*bake-n-blog*

{as you might recall, a couple weeks ago i posted about a bake-n-blog. the bake-n-blog was set up by stacy edwards and it was intended for bloggers to choose one of the many cupcake recipes on the ming makes cupcakes site and then write about it today. i chose to make the coconut sponge cupcake with chocolate espresso buttercream. ....so let me tell you about my experience baking this particular cupcake....}

{i was really excited to make these cupcakes since i hadn't baked in quite a long time...also it gave me an excuse to use my nesting doll measuring cups....so i rounded up all my ingredients...which really there were not a whole lot needed...this i liked. after reading the recipe a couple times..i started to make the cupcake batter. to me it did not seem right, it was runny and had a weird consistency...now i'll tell you i've baked many many times before...so i know how to read a recipe but for some reason the batter did not look right to me and i could not figure out why. well i went ahead and filled my cupcakes with the batter and baked them. i took them out of the oven after 15 minutes and they were solid..not spongy. they were gross. so i chucked those and tried again determined to get it right and figure out what i did wrong in the first place.}

{the second time around looked better...the consistency of the batter looked normal and so i filled the cupcake pan again and put my second batch in the oven. while i felt very confident with the second batch baking...i started to work on the buttercream frosting. this was pretty simple and i had it whipped up in no time...it smelled so devine...i couldn't wait for the cupcakes to be done.}

{in a matter of minutes...the cupcakes were done..i put them on the cooling rack only to feel that they were pretty "solid" cupcakes...again. they felt very dense which made me nervous. i'm not sure why they felt this way...i followed the recipe to the "t" and the only thing that i can think of is that i didn't use "cake" flour. i used a pastry flour. not sure if that's much of a difference but the pastry flour said it was excellent for cakes and pies...so i figured cupcakes fell under the cake category. well i frosted the cupcakes and added shredded coconut just like the picture...but mine did not look as pretty as the picture...they actually did not look that appetizing at all. when b got home...he thought the frosting was uncooked batter and didn't understand why they hadn't been baked...not a good first impression huh? i had him try one and he agreed...they were too dense. they were just okay...i never thought i could screw up a cupcake...but i did this one...darn. oh well...i might have to try another recipe without cake flour as an ingredient and see if that's what my problem was....maybe i'll post about that when i get my confidence back. lol!}