Luck, not a lady!

I'd been hearing the buzz about Earl Grey cupcakes, and where I'm not a fan of Earl..I am a fan of Lady Grey. So I thought it would be an easy enough swap. So while lurking on Bake and Destroy (http://nataliecakes.wordpress.com/2008/06/13/earl-grey-cupcakes-and-filled-cupcakes/ -one of these days I'll figure out how to link, I swear) and found this, I thought I'd go for it.

I can't really pinpoint where I messed up...but I'll tell you what I did, and maybe you can figure it out for me. It might just be the curse of trying to jack with a recipe! 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I used self-rising) 3/4 tsp baking powder (omitted-due to sr flour) 1/2 tsp baking soda (omitted-due to sr flour) 1/4 tsp salt (omitted-due to sr flour) 2 Earl Grey tea bags or 1 Tbs loose tea (used 2 Lady Grey-decaf) 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar 6 Tbs unsalted butter, room temp 3 egg whites 1 tsp rated orange zest (omitted, didn't have it) 1/4 tsp orange oil (omitted, didn't have it) 1 cup buttermilk (used fresh..as in just made it the day before..yes MADE it...I made my own butter from fresh cow's milk that a farmer friend gave us and the milk you pull off of the butter lump)

I combined the butter and sugar. Added my egg whites. Alternated my buttermilk and my flour. And baked at 350 for about 20 minutes. *sigh* Since I was baking my Sour-Cream Kuchen (blog forthcoming) at the same time, I had to bake the cups on the second rack, and about half of them burned. *tear*

Husby says: "they taste like Holiday cardboard"-

um WTF? Holiday cardboard??

he went on to explain: they taste Holiday-ish...but they have a really try texture.

Ok ok..I admit it..they were NOT my best. Especially in the wake of the carrotcakecheesecakecupcakes (see post below).

It was recommended to do a buttercream frosting...

but noooooo..did I do that? noooooo. Didn't help I was out of powdered sugar.

So I thought "I'll try a ganache, it will be easy to do a ganache, yes, a white chocolate ganache will really make up for the fact that these kinda suck"

Lesson learned-whole milk (fresh from the cow actually) is NOT the same as heavy cream when you are making ganache.

Runny mess.

I had some leftover blue coconut icing from some chocolate cuppies about a month ago (just the standard shortening and powdered sugar kind)--so I mixed it together with the non-ganache and dipped the tops of the cups in there.

If it's possible, it kinda made them worse.

I love the idea of Lady Grey cupcakes...so any help you might have would be GREATLY appreciated!