Recently we were invited to my husband boss’ house for a BBQ with the whole family. We wanted to take something for desert which was easy to bake, eat and carry – CARRY being the key word here. Please read further to learn how this story unfolds.
Everyone loves chocolate cupcakes and so easy to make. I didn’t do anything special here, just used my standard recipes and worked on the making the cupcakes look beautiful. So here I was in my kitchen getting all my tools together and mentally visualizing my cupcakes and how I wanted them to look. The cupcakes took about 30 minutes to bake and then another 15mins to decorate, so a fairly quick process. Post baking, some bad decisions were made on my part and even worse ones on my husband’s part.
I have this gorgeous Cake Caddy I got for Christmas last year from Crate & Barrel. It is by far THE BEST Christmas gift I have received. It holds 24 cupcakes or a cake (small or large, short or tall) with an expandable cover. It’s truly amazing and gorgeous creation. But ofcourse, this was the day for bad decisions so instead of taking something secure and sturdy with me I decided I could do with using a disposable Cake Box and instead packed all my cupcakes in. All is STILL well at this point.
Once we reached the venue, my older one decided to be clingy and refused to walk. My husband as always being as helpful as he is, not only offered to pick her up but ALSO carry the cake box with him. I did insist he won’t be able to do both but he reassured me it was all going to be fine. And so we walked as a family towards the BBQ pit and 100m from the pit – SPLAT! The cake box fell UPSIDE down! The look of HORROR on my face and my husband’s was chilling. I didn’t know if I should scream or cry or be grateful that it wasn’t my daughter who fell (Of course I was most grateful my daughter didn’t slip :)). But what a pity, the cupcakes reached the party as flat frosted top cupcakes which looked like they’d just gone through a painful experience.
The positive side, they still tasted great and there was a lesson learned – when in doubt ALWAYS carry the cake Caddy!
Ingredients :
2 cup flour
2 cup sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup oil
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup hot water
2/3 cup cocoa
1 tsp vanilla
Directions:
- Pre-heat oven to 180 C and line a cup cake tray with cupcake liners
- Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl, and in a separate bowl mix the wet ingredients
- Once all the wet ingredients are combined, add the dry ingredients and stir together
- In the event there are any lumps in the mixture just pass through a sieve so the batter is smooth
- Fill the tray 2/3 full and place in the oven to bake for 20-25mins or until skewer comes out clean
- While the cupcakes are baking make the frosting and fill into a piping bag with 1M Wilton frosting tip
- To decorate, wait for the cupcakes to completely cool, and start at the centre of the cupcake, holding the piping bag perpendicular to the cupcake
- Squeeze out a star and start releasing the frosting around the cupcake to form a swirl until the entire cupcake is covered
