April Fools Day Part 2 - Cupcakes!

A while back, I read about a book called "Hello Cupcake" and thought it was the cutest concept I'd ever heard. Making cupcakes look like things they are not sounded like so much fun! Of course, I am the furthest thing from a baker but it sounded so easy and the book was cheap on Amazon.com, so I splurged.

And the book sat in my cookbook collection for nearly a month, untouched.

I hate baking. Loathe it. I never do it right. I follow the directions to a "T" and somehow something always gets hosed up. Take yesterday for example... I hosted Bunco and decided to make these Chewy Coconut Bars that everyone loves. I've had success with them in the past and they're easy. When I was supposed to pull them out of the oven, they still seemed underdone, so I left them in there an extra 10 minutes. I even got nervous I overcooked them! But after they sat on the counter top cooling for two hours, I cut into them to find that they were still gooey in the middle. And by gooey, I mean RAW. How could this be? Knowing I couldn't serve them as is, I decided to throw them back in the oven and double bake them. I didn't even know if that was possible, because isn't baking a chemical reaction of sorts? Well, I baked the crap out of them AGAIN and it actually seemed to work. They weren't as good as normal, but they weren't giving anyone salmonella anytime soon.

So why I thought I'd be able to make these crazy cupcakes, I'm not sure. But Tuesday afternoon I decided it was time to dive in. Braeden and I went and got all the necessary ingredients and I made a double batch, some for dinner with my dad that night, some for the kiddies at the daycare at the gym, and the rest for Bunco. The house looked like a warzone when Joe got home (and he retreated to the basement just to get away from it all) but I worked my butt off to accomplish the task at hand. That day, I was a BAKER!

And here was my "April Fools Day" surprise:





Get it? It's spaghetti and meatballs. Cute, hey? Unfortunately, my close up pictures didn't turn out so hot (new camera a few months ago and we still haven't read the manual...didn't for the last one either). They were a hit!!! Unfortunately, the "sauce" started to melt the pasta over time but you still get the gist.

For the pasta, you just squeeze frosting out of a ziploc bag with the corner snipped. The sauce is Reduced Sugar Strawberry preserves, and the meatballs are Ferrero Rocher candy. It was a totally fun treat.

Now I'm feeling more confident and think I'm going to make some for Easter. Braeden wants the ones with the bunny butts sticking out of the grass patches. I'll post on that later, if it happens!!!