Being Katie: Cupcake Baking and The Great Red Spiced Apple Ring Search

Remember yesterday's early start? Today was a slow build. I was actually up very early, but I wasn't feeling very well. And I'm like the world's worst sick person, I'm cranky and whiny and I just want someone to take care of me; which doesn't work out so well when you're older than about 10. After relocating from my bed to the couch at about 5am because I couldn't breathe, stop coughing, and my back hurt I dozed off and on through the morning and multiple episodes of the Rachel Zoe Project (Thank you Bravo for trashy reality TV and not infomercials on Sunday morning).I have been feeling like I need to bake lately. I know I'm feeling stressed, but I'm not sure what about. But when I'm stressed I bake; it's something I learned from my Mom. So I've been thinking all week that I wanted to make cupcakes and today I finally got down to it. I usually make two kinds of cupcakes at a time and my plan for today was a vaguely conceived Oreo/Cookies and Cream and a Caramel Apple that I have a recipe for. Thus I underwent the The Red Spiced Apple Ring Search of 2010.
My recipe for Caramel Apple cupcakes called for a can/jar or red spiced apple rings. This is actually something I never heard of so I contacted my resource for all things food related, my Mom, who said they should be in with the canned/jarred fruit or possibly pie filling depending on the supermarket. So off BFFMandy and I went to Publix. We searched high and low in the canned fruit aisle without success. A fellow shopper suggested we check the jelly aisle and while this made no sense and there were no red spiced apples we did find a very helpful stock-person. He knew exactly what I was looking for and he and I trotted Bck to canned fruit picking up additional assistance on the way. Eventually the produce manager came out and advised what I was looking for is a "holiday" item and would not be available until October. (Side Note: I'm not sure if I'm more disturbed by the 97 varieties of congealed cranberry sauce they carry year round or the fact that Publix considers October "the holidays.") So I have all the other ingredients and now I have to wait for the apples; I did find several recipes online, but that seems like a ton of work when I have scads of other cupcake recipes.

I did make Oreo/Cookies and Cream Cupcakes. Overall I'd call them a success. .