Baking Catastrophe.

Yesterday was Tyler's birthday and I totally forgot to make him my famous a giant cupcake. I had a few hours to kill today so I decided to whip one up for him real quick. 

For the record, I am DONE with Betty Crocker Devils Food cake. This is the second time that it has not fully cooked. Not that cooking was my problem today. My problem was the structure. Or lack there of.

After a minor meltdown (Obviously, I didn't have a meltdown over cakes. How lame would that be?) I came up with a solution -- Cake Pops. 

Bakerella (a baking blogging superstar) is the QUEEN of cake pops. I did my best to follow her recipe but it didn't go so well. This is the reason my mother never let me in the kitchen. I'm going to categorize this one under 'epic fail.'

Bakerella says to add store bought cream cheese frosting to the crumbled up cake. Problem 1, I didn't let the cake cool long enough before crumbling. Problem 2, I may  have added too much frosting.

I mixed it with a spoon but it was just too moist. But what's a girl to do? It's not like I can suck the icing back out. Besides, it tasted like heaven.

Warning: cake balls are a hot mess.

I rolled the cake into quarter size balls as instructed but they weren't really holding their shape.

The next step was to melt baking chocolate. So I did popped the chocolate in the microwave. Don't ask why I bought green chocolate. It seemed manly at the time. Now it just looks alien-ish.

For some reason Bakerella insists that the lollipop sticks are dipped in the chocolate before placement.

I think it helps with structure. But I don't really know...they're still pretty fragile.

After placing the lollipop sticks the cake balls must go in the freezer to firm up. It only took me 15 minutes and the removal of two shelves to make room for the sheet. But dammit, they fit.

Except then I didn't close the freezer door all the way, thus letting all the cool air out and making my cake pops take an extra zillion years to chill.

Remember, at this point everything is going well. I am blissfully unaware of the mistakes I have made.

The first attempt at dipping the pop in the chocolate did not go as planned. I think there was a chocolate melting malfunction. Mistakes 3 and 4 were over-melting the chocolate and not letting the pops chill long enough.

I'm pretty sure "melted" means "liquid."

After a few more minutes in the freezer I melted some more chocolate. I had to resort to a coffee mug since I had already screwed up the melting process in all my bowls. You should have seen my kitchen sink...it wasn't pretty.

Finally, a million years later, I made some functioning cake pops.

But they ain't pretty.

The pops are all kinds of cracked and lopsided.

I just don't get it. Bakerella makes it look so easy. How did this all go so wrong?!

Whatever. Happy Birthday, Tyler. Enjoy your alien looking, lopsided and cracked cake pops. It's a good thing you're a diabetic and can't eat them anyway. Just throw them in the trash and don't worry about it.

**Be sure to check out Bakerella at www.bakerella.com. It's amazing what that woman can do.
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Workout: Cardio - 30 minutes, Weights - legs, biceps, shoulders, abs