Ladybug Cupcake Kit: Epic Fail...ish

Since the story about making the Ladybug Cupcake Kit was longer than I wanted to include in her Bug Safari party post, I thought I'd let you laugh at my expense here instead. I didn't take photos [thank goodness] so you'll have to use your imagination.

Strike 1: After finding the kit while cleaning the weekend before and deciding this would be the perfect opportunity to use this up, I totally forgot about it until 30 minutes before we were supposed to leave for the Bug Safari. Yay.

Strike 2: I mixed up the batter by hand, even though it said to use a mixer. I didn't want to get the mixer all dirty have time to clean it all up in order to use it again for the frosting. [Yeah. We'll pretend that I had that kind of foresight. Heck. We'll even pretend I hadn't completely forgotten about making the frosting until we were packing stuff into the car.] And instead of, oh, reading the instructions carefully, I poured the batter into 6 paper muffin liners (with butterflies on them! Super cute!) After popping them into the oven, I decided to start putting the cupcake sleeves together. And noticed that there were more than 6... Hmm... Look back at kit tube... "Makes 8." Fuuuuuuuuuuuuddddgggggge.
So I enlist the help of my husband, since the first one I tried to pour a little out of just kind of splooped everywhere. We manage to transfer them safely to a 12-muffin pan (I had been using the 6-pan, obviously.) I spoon some into the 2 extra empty papers (and some to replace the ones that weren't so successfully transferred.) We manage to salvage most of the splooped ones too. Phew.
Now, a little back story on the muffin liners. I keep them in a little Ziploc baggie, and counted out the 6 I originally thought I needed. Then opened it, counted out 2 more, re-sealed it, and put it away. Then ruined another liner by spilling it everywhere. Get out liners, count out one more, re-seal, put away. Then another one bites the dust. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Get out the liners, get one more... only this time I keep the baggie of liners out, because I am ready to kick my husband in the nuts, I'm so frustrated, and he has done nothing but help me fix this fiasco. [And make remarks about how I'm making us late over these stupid cupcakes. He shut it when I suggested we scrap it and go to Safeway on our way out. But he wasn't snarky enough to deserve a nad-punch.]

Strike 3: While the cupcakes are cooking, we get the Princess ready, and I completely flake on making the frosting. Oops. Luckily the mixing bowl and stirrer-jobby is clean, so I hastily throw it all together. Then read the instructions. Room temperature butter? Not so much. Step 1: Beat the room temp butter until fluffy. Oops. Already dumped the frosting powder packet into the bowl. Not. Gonna. Bother. Step 2: Add powdered sugar and frosting packet. WHUCK? I need my own sugar?! Who ever heard of a mix where you had to bring your own frickin' sugar? My pancake mix comes with its own sugar. My cake mixes come with their own sugar! Even the cupcake mix came with sugar! ARGH! Luckily, I happen to have 2 sealed bags floating around somewhere for some fudge or truffles or something that I never ended up making. [Laziness pays off! Scoooore!]

So off we go, armed with a Lock-N-Lock lunchbox filled with 8 steaming cupcakes (Hey. It was big enough to hold them all if I removed the divider trays, and already with its lid, so I didn't have to dig around in the Tupperware pit cupboard,) a Rubbermaid container filled with hastily- (and slightly wrongly-) made frosting, and a bag carrying all these plus a packet of green jimmies sprinkles, 8 cupcake sleeves and 8 paper ladybug picks (plus an actual frosting spreader! I know right? Even *I'm* amazed at my foresight on this one, especially considering, you know. The whole everything-above-this-paragraph part.)

I sloppily frost the cupcakes at the Mexican hole-in-the-wall restaurant, and slide them into their sleeves, licking my fingers along the way. I sprinkle the green jimmies "grass" onto the tops, wishing that I had thought to add green food coloring to the frosting kit. Tually doesn't like sprinkles, so I skipped hers. Then I let each girl choose a ladybug pick. Z chose pink, Tually red, Pilu green, and Appie blue.

Again, I took no pictures of the finished product, and none of the birthday girl actually eating one. Ah well.

At least the cupcake sleeves are cute!

Other than poking each other and sticking ladybug picks into hair, it was all smooth sailing after that. The frosting was kind of "meh" at this point, so I'm going to blame the meltery butter. Or the frosting mix. It had a funny aftertaste.