A cupcake for Betty Crocker

This is just one of those stories that must be told...because nothing like this seems very funny until it is shared!

My very good friend, Tara, turned 28 today. She doesn't read blogs so she won't know I'm saying this, but I am really so thankful for her friendship. I love her and her family so much. It feels like she is a family member...she's that type of friend. After Griffin was born, I swear she brought at least eight meals over for us. A casserole for every occasion And desserts. Oh, the desserts....we call her the REAL Betty Crocker. She's amazing!

Her husband called me the other night at asked me to make a dessert for Tara's birthday lunch at the park. Of course I told him that I would...but in my head I was thinking about the huge task of baking for Betty Crocker. You see, I can cook...but I do not bake. My idea of baking is pulling out some refrigerated cookie dough from the grocery store. I'm no Betty Crocker.

I needed to do something good because Tara loves sweets and she's always making something decadent. I decided to do brownie ice cream cupcakes. This was my first mistake--I should have picked something tried and true. So I bought all of the ingredients and started to put it all together last night. I was up until 11:30 trying to make them look perfect. I was a little worried when the ice cream started spreading all over the place and wouldn't set. However, I decided to just put it all in the freezer and reassess in the morning. After all....it had been a hard day and all. Maybe I just needed a good night's rest.

Wrong. The situation looked worse at 5:30 this morning when I went down to the basement freezer to find ice cream all over. Oh, my! I raced out to the grocery store to buy some cake mix for round two. This time I decided on chocolate Heath Bar cupcakes. Sounds easy enough, yes? When I pulled the new cupcakes out of the oven, I realized I had overfilled the cups and they had spilled over. I started with 20 cupcakes and managed to salvage 12. I frosted the rest and was quite proud of myself for pulling it all together.

As I was rushing out the door to get to the park with the cupcakes, I tripped over Parker and sent 4 of the cupcakes flying. See above picture. Frosting on my shirt and pants, and even in my hair. Nice. I used baby wipes to clean myself up. I still had eight of the darn desserts so I just left them on the sidewalk because I was late. As I was trying to get into my car, I dumped the plate over and a couple went face-down on the seat. I just shoved them back on the plate because I had no option....they were waiting at the park! And here is the topper--as I was pulling the plate out of the car, a couple more toppled over. Back on the plate they went.

I'm never making cupcakes again.

Thankfully, we had enough to go around...even after all of the accidents. Tara doesn't know the story behind the cupcakes, but if I ever do tell her, I want her to know that I would do it all over again. She's worth it:) I'm off to clean the frosting off my Explorer's seats...