Butterbeer Baking Experiment

I returned to the UK on Friday to celebrate my good friends 22nd birthday. I am originally from London but four years ago I moved to the Netherlands to attend Tilburg University. As a result, I frequently travel back and forth between the two, especially for important occasions such as this one. 

To celebrate, I thought it would be a nice idea to make her a birthday cake, or in this case, birthday cupcakes. And of course they had to be themed (I friggin' love themes!). I didn't have much trouble choosing one as my friend is obsessed with everything Harry Potter. Therefore, I decided upon Butterbeer Cupcakes. After searching the internet and discarding any recipes that looked too difficult or required far more ingredients than would ever be necessary, I found this seemingly simple one: Butterbeer Cupcake Recipe . To be honest, it really was a simple recipe, I just managed to make a real mess of it. 

The first sign of trouble was when I thought it wouldn't be an issue to replace the key ingredient, the butterscotch morsels, with Butterscotch Flavour Delight... bearing in mind that it is an entirely different texture and form, and I'm also pretty sure that you aren't meant to cook mousse. However, at the time I was congratulating myself on my improvisation skills. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. 

Before I could do any damage, I first had to make the vanilla sponge mix that was required. This couldn't have been easier. Feeling confident, I added the cream soda which fizzed and bubbled as it entered the mix, allowing me to imagine that this is what a potion class would have been like. Now it was time for the magic ingredient; the Butterscotch Flavour Delight. I whisked it in with no problems, transferred it to the cupcake cases, and placed them in the oven. When they were ready, I took them out and admired my work. They looked great! They tasted great! They had the texture of a damp sponge! Yeah, I think you can tell where it went wrong...

I had got this far, I wasn't going to give up. So what always makes anything taste better? A bucket-load of icing! Resilient, just like the cupcakes I had just made, I proceeded to cream together butter and icing sugar. So far, so good. I then added the cream soda. It curdles. At this point, I feel pretty disheartened, but I have also just spent a good hour baking and I want to have something to show for it. I smear my curdled icing (I tell my friend later that this was intentional to make it look like froth) onto my butterscotch flavoured sponges, and try to pass it off as a success. I'm not sure if my friend even ate them after I presented them to her, and who would blame her, but you know what they say, its the thought that counts. 

Fem