cake balls – Emerald Thunder

Before this year, I had never actually sat down to watch the Tony Awards. I never really had a reason to watch the actual ceremony. I mean, I like Broadway and all, but I’ve never been truly invested in it. However, I was invited to my friend’s Tonys party this year, so I thought I’d give it a chance. It was a blast! Friends, good food, good sangria, a Playbill puzzle (!), and the Tonys. It was a potluck affair, so of course I offered to bring dessert! I keep looking for reasons to bake and try out new things for an audience, so this was a fun opportunity.

At first I was really excited to bake up some lemon cupcakes, but then I texted my friend and horror of horrors, she’s not a big fan of lemon! I was a bit crushed, but I quickly bounced back and found a different recipe that would hopefully please everyone.

Enter these Snickers Cupcakes from Tracey’s Culinary Adventures! So sinfully rich. The cupcake base is especially delicious, with a deep chocolate flavor and a tender crumb. And such lovely little domes! I broke up the process and made the caramel sauce the day before and then the cupcakes and frosting the day of.

I waited to assemble everything until I got to my friend’s apartment, because I knew it would be a disaster on the subway if I did otherwise. Once I got there, I gave the frosting a good whipping and then put together the surviving cupcakes. Despite my care, there were still a few casualties, but we’ll get to those next.

Since there were a fair few crushed cupcakes, I had filling and frosting left over. A couple of the girls at the party solved that little problem by just eating the two straight! Can’t say I blame them, though, as I was tempted to do the same.

I didn’t want to just eat the cupcake crumbs alone, so I combined them with the remaining frosting, and make cake balls with a chocolate coating. Such a good idea!

I have bad luck. Really, I do. Especially during last August, a little while ago, and now. What is up with this? Is this karma for my jokingly snarky and sarcastic comments? If so, I think I’m going to have bad luck for the rest of my life because I simply can’t give up the snark and sarcasm. It’s not like I really mean it when I say those things . . . and I can’t really help when I say them, it just kind of happens. Otherwise, I think I’m a pretty nice person. So why is it rain on Emerald Thunder Spring again? Have I been too happy lately and this is supposed to bring me back to equilibrium? If so, it can stop now, please, because I haven’t been *so* happy that it warrants all of this.

*end rant . . . I hope*

Nope, not over yet. I should have figured something else would happen. I started writing this before my cupcakes were out of the oven, and when I went to get them they were completely FLAT. No pretty little domes at all *sigh*. At least they still taste good. I was planning on covering them in buttercream anyway, but this just follows along with the string of seemingly small issues that have been building up over the last few weeks. I’m probably going to need to have a nice little panic attack/breakdown in a while if it keeps up, though. Then I’ll be good to go. I think that will probably occur around the time I get my final grades back for the semester, or rather, as I’m waiting for the first one to show up and everyone else here has already gotten them all back.

*15 minutes later*

Nope, the cupcakes not coming out right wasn’t bad luck. It was sheer STUPIDITY. The goals of my bonanzas REALLY aren’t working out well because evidently I can’t even read a measuring cup properly right now. The recipe called for 1 3/4 cups of flour and I only put 1 1/4 cups, and the same thing happened for the sugar, as it called for 1 1/2 cups and I only added 1 cup.

This really serves me right for BWCD, or Baking While Completely Distracted. I blame the gloomy weather. I’ve been really reflective today for some reason–listening to Backstreet Boys ballads, thinking about my life, what I really want, and why I am the way I am–and I spent a good chunk of time just listening and staring out my window at the city while pondering. For some reason this usually happens when the weather is bad, but at least today gave me a chance to slowly figure it all out. I stress the SLOWLY part.

Just like I needed to figure out (but this time quickly) what to do with these cupcakes that completely stuck to the pan because I don’t like to use liners (I’m a huge fan of the outside layer of cakes/cupcakes/brownies. I love that contrasting texture. Yum!). I had crumbled cake in one hand and delicious chocolate buttercream in the other. That could only mean one thing: CAKE BALLS! I crumbled up the failed cupcakes (they still tasted okay, thank goodness) and mixed them in with the frosting.