After the bus had come for Ittybit, The Champ politely asked for cupcakes. "Batman cupcakes."

Which is why, at 8:15 in the morning, I was ransacking the kitchen for a box of cake mix.

Houston, we have a problem.

We have no boxed cake mix, which means I'll have to go out to the grocery store or say "No."

I hate saying no, but it's about a zillion degrees below zero outside and I don't want to do the car-seat dance. Isn't there another way?

"You make them fo me? Pease? Batman cupcakes? Pease?"

What do mean? From scratch?

Me? Seriously?

Blink. Blink. Blink.

So, at 8:18 a.m. I opened "The Joy of Cooking," found the cupcakes section and looked for an easy-looking recipe.

Located one that seemed manageable and immediately found myself improvising:

Yogurt Cupcakes (reduced fat)

In medium-sized bowl mix:

2 1/4 cups flour (whoops ... I used 2 1/2 cups).
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

In large bowl cream:

5 tablespoons unsalted butter (We have no butter. Threw some canola oil in the bottom of the bowl ... looks like three or four or five tablespoons maybe.)
1 cup sugar. (All we had is that brown raw sugar, so I used it.)
1 large egg, two large egg whites ... (Didn't bother with separating, The Champ was intent on helping. Let him crack two large eggs and then retrieved the shells from the mixing bowl.)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract. (Didn't have any, used a dash of lemon extract and a dash of almond extract.)

Add flour mixture to fat mixture in three parts.

(Thank GOD for KitchenAid. I'm already exausted.)

Add one cup yogurt (All we had was strawberry. Good enough.)

Spoon into cupcake silicones (with huge amount of spillage).

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 (or 23) minutes.

Voila. A baking experiment.

Not bad.

They were actually quite moist and tasty even if they were a little more muffin-like than cupcake-like.

I suppose I could have problem-solved the Batman thing with some chocolate frosting but The Champ had forgotten about that part of the request. Problem solved.