lessons learned

When you decide to make a cake from scratch (especially the first time you make a new recipe), try REALLY hard to remember that all of the ingredients listed in the recipe are necessary.  Just pay attention so you don't skip any steps.

Even if you don't like tasting batter or dough that has raw eggs in it, do it any way--just in case you forgot to include a major component of the recipe (such as SUGAR).  You can probably catch this mistake if you just taste it before cooking it.  

Note that baked cupcakes without sugar look almost exactly like cupcakes with sugar.  They do NOT, however, taste the same.  In fact, there is a really good reason sugar is included in cake recipes.

If you are making a homemade cake for your child's birthday, make it the day or night before to allow yourself a time buffer in case you mess it up and have to remake it.

Try to be careful when cleaning up for the second time (after remaking the new recipe), even though you might have screaming children begging for a taste and a crying baby wanting to eat/take a nap.  If you aren't careful, you just might drop the baking soda container and have a lovely mess to clean up while kids are still screaming/crying.

Even if the end result is fantastic, make sure you have plans for the leftover cupcakes you end up with (because you just might be sick of cupcakes/frosting by the time you've spent about 4-5 hours making and then remaking them).