Emily attempts homemade frosting...three times...

On Tuesdays, I watch my 3-year-old niece, Jayde.  It's kind of become normal that she and I bake together on these days.  It gives us something to do!  Last week we made mint chocolate chip cookies, and I sent most of them home with her.  Today I thought it would be fun to make red velvet cupcakes, and decorate them with Valentine's Day hearts.

When grocery shopping last night, I totally intended to make them from scratch and had the list of ingredients and everything.  But, the boxed mix of red velvet cake mix looked so tempting...so I switched to a box and premade cream cheese frosting.

I made the cupcakes this morning, and all turned out fine.  I made exactly forty (although there are now 38 ;).  I pulled out the candies and went to grab the frosting, and Alas!  it never made it home :(  I actually checked my Wal-Mart receipt, and it's not even on there, so somehow it must have gotten left in the cart.

Normally, I would just hop in my car and drive the two blocks to the pig and buy another jar.  Unfortunately, I have no booster seat, so no way to drive anywhere with Jayde.  And I can't exactly leave a three-year-old at home alone!

I went to Martha Stewart's website to find frosting recipes that I could make with all the ingredients I have.  I couldn't do a cream cheese, because I have no cream cheese.  I decided to start with a 7-minute frosting, for which I had no corn syrup.  I found online a recipe for corn syrup substitute!  What luck!

I don't think I made corn syrup...I think I made some sort of crazy hard molassess type thing...absolutely disgusting.  Jayde actually asked me if I was making the frosting black...

But, I attempted to make the frosting with it anyway, and when I saw how disgusting it was, I had to throw out a good deal of sugar and time.  Poop.

Next attempt, buttercream frosting!  The reason why I didn't choose this first was that the amount of butter used in it seemed terribly disgusting.  Six sticks!  Eww!  But, I did have ALL the ingredients on hand.

Except that unfortunately, I neglected to read confectioner's sugar, and used regular sugar instead.  You can imagine that my frosting was neither creamy nor delicious.

I do have enough butter left to try a second time at the buttercream, and since I do really have a good deal of confectioner's sugar, I try half a batch of the buttercream.  I have all ingredients together, and what turns out to be a yellow powder.  Yum.  Wouldn't you just want that on my delicious cupcakes...

So, I have thrown out three attempts at frosting, and will no longer attempt making frosting at home.  I will simply wait for my sister to come pick up Jayde, and she and I will frost the cupcakes tomorrow.  For now, my cupcakes will continue to look like this: