Cupcake Fail

I do not like to bake.
And out of all baking that I don't like to do, I really don't like to bake cupcakes.  They are a nightmare to me.  There are so many of them and I never get the portions right in the cupcake cups so they always bake to high and I don't like to icing all those individual cakes and once I take them out I never know how to store them.  So, knowing all of that, what was I thinking when I purchased this a couple of months ago?

I was thinking about how much my girls would love to do this one rainy day.  It was definitely a moment of weakness for me, knowing how much I dislike baking cupcakes, but I bought it for them.  I forgot/put off making them until the last week of summer vacation.  It was raining one day and we didn't have any plans so I thought this would be a perfect day to break out this project.  Of course, the girls were thrilled.  They love to bake and they love tie-dye so this was a perfect project for them.  They did a great job measuring and mixing the ingredients.  They take it very seriously.

Not sure what is up with the matching gymnastics leotards.

Since this was a tie-dye cupcake mix we had to divide the cupcake batter into a few bowls then they picked what colors they wanted to dye it.   A couple packs of powdered food coloring came with the kit so we had a bunch of options to choose from.

 Next the batter went into the cupcake pan.  I worked very had to make sure we didn't overfill the individual cups.

This is where our first problem occurred.  We were supposed to get 12 cupcakes out of the mix...we barely got 7.  So already I knew something wasn't right.
But as they baked they smelled really good.  They made the entire house smell great.  It was better then any Yankee Candle I have ever bought.

Part of the fun in baking is licking the bowls.

While the cupcakes baked we made the frosting.  Now, in hindsight I just should have bought white frosting and dyed it, but that wasn't what the directions said to do and if you know me you know I am a strict directions follower.  So we made the icing from a powder mix that came with the kit.  This is where the problems really started.  The icing was so runny that I could easily see that it wouldn't stick on the top of a cupcake and there was no way it was going to look like the picture on the front of the kit.  I tried to add more powdered sugar but that didn't help at all.  In fact, that just made it worse.  And lets not even talk about the taste...it was horrible.  So sweet and just terrible.
The girls didn't seem to mind though, they thought it was good, so we proceded with the directions.  I put the icing in the fridge in hopes of getting it set up a bit while the cupcakes cooled down.  (As a side note, at the end of the baking time the cupcakes had overflowed the cups.  I knew this was going to happen once we only got 7 cupcakes instead of 12.)
After they were cooled we took the icing out of the fridge (it hadn't changed one bit) and we started to icing the cupcakes.  We, again, had a few different colors and you were supposed to put it on the top of a cupcake then swirl the colors together with a toothpick to make a tie-dye effect.
It was a mess.  The icing just ran right off the cupcakes and there was not even a chance to swirl it with a toothpick.  It was a disaster.

This was within about a minute of putting the icing on the cupcakes.  After about 3 minutes all of the icing was completely off and the cupcakes looked bare.

The girls were really excited to try out one of their creations.  So we all picked one and took a bite.  We had very different reactions.  They loved it...I did not.  It tasted as bad as it looked...maybe worse, if that is possible.

Looks just like the picture on the front of the kit, doesn't it?

In the end, while the cupcakes failed, the time spent with my girls was a success.  But after they went to bed I threw all the rest of the cupcakes away.  :)


Now I know all of you bakers out there are thinking of all the things I probably did incorrect and are wanting to give me advice on how to make it better next time.  Save your breath...I'm buying store-made cupcakes from now on and when and IF I ever decide to make them again I will use store bought icing.