Ugly Ducklings

It makes me feel a little better about myself as a cook when I hear that other people have screw-ups in the kitchen too. It's not that I think, "Oh, at least I'm not that bad" but rather, "Oh good, I'm not the only one."

Or, perhaps I just revel in other people's culinary misfortunes, if you will.

So, to offer a small gesture of thanks for my mom watching the kids while we were away a few weeks ago, I offered to make pomegranate cupcakes for her to take to work. They bring their own birthday treats and she was quite fond of these cupcakes, so it seemed like a good idea at the time.

My troubles started when I had some problems with the homemade pomegranate molasses. I'm guessing I let the juice/sugar mixture get too hot and I suddenly had pomegranate hard candy. It was so rock hard, I ended up throwing the glass that I'd kept it in away because I didn't feel like trying to clean it up.

Then, I baked the cupcakes, paying careful attention to the recipe, as I am famous for missing details. I feel fairly certain that I didn't miss something, but I kind of wish I did. These were some seriously sad creatures when they came out of the oven. They sunk in the middle, collapsed on the sides, and some of the tops popped off.

Pretty. Happy Birthday Mom.

My mom had loaned me her frosting tip set after I'd made the cupcakes last time. The fancy-schmancy tips salvaged the ugly ducklings just a little bit, but a duck is a duck is a duck.

Contrary to what you might think you see, I did not, in fact take a bite out of this first.

It really did look this good right out of the oven.

I don't know how one gets a cupcake wrapper to look like that.

I guess I won't be a cupcake supplier after all.
Oh, and I hear the really good bakeries don't generally
thaw raw ground beef on the counter next to the cupcakes.
Don't worry mom, I didn't open it anywhere near your bday treats.

Looking a little better with the mirage of frosting.

Apparently, I'm a much better photographer than baker because these

look waaaay better in the pictures than they did in person.

Are you hypnotized by all of my little frosting peaks?

They were meant to distract the consumers from the sunken mess they were about to eat.