Fourth of Jul...CUPCAKES!

I *always* have to work on the 4th of July.  I've been gone on the 4th of July pretty much every year for my entire life.  When I was young, we went to summer camp on the week surrounding the 4th.  As an adult, I got a job that ensured I would always be gone.

Except this year.  Every once in a while, I score that day off.  It happens so infrequently (seriously, I've been in Cincinnati on the 4th of July like 2x my entire life), that I have no idea what normal people even do on that day.

We got invited to a picnic, so we went!  And I made cupcakes.  From the only book I ever seem to cook out of.  :)

 Cupcakes are great picnic food because you can grab them and run back off to a frisbee game, and the wrapper makes it so you don't have to get your hands dirty.  Or it keeps your dirty hands off your cupcake.  However you want to look at it.

I made Mississippi Mud Cupcakes with Marshmallow Frosting from Julie Richardson's Vintage Cakes book.  It's a fudgy cupcake with pecans in it, topped with marshmallow frosting.  I had to learn a new technique, which means that I made the frosting twice :)

See those pecans there?  This is me taking a picture and forgetting to toast them.  Whoops!  I think its a critical step for the tastiness of this recipe so I will make sure I do it next time. 

Since I mostly make cakes and I didn't actually read the recipe all the way through before I started (see above re: not toasting pecans), I didn't realize I needed 2 muffin tins to bake these bad boys.  Luckily my roommate has one.  That'd be the one in the picture that looks like its only been used once.

This batter made 2 dozen cupcakes, plus enough for nearly a dozen mini muffins.  Those didn't last long.  I gobbled them right up.  These babies are delicious straight out of the oven, nice and warm.  After they baked, I realized that I probably should have filled the muffin tins up higher. C'est La Vie.

There are no pictures of me making the frosting.  It was getting late and I was tired.  It involved a candy thermometer and egg whites, and making the frosting a second time after I failed to successfully whip the egg whites.  You live, you learn.  At the very least, you have unfrosted delicious cupcakes. 

Here is me with the finished product.  At home first, then at the picnic.

Noms.  I bring noms.