Holiday Luncheon

I wanted to bring something festive to our holiday luncheon at work. I would normally make cookies, but decided I wanted something more directly related to the holidays - like fruit cake, gingerbread, peppermint, or candy canes. After endless hours searching on the internet, the final choices were gingerbread cookies, fig holiday roll, cherry-pecan loaves, or eggnog cupcakes. Honestly, I really wanted to try my hand at making a roll, but it seemed like way too much work for a weeknight! My co-workers like desserts spiked with alcohol, so the winner was...eggnog cupcakes. I haven't had a cupcake, but the batter seemed really thick. My oven was acting up, so the temperature was running way too high. I've never had to alternate adding the final dry & wet ingredients, so I think I accidentally over-mixed the batter. The cupcake seemed a bit tough, dense & not very soft & delicate. My cupcakes didn't turn out as dark as Cheryl's either. The odds are against me, I hope it tastes halfway decent!!! Oh well, what's done is done...I followed her recipe to the best of my ability. I thought the frosting recipe yielded a decent amount to frost liberally, but I'm normally conservative with icing. I decorated my cupcakes with holiday spice drops & some with a few red & green sugar crystals. **My predictions were correct, the cupcake was too dry! I'm never ever certain what goes wrong in the face of failure, but I would not consider these a success. I also found that there wasn't enough filling/pastry cream in each cupcake & the alcohol was not prominent enough. I also reduced the amount of sugar in the batter & frosting & the cupcakes weren't quite sweet enough. Oh well, wishing myself butter luck on my next bake date. I'm too lazy to re-type the recipe as I followed Cheryl's instructions.