Taylor Reese Wickett: The cupcake drama!!!

[Written by mommy]

This year because there was so much going on in life from finishing up my first semester of my Ph.D. program to planning for my work Christmas party and planning for Taylor's birthday party, we decided to buy all of the food for the party (instead of trying to make it); although, I still had to make the cake and cupcakes. It is one of those mommy things that I don't think I'll ever let go...just like my mom did for me. Well, the cupcake drama got a little out of hand!!

I found these really cool Tinkerbell cupcakes that I thought I'd make and then I'd also make some normal cupcakes since I knew I couldn't make 60 tinkerbell cupcakes. So, I spent quite a while researching them, consulted with my mom, and was fully prepared for these ganache covered flower cupcakes with Tinker Bell on the top.

Friday before Taylor's birthday came and I got all the cupcakes baked (both the flowers and the normal ones) by 8:00 am. I was doing good! Then came the normally decorated cupcakes and that's when the drama began. I followed a buttercream icing recipe on the back of the powdered sugar bag (which shows the shortcuts I was trying to make due to time) and it turned out horrible! A half-a-dozen cupcakes were thrown in the trash (and boy did it feel good to get those ugly things away!) I then headed to Ralphs for more sugar to make it all over using my favorite recipe from Wilton.com.

After making great frosting, the normal cupcakes were done and turned out great. I put them in the new cupcake holder that I bought from Target a few days earlier and the lid was cracked!!! This is just a hint at what my entire day was like. I decided to get out of the house, head to Party City for more tinker bell tops and candies to make the tinker bell cupcakes, go to Target to find another cupcake holder that wasn't cracked, and treat myself to a Starbucks chai latte, per my mom's recommendation. I got my Pary City stuff, more stuff for my work party that night, and headed to Target. No more cupcake holders and my chai latte was HORRIBLE! Again, would you have doubted it based on the way the day has gone already??

When I got home it was ganache time. Horrible, horrible, horrible. I won't even go into reasons. At that point I knew I had to get all of my appointments at work covered. I called and Victor was so nice, telling me that I needed to stay home and he'd cover all my meetings. Whew! I kept trying and trying at the ganache but by the time my parents showed up from the Bay Area I decided to give up on the cute tinker bell idea and make normal cupcakes for all 60 guests. More cupcakes thrown in the trash...and again, it felt so good!

Luckily my mom jumped right in and helped out. BJ showed up from work to get ready for his work party (which I was missing for the first year). I found out it was going to be a special party because of the announcement of WHT (the new company BJ is part of) and so I make a big decision and bailed on my work party (remember all those party supplies I bought for the party earlier in the day?!). At that point I felt like I was the worst boss, a horrible cupcake maker, and I needed a glass of wine! So, I quickly got dressed and headed to BJ's party with him. We had a WONDERFUL time.

Below are pictures of my cupcake process and the resultant cake that my dad so lovingly put together for Taylor out of the ruined ganache cupcakes.

The beginning of the ganache tinker bell cupcakes...not working to well.