All About the Cupcake

I am currently between trying new recipes, so I thought I would talk a little about where cupcakes come from and some fun facts about them.  But let's first get you hungry for a cupcake...




Chocolate cupcake with Peanut Butter frosting 

Now that you are enticed, here is some interesting cupcake history:

* The first mention of a cupcake dates back to 1796, in a book called "American Cookery."  The book, written by Amelia Simms, referred to "a cake to be baked in small cups." 
* The first time the actual term "cupcake" was used was by Eliza Leslie.  She wrote a book called "Seventy-five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats" in 1828.
*The first cupcakes were baked in individual ramekins or teacups, until the multi-cup pans were invented
* Cupcake liners have more than one use-they are used to make it easy to remove the cupcakes from the pan, but also to erase the need for greasing and flouring the pan.  And hey, it makes for easier clean-up!
* Cupcakes may have gotten their name from the earliest recipe, called the 1234 cakes.  This recipe is made up of 1 cup butter, 2 cups sugar, 3 cups flour and 4 eggs.  Hence, cupcakes.
* Other names for cupcakes: fairy cake, patty cake and quarter cakes
* The record for the most cupcakes eaten in 30 seconds? 29!!
* The World's Smallest Cupcakes measures only 1.5 centimeters high and 3 centimeters wide
* The World's Largest Cupcake, according to Guinness Book of World Records 2012, was made by Georgetown Cupcake and weighed 1,176.6 kg (2,594 lbs).  It was 56 inches in diameter and 36 inches tall!
* December 15 is National Cupcake Day (stick around my blog and maybe something special will be offered on that day!)
There are a lot of facts out there, but these were some of the fun ones. 

Now that I have procrastinated enough, I am off to make a S'mores cupcake to add to the list of flavors!  Check back to see how they turned out-and as always, there will be free samples :)

*The above info was acquired by using Wikipedia, guinnessworld records.com, and wherefoodcomesfrom.com