Epic Fail!

There are many things I set out to do that just don't go the way I planned.

Sleeping at night.

My exercise (or non-existent) routine.

My husband's birthday dinner.

For weeks I had been stewing over what to do for Chase's birthday dinner. As many of you know, he doesn't eat sugar and trying to find a "treat" for him was always a struggle. Sure, I have found sugar free cookies (that we made and his stomach hurt for days), honey cinnamon rolls (that I make all the time so how is that special?) and other not-so-great-mentions.

So imagine my delight one morning while feeding the twins & watching Rachel Ray when I saw her suggestion for a "birthday cake" for a real man who doesn't eat sugar. http://sparklemag.wordpress.com/2008/05/19/is-it-dessert-or-dinner/
What you see isn't exactly what you get- they're meatloaf cupcakes, with mashed potato frosting. Easy, fun and a little deceiving. I like that combination!

A few days after his birthday, we invited some cousins over for dinner and celebrated a little late. I have to say, I had high hopes for this dinner. I found one of those giant cupcake pans on clearance and thought, well, if I can do cupcakes, I can do a giant cupcake! I made the yummy recipe (with lots of spices and peppers- just like he likes) and filled the pan to capacity, still having enough to make 12 small cupcakes.


Once the meatloaf was fully cooked, I set out to frost the mega-nacle. The cupcakes were a cinch! Simply boil the suckers, mashed them up with parsley and chives, put it in a piping bag, add a cake decorating tip and vioala! You've got yourself a round of Meatloaf Cupcakes with Mashed Potato Frosting.
Now onto the monstrous cupcake. It, on the other hand, didn't fair so well. I had grand hopes, yet it didn't live up to it in the least bit. The tip top of the cupcake was just too slanted for the mashed potatoes to stay. It quickly became a mess.
Though the finished product turned out NOTHING like I had hoped, Chase (such a good sport) still had fun with it and gobbled most of it up. We added a candle, let the boy help blow it out, and bon appetite!
Kurt's favorite part of course was the "frosting". Anything he can eat by himself with a fork or a spoon is right up his alley.So although the cake was an epic fail, the dinner turned out to be a hit. We ate our "cupcakes", visited, laughed and chalked it all up to experience.