Epic Fail

Charisse asked me to make cupcakes for her daughters' joint birthday party Friday. They requested yellow cake and wanted them to go with the color scheme of turquoise, purple, orange and yellow; and peace signs. I called all over town trying to find a small peace sign cookie cutter that I could use to make fondant peace signs, but all I could find was a candy mold. So the four-hours-worth of handmade turquoise (check) and orange (check) edible peace signs (check) were born.

The cupcake papers alternated yellow and purple and were filled with yellow cake; then were frosted with alternating yellow (check) and purple (check) handmade buttercream frosting. They looked AWESOME! So cute. Four dozen yellow cupcakes before...




... and AFTER.



Three dozen cupcakes after I twisted my ankle where the sidewalk meets the grass and dropped them on the driveway. I had one pan in each hand, waitress style, and when I stumbled all the cupcakes in the larger pan shifted to one side and flipped upside down right out of my hand. In hindsight, I should have chucked the smaller pan in the bushes and grabbed on to the bigger pan with both hands but in the moment I was convinced that this tragedy was not happening and that I would be able to magically save both trays of cupcakes. Sarah and Lucas were with me and fell absolutely silent when it happened. I would have thought I would have burst out with a very long string of curse words, but really, I couldn't speak either. Sarah helped me pick up the cupcakes and we left them on the counter. Then we headed to the grocery store bakery and luckily they had a bunch that were not footballs or Star Wars.

I should have taken a picture of the driveway carnage, with frosting smeared all over and splattered up on the front tire of my van. The peace signs melted instantly on the hot concrete and and left orange and turquoise peace sign tattoos. But I had gone into shock/survival mode and my brain was trying to figure out how to get 36 cupcakes on extremely short notice. Mark had power washed the spot by the time I got home. I guess that ants were having a party of their own.

And luckily, my friends were at the party to assure me that they were just cupcakes after all and there was still one dozen of the handmade ones left. Still, I can't help but wonder how it would feel to be a real baker - responsible for a towering wedding cake on the biggest day of some bridezilla's life - and have an epic fail such as this. Do you grab a sheet cake from Costco and give her a refund? Oy.