Cupcake Trio

I'm usually very eager to please. I hate to disappoint people (and yes, I realize that's unhealthy), and I almost take it personal when people dislike something I've made. Therefore, I always pay attention to people's individual taste. I know exactly who of my friends will devour anything with peanut butter, who doesn't like lemons, who won't eat anything dense but loves airy mousse pies. Of course I know about all their allergies and "gag foods". So when I make something for friends, even a bigger group, I usually feel pretty confident that they'll like whatever I come up with.
However, when I'm asked to bake or cook something for people I've never met and whose preferences I don't know, I become incredibly nervous. And this week, such an occasion arose.
My mom asked me to make a dessert for her to take to a work party. She's a therapist at a hospital and the people she works with are all extremely well educated, highly sophisticated people. Real adults, in other words.
How would I know what adults like?! I freaked out just a little. Then I considered red wine and raisins.
I asked her what kind of dessert she'd like and she said to just go with whatever I wanted. It sounded enticing.
After lots of looking at recipes and even more swearing, I finally decided I'd best go with mini cupcakes. They're bite-sized, so even people who watch their weight can have one without feeling too guilty; if you don't like the cake, there isn't a huge piece of it that you have to get rid of; and if there are different flavors, you get to try all of them. The latter especially is a good thing for me, because people can only tell me which flavor they preferred if they've sampled all of them.
I figured it would be best to make three different kinds of batter: chocolate, vanilla and something fruity. I almost made four different kinds because I couldn't decide between kumquat and peach, but I ran out of time and never got around to making the peach cupcakes.
I'm glad to say that the mini cupcakes were a success. Just as I'd thought, different people preferred different flavors, but it seems like everyone found one they liked. There was an overall winner, but I won't announce it just yet.
I'll write an individual post for each cupcake, including the recipes, but not today. I'll try to put them up over the weekend.
Tomorrow will be a busy day. Let me just say this:
There will be sprinkles.