that my end-of-day brain cannot rationally resolve.

As far as the failed cupcakes, what about giving them to the birds? Or is there some reason not to feed the wildlife?

Happy New Year! The cupcakes look wonderful, and I am sure they will be a huge hit with your dinner companions. Thank you also for the tips on where to get the boxes. I love professional-looking packaging for home baked goods—they deserve it!

I don’t know about feeding the wildlife in New York City.  We often call the “birds” rats with wings. The cupcakes with half the sugar actually weren’t that bad…just a bit strange.  Not quite sweet.  I just was frustrated…so out they went.

I do all my baking late at night.  I work from 8 AM until 6 or 6:30 PM.  I then have a 45 minute commute home…dinner is never over before 8 or 8:30 in my house…so by the time I clean up…it is usually 9 PM.  That’s when the fun usually starts.  I"ve been known to start layer cakes at 11 PM…and still go to work the next day.  And there is the Story of The two birthday cakes and the bowl of batter that fell into the sink of dirty/soapy water, along with my digital scale…and the last of my butter.  I finished piping the last rose that day at 6AM.

Paul:

Thanks!  and happy new year to you too!

Happy new year Bill you wouldn’t happen to be a virgo, by any chance?

Nope…Libra.  Does that clarify anything?

Happy New Year to you too!

Libra is represented by the scales and balance symbol I think.

Yes, the scales, that’s correct…but somehow I think I’m “off balance”

I love your cupcakes Bill, and the colours of the frostings look really elegant!  Happy New Year!