Volcano Cakes

So here's a silly and exciting cooking adventure, since there's nothing else here.

I had a get-together with a lot of my friends back in May, and decided I wanted to have cupcakes there. Stephen and I went and bought the ingredients that were needed to make a recipe for Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream. It was the first time I had made cupcakes, and I was trying to do my best to follow the directions. However, the cupcakes ended in disaster, becoming instead "Volcano Cakes." A messy version of the tasty cupcakes.

The first problem that I can point to as potentially being a problem were the baking cups used, which were foil and didn't require a baking pan (but needed a cookie sheet underneath them). They probably weren't the problem at all, but it was something that I wasn't used to (I've only ever seen paper baking cups used), and so thought could be a potential problem.

Another problem which likely effected the taste of the cupcakes (I didn't actually eat them when they were completed, as they appeared to be very burnt) was that we used a sweetened cocoa powder rather than an unsweetened cocoa powder. Of course this would have only made them sweeter - and wouldn't have necessarily been a problem.

However, I know I tried my best to get the recipe as close to correct as I could, and followed the directions implicitly. Still, while cooking the cupcakes, I realized something was going wrong when they weren't raising like they were supposed to. They also seemed to be taking far too long to cook - which is why they ended up burnt, I think.

The second thing that went wrong happened when making the frosting for the cupcakes. Both Stephen and I overlooked the fact that the frosting (as any frosting would) called for Confectioners sugar. We instead used regular sugar. The result was very crunchy frosting-like stuff.

All in all, it was an exciting adventure, and one I hope to never, ever, repeat.