23 Cupcakes

I turned 23 this year... I'm not very excited about this. I'm afraid of getting old. And I know some of you are thinking, OMG she's still a kid. But really, we're not! Although there are some pluses. I'm closer to not getting charged ridiculous fees for renting a car. And I'm wiser, I hope. 


I do have to say, I have some wonderful friends. Most of my closest ones have left the state and some have even left the country. But I still have a group of friends in Atlanta who tried to celebrate my birthday for me early since I'll be in India during the actual time. We celebrated twice! And I made two kinds of cupcakes for the occasion.

Pistachio Macarons

I've been making these for a while now, but they're so ugly I deemed them unworthy for the blog. I finally found these somewhat acceptable. I've been having such bad luck with macarons lately. Not in terms of taste, but in presentation. They just look terrible! I used to be excellent at chocolate ones and even those don't rise with pretty skirts anymore. It was pretty disheartening. I think part of it has to do with my oven not heating all around.

With these, they rose on one side and sometimes not on the other. I swear I did the same things I always do. I just had good luck on this day...

Snickerdoodle Cake and a Birthday Surprise

My two bee-eff-effs, J and Zebo got me the best birthday gift ever! I couldn't for the life of me figure what it was when they handed me this.

But then halfway through opening the box, I jumped back, screamed, and pointed "OMG I THINK I KNOW!!!!"

Anyway, after I stopped being dramatic, and after we made adequate fun of Zebo for randomly pointing out that the box it was in... was a box, I opened it! And it was awesome.

The Ultimate Chocolate Cupcakes.

So I'd been seeing this recipe around everywhere, but it looked like a lot of trouble. Especially since no one in my family drinks coffee and it asks for hot coffee into the batter... It also asks for white vinegar?! But it's been hailed as the "ultimate" chocolate cake. The recipe comes from Cook's Illustrated and after someone told me they really just wanted a chocolate cupcake, I decided I'd try it out...