Cake expectations of the unrealistic kind...

This week I had a work function where we were all bringing in a plate of food to share. I thought I would try those cupcakes that I have been looking at for over 18months, in my over used Women's Weekly, Cupcakes Cheesecakes Cookies cookbook. I use this book all the time and have just admired these cupcakes but needed a bit more confidence, so trying them out on my work colleagues who are not as critical as me or a paying customer was worth a try!

So what are the long desires cupcakes? Toffee Tumble Cupcakes and Coconut Cupcake Kisses. Late on a weeknight I gathered my ingredients and followed the instructions to a t!

But

I was so disappointed! Here is why, on the left is the image from the cookbook, on the right is my paling into insignificance cupcake. I thought I was in love with them to be totally deflated when they didn't meet my huge expectations.

 Now lets talk about the Coconut Kisses (1st cupcake) It looks amazing in the photo, the cupcake and frosting is exceptional, just melts in your mouth. But it does not look like the picture! I was sitting in my kitchen in the early hours of the morning after working all day trying to figure out how they put that many Raffaello balls on one cupcake! Now the balls are about 3cms wide each, my cupcake was about 7cms (can you guess that I did not do the maths about the size of the Raffaello balls?) I could barely fit 4 balls on the bottom! Their cupcake fitted 6 and then a tier of 3! That cupcake had to be huge, at least 9-10cms. Now I love cupcakes but I don't like them the size of huge muffins. I don't think you enjoy them as much. So now I ponder how to make Raffaello balls in a smaller size or what I can substitute with! (slight tear in my eye with the sadness...)

Mmm Caramel kisses, they were the best tasting cupcakes I have had in a while, the vanilla custard in the middle, oh it is just heaven, they were gone in a flash! The little hint of toffee, divine. Sigh, they are deflated...... The instructions said to make 300 choux balls, that's a lot of balls! The extra special hint says, "Holding piping bag vertical to baking paper lined oven tray, quickly pivot wrist, piping tiny dollops (equal to1/4 teaspoon) of choux pastry" Now I am not sure what the pivot wrist is, but I am thinking I may need to stand on my head with a leg in the air and do a 360 pivot independent of my wrist! Seriously you just had to touch the baking paper and there was already 1/4 of a tsp and it didn't like to stop! So I think my choux pasty balls were slightly bigger than theirs, but I don't think it it was my bad acrobatic dancing that is the main culprit. Me thinks that the cupcakes were huge!

I am now on a mission. I feel betrayed and tricked. From now on all pictures of cupcakes should be taken with a photo of something familiar like a coin (mmm might not help if it is from another country though ;) ) or maybe a bic pen so that people like me who dream of making the perfect cupcake are not left in shreds on the kitchen floor weeping in the early hours of the morning.

Below is the picture of the cupcakes taken to my work function, they all tasted amazing and no one  but me thought that they looked premature to their cookbook counterparts.