Since chocolate was the overwhelming winner in our poll earlier in the week (over something with bacon, check for pigs flying next) the recipe is here tonight as promised.
Dark Chocolate Cupcakes With Buttercream and Salted Caramel
Cake for celebrations or for cheer is a tradition that dates back as far as the Romans, with the idea for the candle on top being attributed to both early Greeks and later, Germans. The origins notwithstanding, the cakes vary from region to region and even among families. Everyone has their own favorite cake for celebrations.
The first one I remember, was not a birthday cake, but an Easter one. I can still recall that ranch house, the apple trees I was almost big enough to climb, Mom's rose garden that she painstakingly kept up, that after her death, still bloomed without help or hindrance from any of us. I can picture that moment as she brought out the cake like it was yesterday. For at Easter every year, Mom would make a two layer cake, then cut it in half, adding a nose, ears and tail to make a bunny cake for each of us. Mine was yellow with chocolate frosting, and little marshmallow eyes and teeth with licorice whiskers.
Betty Crocker Easy Bunny Cakes
We'd eat it at the very end of the day, after church, after thanks, after dinner. There is an extremely faded photo in a drawer here somewhere of them that always brings me a smile.
Celebration cakes come in all sizes and flavors. Everyone had a favorite, though mine has been, since the very first cake that I can remember, yellow with chocolate buttercream.
Birthday cakes range from "Oh, that's so sweet!" to a roar of laughter as Partner in Grime explained that he couldn't fit (mumble mumble) candles on the little cake he made from scratch so he just gave me one giant plumbers candle. I had tears in my eyes as I was laughing so hard.
Then there are wedding cakes. Cakes at weddings are often intense elaborate affairs that can cost hundreds of dollars (seriously, do you know how much .223 and cast iron you could buy for that five tiered, looks like a swan thing?)
What were once traditional white cakes and frosting with the bride and groom toppers are now as individual as the couples involved.
The first mention of the cupcake can be traced as far back as 1796, when a recipe notation of "a cake to be baked in small cups" was written in American Cooker by Amelia Simmons. They're more than a dressed up muffin. They're fun, they're easy to prepare and share, and if they turn out too dry and overdone they make dandy replacements for sporting clays (pull!). For lunch OR launching in a trebuchet, they're dandy little things
What kind? Honestly, the simplest things are the best, and with a little work you can make a cupcake as good as any cupcake shop. I hope you like todays recipe. This is a cupcake for grown ups, but even the kids will enjoy it and the vanilla butter cream, is good on about ANY cupcake.
