Cupcake Party A.K.A. Hot Mess

So as I mentioned before, I wanted my bridesmaids and I to make the cupcakes for the reception, and I wanted to have a baking/taste test party. I thought it would be easiest to use Betty Crocker mixes as bases and then add stuff to make super special and delicious flavors. I found about 10 different recipes on the Betty Crocker website, all with the best reviews, and I narrowed it down to about 6 different flavors. I had each of my bridesmaids (minus my maid of honor, my little sister, who is off in far away lands getting an education) bring a few of the special ingredients over my place, last Saturday, which also happened to be paired with our "1st Annual Friends Chili Cook Off".

So for starters, we probably shouldn't have paired a cupcake testing party with a chili testing party, it was crazy inside my house that night, with people, food and a baby flying around... second of all, we probably shouldn't have waited to start baking until after we were each three beverages deep (alcoholic beverages, that is). But all of that aside, I still can't believe how lame the recipes that I had were. Yes, the frosting was too wet and we didn't have red food dye and therefore ended up with green "pink lemonade" cupcakes, but even if we were completely sober and gave the cupcakes our all, I'm still pretty convinced they wouldn't have been winners.

After the first few batches came out, and after we realized that instead of Espresso, Pink Lemonade and Champagne flavored cupcakes, we had chocolate, white and white... we sort of half assed the frosting. Even if the frosting had improved on the "special" flavors that these cupcakes were supposed to be, it was still a lost cause... was it really worth all this work to make Betty Crocker cupcakes?

Can you tell by now my answer is "NO"!!?

Overall, we had a drunken blast making the worst batch of cupcakes I have ever seen... and I am so glad that we decided to do this "trial run" because how bad would it have been if this were the night before my wedding instead of some drunken night with a chili contest? In a way, I'm glad this didn't work out perfectly... now we won't have to worry about baking on the eve of my nuptials. (Maybe we can focus on drinking the rest of the tequila that didn't get used on the "margarita" cupcakes... what a joke!)

Espresso? Or maybe Chocolate Stout... who knows!

Suuuper runny frosting

At least my cake stands look cute

Green Lemonade and Pina Colada (or basically vanilla)

Proud?!

On a more successful note, the 1st Annual Friend Chili Cook Off was a hit... I've never seen so much chili in one place in my life!