Cupcakes...attempt one

Well, last night was a night of mass cupcake baking. I am trying to become the cupcake queen, yet I am failing miserably! Yesterday, I had two attempts. One was a yellow cake cupcake with a vanilla buttercream and the second was a devilishy moist chocolate with a chocolate buttercream. I wanted to start with a basic recipe so that I could get practice...but even the basics didn't come out right!!!

My first attempt at the yellow cupcake/vanilla buttercream frosting was a huge disaster. I got this recipe from Cooks Unlimited. They pride themselves on testing the recipes in their kitchen 50-70 times before publishing them, so you will get the very best recipes. I know I followed the recipe exactly....but my cupcakes were hard and flat. They reminded me of cornbread muffins, but not as tasty. The buttercream tasted like sweet sticks of butter. It was not very good at all!

My good friend Vdub send me some recipes from her Cake Bible and I decided to try a chocolate cupcake. When I made them, the came out of the oven amazing looking! I couldn't wait to sink my teeth into them. When I finally got a chance to taste them, I was soooo disappointed. It tasted like a bland, thick poof! What happened??? I re-read the recipe to see if I missed something (because I clearly did!). After reading it over again, I realized I missed the baking soda! I put the baking powder in, but forgot the baking soda. That is what I get for trying to attempt cupcakes at 1am I guess! The chocolate buttercream that I made was kinda thin too. I don't know if I over mixed it or what, but it was thinner than I would have liked it. I still saved it and refrigerated it to use today. We'll see how everything turns out!

Sorry, no pictures right now....cuz there was nothing worth taking a snapshot of!