cuppies overload

i have never been a fan of cupcakes. i find them overly sweet, flat in taste and every cupcakes seem to taste the same. none of them have ever given me the oomph i find in other desserts such as brownies, cakes and pies.  however they are so pretty and such a delight to look at. they come in all sorts of colours, designs and looks.  you have the sesame street character cupcakes, the obscene looking ones especially for the hen's night and bachelor's party, the football fan cupcakes, the romantic wedding or engagement cupcakes, the anniversary cupcakes and the list goes on. but as for the taste, nothing extraordinary, nothing sexy, nothing heavenly, nothing that makes me melt and go "omg".

all throughout my baking experience, i could count with my fingers the number of times i bake cupcakes - one finger. yes once, only one time a few years ago during what was that?  my mother's birthday or was it for mother's day?  see, i could not even remember it. i wanted the boys to have a hand in baking for their grandmother and therefore thought of cupcakes. we baked and the boys decorated and that was it. i wasn't impressed with the cuppies and i can't even remember if i tasted it. maybe i just did just to see how it turned out but like i said, nothing great about it except for the looks.  and it has taken me several years before i bake another.  and that was last weekend and believe it or not, i baked more on tuesday, a holiday due to the prophet's birthday.

i looked here and there for a simple recipe. they are all about the same actually but one wanted milk, another wanted cream and all i wanted was a simple, no-fuss recipe which required only the simplest of ingredients like butter and sugar. i came upon this website, ordinary looking, no fuss or frills, no names of celebrity chefs mentioned. the buttercream recipe was there exactly the way i wanted it.  i thought that since cupcakes in the end all taste the same, why bother with all the extra ingredients.  and i used that recipe, prayed that it would turn out good and started baking that saturday afternoon.  i was feeling a little down after a small tiff with adam, despite having made up. so i was having second thoughts on whether to bake or not, because i have been told many times not to bake when you feel down as all your sorrows will pour into whatever you bake and it will come out bad... and sad.

i thought what the heck. i needed to bake to feel better. i needed to bake to distract myself from the sadness that was making its little rounds in the corners of my heart. it was easy, simple and quick. all it needed was no fuss ingredients such as butter (and not even unsalted there), castor sugar, self raising flour, eggs and vanilla essence. dump them all into a bowl and beat for a few minutes... voila you are ready to divide the mixture into the cupcake cases.  since the cupcakes were vanilla in flavour, i decided to go for buttercream topping and it was as simple - icing sugar,butter, vanilla essence and a little hot water.  the result was actually pretty good. infact the ex came over later that evening and complimented the taste as well. he is not into cupcakes either just like me but he had eaten two cuppies minutes after he got into the house and took four more away with him by the time he left. the cupcakes are surprisingly moist and the taste is just right. well i did lessen the sugar slightly for both the cupcakes and the buttercream topping.  i am not exactly exhilarated by the cupcakes, still not a big fan of them, but i must say that this recipe i used is actually good. and i for once actually ate more than one cupcake.  don't even talk about the boys, they were returning for more that i had to stop them.  anyhow, since i gave a big number of the cupcakes to a neighbour who drives thoriq to school every morning, with the rest left for the boys, i decided to bake again on tuesday which was a holiday. gave some to vanessa, josephine and amy and they too find that the cupcakes were good in terms of taste and nature... and by nature, i mean moist and not dry.

my cuppies
pic courtesy of josephine

anyway after two days of baking cupcakes and almost a week of having cuppies around the house, i am finding them a bit of an overload. i am ready to move on to something else although i am not sure what yet. savoury pies perhaps? *wink*