Today was they day I was planning to make a bunch of cupcakes for a church bake sale tomorrow (and a little for me, of course!). I knew I had nothing planned, so I could dedicate most of the day to the baking. Typical me, I couldn’t decide what kind to make, so I made 3 kinds of cupcakes: Magnolia’s Vanilla with Vanilla Buttercream, Strawberry-Balsamic with Cream Cheese Frosting* and Boston Cream Pie from “Cupcakes!” a cupcake cookbook by Elinor Klivans and France Ruffenach. But because as if that wasn’t enough, I also decided I needed to make ice cream – Roasted Banana Ice Cream from Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz and Lara Hata – a ice cream recipe book I borrowed from my sister. (I haven’t finished ice cream, yet though. I still need to freeze it. I’ll come back later with pics of the ice cream).

Here are all my recipes spread out so I could try to work on them all at the same time.

So, right after I got home from they gym and showered, I dove right in with my baking. I started all my prep work by making the vanilla custard for the Boston Cream Pie, the strawberry balsamic syrup, and the bananas roasting in the oven.

Roasted Bananas fresh out of the oven:

Strawberry-Balsamic Syrup cooking on the stove:

Everything was going swimmingly until I realized I was out of sugar. Ugh! You can’t make 3 batches of cupcakes and ice cream with no sugar! I had enough to get one batch started, so I threw that in the oven and started on the second one. When I pulled the first batch out of the oven, I ran down to the store to buy some sugar.

The first batch of cupcakes were supposed to be the Boston Cream Pie ones. This was a recipe I got from “Cupcakes!”, a cupcake cookbook I received from a friend for my birthday. It was the first time I made these cupcakes. They are filled with vanilla custard and topped with a chocolate glaze and sounded incredibly delicious.

Well, when I returned to the house, they were cooled enough to check out and see how they were doing. I picked one up and looked at it. The thing didn’t rise! It was a little 1″ solid lump of cooked cupcake. There was no air, no fluffiness. Nothing. Erm… Not good. My poor little lumps are still sitting on the counter. I have no idea what to do with them or if I should just throw them. I still don’t know what happened to them; I followed the directions to a ‘t’, or so I thought…

I had the filling made already, so I decided to go ahead and make a full batch of the Magnolia’s vanilla (which makes 24, I was going to half the recipe) and turn half of them into the Boston Cream Pie cupcakes. Not a problem. When I had my third and final batch in my kitchen aid, I pulled some eggs out to add to the batter. On the way back into the fridge, the carton slipped out of my hand, and this was the end result all over my kitchen floor:

Whee. What fun. Thankfully the eggs I needed for my last batch were sitting still in one peice on the counter, so I didn’t have to run to the store for more eggs. So, everything stopped while my husband and I cleaned up the mess. A little while later, I glanced over at our trash compactor that had just been used to squish down all the paper towels we used to clean up the egg mess. I noticed peach juice trickling into a little pool at the base of our compactor. Apparently, the bag of freezer-burned sliced peaches that I had thrown in there earlier that day had burst upon compacting and peach juice was covering the walls of the compactor, the arm that squishes, etc. It was EVERYWHERE. Even places we couldn’t clean. So, once again baking whet on hold while we cleaned up the mess. And what a mess it was. We had to take the whole thing practically apart. It was crazy.

Anyway… Here is the end result. It was a long day – longer than necessary because of the spills, but my cupcakes turned out quite well. I love the flavor of them. And I think they’re cute. I have about 30 of them for the bake sale tomorrow and I’m keeping about 9 of them for me and my family.

Strawberry-Balsamic Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream

Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes filled with Vanilla Custard and Chocolate Glaze

All lined up and ready for the bake sale. Cupcakes anyone?

* Note: If you’re going to make the Strawberry-Balsamic cupcakes, the recipe isn’t real clear on how to divide the butter. Use 6 Tbsp for the batter and 3 Tbsp for the frosting.

These Cupcakes are available at A Cupcake Co.