Bad Kitchen Day

It's be a super long while since I posted anything on this, but tonight seemed like a night that I should. Since, it was a really bad day in the kitchen :/

What I wanted to make:

A spiced chocolate and strawberry cupcake with chocolate ganache frosting.
A lemon ginger chocolate chip cupcake with hot pink frosting
A lemon ginger cake with lemon curd for my grandma

What I ended up with:
A 9"x13" cake that tastes like a lemonish breakfast
A jar of eggy lemon curd
some boringly frosted, needs to be eaten with a utensil or a lot of napkins, chocolate cupcakes

How it went down:

Started of course with a list a trip to the grocery store. Even with the list and things I wanted on sale, I ended up forgetting something before leaving the store, and then, realize I didn't even have with me something I SWEAR I put in my cart.

Back in the kitchen. The start of the ganache frosting started out well. No problems there. Left it to the side to cool. Then mixed up the devils food cake mix, added some melted butter with coco powder for extra richness and of course a ton of cinnamon for the spiced portion. I went by taste of the batter and thought it seemed ok. In the oven the went, and out they came beautifully.

I prep up the strawberries, washing and cutting off the tops, noming on the ones that are to big to put inside a cupcake. I sprinkle on some sugar and cinnamon and set in the fridge to get all syrupy and juicy.

Started on the lemon ginger. Juiced and zest the lemons and started up the curd. Sugar and juice melted up nicely. Let that sit in the fridge to help cool faster before adding the eggs.

Move on to the second batter. Measure out the dry ingredients, add them to the kitchenaide bowl, stir it up. Go to add my butter, it starts mixing up like it seems, and then, starts looking different then I wanted. Now, it's looking like a dough. WTF? Oh shit, how much butter did I add? How much was I supposed to add? Ok, fudge. To much butter. Maybe make cookies? Well, ok I havent added any eggs yet, so now I'll add some eggs. Now it's looking like a batter?! Um, maybe I was ok with the butter. Check, oh yes! It was right. So I finish adding more eggs then the milk. Now it's like a gross batter. WTF? So, triple check the butter. Yea, I'm a complete idiot. Twice as much butter.

Well, in the name of science, I decide to throw that fucker in the oven anyhow. Grab a 9x13 pan and pop her in. Set the timer. Move back to my curd.

Fuck. To cold now. So, what do I do? Put it back on the stove to warm it up. Warmed up a bit to fast, take it off the heat and add the eggs anyhow. Huh, fudge, despite whipping as fast as I can, I see bits of cooked egg. BLARGH! Keep whipping it, hoping it'll still be fine.

Keep an eye on it until it's getting thicker, but it doesn't really improve. It tastes a little different then from the last time I made it. Umm......

On to finishing the chocolate cupcakes. Even though the ganache was cooled, it wasn't all that thick, definitely not thick enough to put in to a piping bag and make everything all pretty. So I attempt to whip it up to make it thicker. After some quizical looks at the chocolate in the bowl it eventually started getting lighter and thicker. Maybe it would work?

While it was still whipping, I cut out some holes to fit in the strawberries, tasted some of the tops and was bummed that I didn't really taste the cinnamon. Fargo.

Well, cupcakes now with strawberries in them, I checked out the ganache. For serious? Totally not piping consistency. FML. Whatever, I frosted them any how with just a spatula. Now to nom on them.



And now I've got cake crumbs on the floor and chocolate frosting on my face and fingers. So not something you can sell at a bake sale and have people eat. Unless we give them forks. Or a bowl. Or dust busters.

Wait a minute. Oh shit snacks. Who much time is left on the cake? Check the timer on the microwave. End. Oh crap.

Open oven. Eeeeeeehhhhhhhhhh. Turn on oven fan. Take it out. Oops. Ummm......I wonder.



Grab fork. Dig out the unburnt part of the cake. Try it out. Ah, what? It tastes like super buttered up pancakes and eggs. For.serious. Then I taste the burnt part. Yum, crispy and sugary. So, that was a win?

Seriously though, bad kitchen day. However, I did finish all the things in queue on my Hulu list while failing in the kitchen. Success!