Cupcakes

I made cupcakes for the VERY FIRST TIME Wednesday night! Surprised? Now, I know you must be wondering... how could I have survived all these 9+ years as a mother and NOT have baked cupcakes before? Easy... I used to just buy them. But now that I see how easy they are and how much fun they are to make, I'll be baking cupcakes a lot more from now.

I'll have to confess that I didn't actually bake them from scratch. I used the box version... I am NOT a baker, OK. I usually stick to stuff that I can bake in as few steps as possible, like my easy, 4 ingredient Butter Cookies or my Banana bread (I can bake my bread with my eyes closed. I don't even use a recipe... I have it memorized and I eyeball everything).

Baking just seems like so much work to me (the pies, the cobblers, the decadent cakes). It's not just the cleanup that gets to me (baking can be very messy), but all the instructions and following recipes to a T... I just can't get down with that. But baking can be lots of fun and come this holiday season, I'll be looking for easy recipes to make for me and the kids. Cupcakes are now on that list.

I have been wanting to bake cupcakes for a LONG time now, ever Boobie was little. But I just didn't have the motivation. I never had the paper cupcake molds or the pan. And it seemed like a lot of work. How wrong I was.

When Boobie's teacher sent home a list for the bake sale, I knew what I wanted to send in. Each child had a day of the week (every Thursday) that they were responsible for. Each week, one student had to bring in a baked good, pastry, dessert to sell to the class to raise money for 'something.' This was my chance to shine and put my baking chef hat on.

Mother in law had 'gifted' me a Dunkin Hines moist yellow cake mix and I had bought the super soft and fluffy frosting a while back. They were both sitting in my pantry waiting to be put to good use. When I decided to bake cupcakes, I knew I would have to get the pan, so I bought one at Megasuper.

Now here was the hard part: finding the damn paper cupcake molds. I went to 5 different supermarkets in 3 different towns before I could get my hands on them.

First, Megasuper in Moravia only had the mini molds. Hipermas and Mas x Menos in Guadalupe didn't have them. So I hopped in a cab to Jumbo Supermarket in Moravia. I remember seeing the paper molds there once when I was shopping for the cupcake pan. Just my luck, Jumbo didn't have them either; they must have run out. I had to hail another cab to Auto Mercado in Tibas, less than 10 minutes away. I prayed that this supermarket would have them. I had never been to Auto Mercado before, but I heard they sold a lot of American items... cupcake molds are definitely American, no? I almost burst into tears when I went down the baking aisle at AM and the molds were no-where in sight.

A quick question at the bakery though, and I was led to the right aisle, where they had so many different kinds of molds, I had a hard time choosing. I bought one of each of the 3 different kinds. Since I plan on baking many more cupcakes in the future (why not, I have the pan for it now), I figured I never want to be in the situation again... hunting for paper molds all over Costa Rica.

After that was taken care of, I could finally look forward to the actual baking. I could not believe how easy it was. 17 minutes for each batch of cupcakes and they were done. An hour of cool down time and they were ready to frost. Easier than pie!

I baked a total of 33. I gave one to Fatty and one to Boobie straight away... Boobie was lusting after them the moment the batter was done. I got 2 thumbs up, a very good sign.

I gave one each to mother in law and father in law and I sent one with Boobie as a special treat for snack the next day. I sent 24 to the bake sale. And of course I saved 4 for the house... 3 of which went in my belly. YUM!

According to Boobie, the cupcakes were HUGE hit, one kid buying 10. Boobie even purchased 2 of the cupcakes. I was so proud of myself. I had finally conquered the cupcake and now look forward to baking many more in the future. I cannot wait!