My Cupcakes :)

This evening is definitely one that I will look back on when I'm 90 and still laugh. It was absolutely perfect, well... if you don't count the back pain, the contractions, the exhaustion and the toddler who insisted on sitting on her brother. :)

My husband decided to make my cupcakes for me, so that I could enjoy them and just rest. Rest included taking pictures for posterity and corralling an energetic toddler, but it was still fun.

My yummy mix. I believe they use organic ingredients, and at home all it requires is unsalted butter, milk, eggs, confectioner's sugar, and baking chocolate. There is a lady in the next town that makes butter and milk, but it's unpasteurized and when you're pregnant that's a no-no, so my husband just picked some up at the store. He couldn't find organic confectioner's sugar, but he did find organic baking chocolate. He gets an A+ for effort.

The first order of business was to make cupcake liners. I gave him instructions and let him at it. Audrey remembered from the last time we did it, so she volunteered to help him out.

Tracing his circles. Auds remembered that you put the circles inside of the 1/4 cup and smash it with the vitamin jar so she practiced.

Still practicing...

Cutting out his circles. It takes a few sheets of paper. Initially he was going to trace and cut each individual sheet. I kindly let him know that he could just cut them all at once if he lined up the papers. :)

Preparing to shape the liners.

You need a stick and a quarter of butter to beat.

Here he is working hard.

It took a while to get it light and fluffy like this, so my husband felt a huge sense of success when he accomplished it. He exclaimed "I have successfully Ferberized the butter!" I think he meant Pearlized, but I understood the sentiment. I found it absolutely hilarious.

Audrey made her own cupcakes while he worked and I sat on my big behind.

Time to add the mix.

He even made a well in it... and I didn't have to tell him. I was so proud.

Add in two eggs, one at a time. Yes, those are nasty store bought eggs. We didn't get to the farmer's market weekend before last because we were sick. So, we went to the store to buy eggs, and are using those up to not waste. Good news is, I talked to a lady at the farmer's market who said she would save me eggs if we ever got sick or couldn't get up early enough. Yay!

And he tried to spoon the batter into the liners. It didn't work out so well, but he tried. Bless his heart.

There was a step where he put milk in, but I missed it because I was playing "roll the container across the floor" with my angel. She thought it was a blast. This is also the first time in days that the took her hair out of a pony tail and head band. I have a feeling it will go back up first thing in the morning. She is, however, still clutching her bow.

Putting them in the oven.

Measuring the confectioner's sugar. I store all of my pantry goods in mason jars. (I didn't buy those Goldfish in the background... my husband couldn't find anything close to organic, whole grain, low sodium snacks, so he bought those because that's all he could find. He tried though. Audrey doesn't like them that much either, but I don't want to waste them so I keep offering. Most of the time she dumps them on the floor in church.) Anyway...

Melt your chocolate.

Beat some more butter and then some confectioner's sugar.

Pour the chocolate in.

Cool the cupcakes.

The icing - a diabetic's nightmare.

I went to my office to work while they cooled and he put the baby down. When he tried to ice them, I was called in for help.

This is what I found. I'm not going to lie, they were UGLY. This picture really doesn't capture the true essence of these cupcakes. The tops were falling off the bottoms. The paper liners didn't even make it to the bottoms of some of the cupcakes and were plastered on the sides. The icing was just slapped on there. But they were MY ugly cupcakes made by my husband. He asked me to help him out a little.

So, I picked up the tops of the cupcakes, evened out the icing as they fell apart in my hands, placed them back on the bottoms, and my husband placed the garnish on top.

We split one cupcake, and man - it was sweet. This is definitely a special occasion thing, I could never eat like that regularly. I think I gained 5 pound with half a cupcake.

It was possibly the sweetest thing (pun intended) that we've done together in a while between entertaining a toddler and being busy with life. I loved the experience and had a great time with my little family.