Cupcake Attempt #1

This evening Joe and I decided to get our hands dirty and try making our first batch of cupcakes by hand. We decided to go simple and do a chocolate cupcake with a red vanilla buttercream frosting. We decided that I would make the cupcakes and Joe would do the frosting. We started off well, when I realized my measuring spoons seem to be missing, so I had to "eyeball" the amount of vanilla and baking powder going into my mix. This seemed to be mistake numero uno. You'd think there wouldn't be much that could go wrong while doing the prep for cupcakes...WRONG. While mixing the wet ingredients I smell something burning. Just my luck, the motor in my mixer burns out, insert mistake numero dos. So, I had to then mix everything by hand. I made mistake numero tres when I didn't google how to mix cupcake batter by hand. I mixed the CRAP out of that batter. Turns out, that's a big fat no-no. We put the cupcakes in the oven, and 20 mins later pulled out cupcakes that looked more like tarts lol. They were literally about an inch thick. Yikes. Joe's frosting turns out BEAUTIFUL...in looks, and looks alone. While it didn't taste bad, per se, it was like eating pure sugar. It was so sweet it had the potential to put a cavity on every tooth in your mouth. Anyhow we trucked on, deciding, "hey, it might taste good". NOT. We let them cool, and then I frosted them. The frosting had this natural crystalline gloss look that was so pretty, although I doubt we will be able to recreate that.  Turns out I'm a natural at frosting cupcakes, who knew?

Final Verdict:
    Cupcake Attempt #1: Epic Fail. Frosting was too sweet, cupcakes were dry and didn't rise. They did however look beautiful.