Hi-hat disaster

I've heard quite a number of issues with regards to Martha Stewart's recipe. Though I am a fan of hers, I have to say, I do have a problems or two with her recipe. Could it be that tips were left out of the recipe or the measurements given were just awry? I'm quizzed.

Sometime ago, I tried to make the Hi-hat cupcakes featured on her site and thought it would be a brilliant idea to bring this to a potluck party I'd be going to later. The cake looks fairly easy to do and the instructions on the recipe as well as how they did it on the video looks pretty easy (although the video had alot of short takes so you don't know whether the real product of all those short cuts would actually turn out perfect.)

The cake turned out nice and spongy, soft and nice. And its not too sweet either cos I cut down on the sugar in the recipe in anticipation of the super sweet Swiss Meringue frosting. All in all, I thought the whole thing will look perfect and was very pleased with myself for this small achievement.

And then he time came to dip the frosting in chocolate. Now this is not as easy as dipping your regular nachos into a cheese dip. My first attempt at dipping ended up with a huge dollop of what used to be a perfectly piped frosting drowning in a bowl of melted chocolate. At that point I scoured the internet trying to save the rest of the hi-hats from the same predicament. I tried to cool the chocolate slightly longer and found that it became too stiff for a dipping consistency. By then, the baby has gotten restless and wanted attention, the kids were running around wild and I just dont have that much patience left in me to experiment. I reheated the chocolate, cooled it abit and then decided I would pour the chocolate on the frosting.

As the frosting began to set, I told myself that it doesnt look too bad. well, okay, some did look awful but hey, wat could get worse? As you may have guessed, yes, i spoke to soon. Cos one bite into the frosting would send a diabetic nuts. The frosting was to sweet and there were bits of undissolved sugar in it. It was grainy and too sweet. I guess there should be a technique to completely dissolve the grains of sugar but I dont know how. Even my kids with sweet tooth did not like the frosting. we ended up scraping off the frosting and eating the cake on its own instead. Ironically, the frosting was the most time consuming part of the whole batch. Arghh..

I'm not entirely blaming the recipe as much as I am blaming myself for attempting a recipe i've never tried before right before a party (which, as a blessing or so it may seem, i didnt get to go to.) It is most likely that I made a mistake or two in making my icing stay firm enough for dipping or probably did not wait for the chocolate ganache to cool enough before dipping the frosting in. I wonder how they got it soo perfectly nice and coated in the picture. I dont dare say I would like to try this recipe again to learn from my mistakes. Just as good because I dont think its worth to make again as the family will not be able to digest anyting this sweet.