Cupcake Challenge Week 1 of 52

So, i have completed the first weeks cupcake challenge. Here is the rundown of how it went:0

• Choose a basic white/yellow cupcake recipe with white confectioners sugar icing
• Bought the ingredients, most of which i already had in the house
• Sunday morning, assembled the ingredients on the counter and had my 2yr old jump up on her helping stool (thanks Pa Pa) to mix and make the cupcakes
• Everything went smoothly during this phase, followed directions exactly (-the spilt cup of sugar on the counter, thanks little helper:) baked cupcakes to perfection
• Let them cool on a rack, which i never do
• Made the icing (on my own) and followed directions exactly, I've never done this before
• I went for a thicker icing, used all 4 cups icing sugar, with the 1/2 cup butter. I wanted the icing to swirl on top of the cupcakes instead of melting off
• Here's where the struggle came..........
• Put icing in small (sandwhich size) ziplock bag, with a small hole where i inserted the #30 star tip, started icing the cupcakes, the bag springs a hole out the side, icing is pushing out, squish as much icing as possible into a large ziplock bag (which doesn't have a straight corner, so the cut for the tip is slanted and funny), put all the icing i have in this bag and start to ice the cupcakes, the tip hole burst open, start swearing now (don't worry the kids were in bed), empty junk drawer (note to self to clean junk drawer) looking for the syringey looking thing that is for icing, find it, squish-cancel that- stuff some icing in it (it is small and incredibly hard to load), start icing cupcakes, (here is where my husband walks by and comments 'it looks to pasty' aka too thick), ignore husband, the syringey thing starts to break at the seam of the plastic, grrrrrrrrr, decide i need the proper tools to start this challenge, drive to the kitchen store around the corner, purchase a pastry bag and more tips (which the lady said had instructions inside-WRONG), after googling how to load a pastry bag I squeeze, squish, spoon and scrap all the icing I have into the pastry bag, I then try to ice the cupcakes.....again, swearing here, I then take all the icing out of the bag, put it back in the bowl and add more milk, stir, and spoon back into icing bag, then start icing cupcakes.
• I used 5 different tips trying to make it work, when clearly the icing was too thick (note to self, listen to husband sometimes)
• I will post pictures later, but the swirls were small and hard to make, it almost looked like large noodles all messy on the cupcakes, but thank goodness they are done
• We had my parents over for dinner and to taste the cupcakes
• End result from the testers said: 3.5/5 for the cupcakes and 4/5 for the icing (taste only not looks)
• Some comments: very dense, icing too thick (still grrrr), could of been more icing (well there would of been before the 5 trys)
• Suggestions for upcoming weeks: pinapple cupcakes, bigger cupcakes, carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, boiled icing

I have already learned that proper tools make the world of a difference, that following the recipe exact doesn't always work, and that you always need to leave time for error.
 My two year old really enjoyed the baking though!
Stay tuned for pics and next weeks adventure.