Darren's 40th Birthday Cup Cakes

Darren's 40th Birthday Cup Cakes

My friend Donna decided to do a black and white themed party for her husband Darren's 40th birthday. I must say she really knows how to throw a party.  She hired a magnificent marquee, magician and sound system. You may say all a tad over the top, but it was far from it. 

A very successful and tasteful party, one of the best parties I have been to in such a long time. I am hoping she blogs her party tips on her blog www.homeiswherethetartis.com

I must say we were lucky the birthday boy attended at all, as on the day of his party he was traveling back from a European cup England match, we were sweating on several fronts. 

1. How depressed he would be if England lost 

2. What if he got delayed and missed his own party.  Darren I am sorry to say we would have had a great time anyway, but the birthday boy being present just enhanced the proceedings.

Thank goodness England won and he arrived back with an hour to spare to get ready for his guest's phew.

But back to the point my lovely friend Donna asked me to make cup cakes for the party. I spent the night at Donna's the night before the party to provide moral support, spend time with Donna and her boys and decorate the cakes. 

It was difficult decorating cakes after several glasses of fine wine from Darren's wine chiller, (sorry Dal you had to find out one day) So the cup cakes probably worked out a tad expensive in the long run. If you count in the two bottles of Pouilly Fume' and one bottle of Sancerre it would have been cheaper to buy from Selfridges.

But hey happy memories, so here are Darren’s quite expensive birthday cup cakes.

My Love for Cup Cakes.

Up until 3 years ago I have never baked a cake ! I had tried to bake ready kits but even managed to burn them. And the icing always ended up a runny mess.   

This changed when I visited my friend Donna in Essex, she had made some amazing bug cup cakes, each cake was a different type of creepy crawly and I must admit I was a tad envious of her skill.  So decided that I would have a go, and there started my love for baking, my first attempt was a total disaster.

I worked through the ingredients feeling a bit like a real chef, but when I got to butter, I realised my butter (straight from the fridge) was solid ! I am so impatient so decided to soften it in the microwave.  The whole mixture curdled and smelt a bit like cheese but being a novice I thought this may be normal! So put the buns in the oven. I can not describe the smell of those buns baking, needless to say they never got eaten.

Attempt two was a few weeks later once I had got over the trauma of not being an instant domestic goddess. 

We were going to center parcs with friends for the weekend, so I decided I would bake chocolate buns to take with us. I was so proud of those buns, when I look back they were awful. My friend Ruth  was so kind and told me how great they looked and tasted. A very kind untruth, but thank you for being a great friend Ruth had you laughed your socks off I may never have baked again.

I spent the next few years practicing baking and decorating cup cakes, Ruth and I even attended cup cake decorating classes. Sometimes it all ends in disaster, but I do also get some good results, still practice makes perfect.