This week I did a dry-run of the Elmo cupcakes... and boy am I glad I did a dry run. I had a brilliant idea to make them on Sunday and then take them to work with me so that I didn't have 2 dozen cupcakes sitting around the house begging me to eat them. So, I made the cupcakes (from a box - I'm not that crafty) and then decided to try my hand at making red icing. I bought some pre-made icing (again, not that crafty) and some red food coloring and proceeded to add the food coloring to the icing a couple drops at a time. The icing was turning a really pretty shade of pink, so I started adding more and more food coloring until I ended up dumping the whole bottle in the icing. It was now a beautiful shade of pepto bismol pink, but I had read that as the icing dries, it will get darker. Then I decided to give it a taste... it WAS NASTY!!!! I felt like I had given myself food coloring poisoning! On top of the nasty taste, my mouth (teeth, lips, tongue, everything) was a nice shade of dark red. I could only imagine what Clay and his little friends would look like after they dove into these cupcakes. I had to find an alternative...
AND... I did! I thought about using red sprinkles so I went in search of those and (of course) couldn't find them anywhere in my small town. I did find red sugar crystals and thought that might be an ok alternative. In my search I did find the tubes of red decorators icing and decided to give that a try. Surely if they sell it, it shouldn't taste anywhere near as bad as the icing I just tried to make... and it actually tasted decent!
So, I'm thinking I've got the Elmo cupcakes under control... I decide to make them yummier by putting a layer of cream cheese icing and then piping the red icing using the grass icing tip so that it looks like fur. I added the eyes, nose and mouth.. and Wah La! I've got my adorable Elmo Cupcakes!
I was all ready to take with me when I went into the office on Tuesday morning, when the next level of carnage began. I was making Clay's lunch and I looked over at the container that held the Elmo cupcakes and noticed pools of red around the bottom of the dish. This wasn't going to be good! I removed the lid and there it was... poor Elmo had met his demise! The cream cheese frosting was obviously not a good idea and had basically melted and mixed with the red icing and it was sliding off the tops of the cupcakes. Elmo eyes were out of place... noses were not where they were supposed to be... it was a mess! Thank GOODNESS this was not the day of the birthday party! (Sorry, I do not have an "after" picture. I was a little traumatized.)
Needless to say, I did a little research and now know that buttercream frosting is a much better choice to put on a cupcake due to it's stiffer consistency... looks like I will be trying my hand at buttercream frosting in a few weeks.
Other than my cupcake debacle, I've been coping with the fact that my baby has less than 2 weeks until he turns 2. I've been holding it together pretty good... but I'm afraid I may lose it when I have to take him to get his FIRST haircut this Saturday! People have been telling me all kinds of stories about how their little boys went to their first haircut looking like a baby and then coming out looking all grown up. Better not happen to mine!!! He doesn't really have a whole lot of hair to cut... just a little on the back and then around his ears. I found a cute place in town that specializes in child haircuts so I'm hoping they are ready for my child! I learned a trick from our neighbors when they had their little boy's first haircut. They said that they put stickers all over their son and then he spent the whole time trying to pick them off... great idea! I'm going to be armed with Elmo stickers this weekend! I will be sure to take lots of pictures so that I actually have some to post to my blog!
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