Driving Notes

Cupcakes are an amazing dessert food. How do we know? Well, they have a national day dedicated to them, so we’re celebrating Cupcake day here on the Afternoon Drive!

(Also, also, also, the 48th Dove Awards happened last night! If you missed it and would like to see who won, check it out here)!

Click here to see the cutest little infographic ever about cupcakes. (Seriously).

The earliest description of what is now often called a cupcake was in 1796, when a recipe for “a light cake to bake in small cups” was written in American Cookery by Amelia Simmons. The earliest documentation of the term cupcake itself was in “Seventy-five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and *Sweetmeats” in 1828 in Eliza Leslie’s Receipts cookbook.

*Sweet·meat

ˈswētˌmēt/

noun – archaic

plural noun: sweetmeats

1. an item of confectionery or sweet food.

In the early 19th century, there were two different uses for the term cup cake or cupcake. In previous centuries, before muffin tins were widely available, the cakes were often baked in individual pottery cups, ramekins, or molds and took their name from the cups they were baked in.

Variants of the Cupcake…

• A cake in a mug
  The technique uses a mug as its cooking vessel and can be done in a microwave.
• A cake in a jar
  The baker uses a glass jar instead of muffin tins or cupcake liners.
• A butterfly cake (also called fairy cake for its fairy-like “wings”).
  The top of the cake is cut off or carved out with a spoon, and cut in half. Then, a sweet filling is spread into the hole. Finally, the two cut halves are stuck into the butter cream to resemble butterfly wings.
  (Here’s a picture so you can see how it looks).
• A cake ball
  An individual portion of cake, round like a chocolate truffle, that is coated in chocolate.
• A gourmet cupcake
  A somewhat recent variant of cupcake. Gourmet cupcakes are large and filled cupcakes, based around a variety of flavor themes.

Now, it wouldn’t be the Afternoon Drive if we talked about a food and didn’t share a lot of recipes for it now would it? So here you go!

Whip out the torch for this one!
This one is Lilly’s favorite.
Starbucks, but in cupcake form.
These cupcakes take you back elementary school.
Disney, but in cupcake form.
Christmas in a cupcake.
These cupcakes are perfect for fall! (Or for whenever).
Here’s literally 30 more recipes from our friends at Food Network.

Also, it wouldn’t be the Afternoon Drive if we didn’t share some fun facts…

• Cupcakes were actually originally called “Number Cakes” or “1234 Cakes” because it was an easy way to remember portions…One cup of butter, two cups of sugar, three cups of flour, four eggs, one cup of milk, and one spoonful of soda.
• The first “cupcake only” bakery is Sprinkles Cupcakes, opened in 2005. They make over 25,000 cupcakes a day from 11 locations.
• The world’s largest cupcake weighed over 1,200 lbs and had over 2 million calories.
• 13% of brides decide to serve cupcakes at their wedding as opposed to the traditional wedding cake.

Our word of the Day is…..

malign

verb    muh-LYNE

Thanks for listening!
– Lilly