The Great Kite Cupcake Caper

This year, for Joseph's birthday, he asked if he could have cupcakes. I immediately made a mental note to do what I normally do and call a bakery.

What I didn't realize is that Joseph wanted to help make cupcakes. So...I tossed aside the temptation to seek professional help and bought some cupcake liners.

Joseph had a blast mixing the cake. (Please note that I'm not even attempting to hide the help I got from Betty.) He lined the cupcake pan, stirred the batter and even helped pour. (No pictures of that...I needed both hands to keep the project from becoming a complete mess.)

After they were baked, I decided to make "kite" cupcakes. Joseph's party was at the park during kite fest. Very appropriate, yes? Little did I know that the kites were going to send me into a frenzy of irritation and frustration.

Side note: I'm a Virgo. What does this mean? It means that I like my rows straight, my colors in the lines and my kites symetrical. I'm the type of gal that puts a piece of lined paper behind her unlined paper before she writes a letter. Chad has to re-do my Christmas decorations to make sure they look "random" instead of lined up.

I thought the easiest way to make kites would be to free-hand cut them out of sugar cookie dough. Joseph helped roll out the dough and I set about cutting them. Do you know how hard it is to cut out a kite? It's not a diamond shape. It's a small equilateral triangle on top of an isosceles triangle. After sixty attempts, I found a dozen that I thought would work. Until I frosted them. Let me just say, for the record, that gel frosting is not condusive to straight, even lines. Frustrated with the results and irritated at Chad who kept telling me, "They look fine. Very cartoon-ish." - which, for the record, is exactly not the correct thing to say, I did a web search.

I found a site that reccommended using sugar wafer cookies, frosted with gel edges. Let's just say that an hour before the party, I had a pile of wafer cookie dust, some mixed with frosting-destroyed pieces. I finally gave up and did what I could, making a silent vow that next year, I'm leaving the whole cupcake thing to the professionals.

Then I downloaded the pictures of Joseph helping and he looked so...happy and excited. *sigh* I ammended my vow. Next year, I'll try to find a kind friend to teach me how to decorate cakes.

And the funny thing? The adults thought cupcakes turned out cute and the kids ate them so fast, they didn't even notice what they looked like.