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Unless you've been living under a rock, or you don't have cable, you've no doubt noticed that one of the many unintended consequences of Sex and the City is that America is literally becoming what Gloria Steinem figuratively accused it of being: an enormous frosted cupcake. That wacky foursome just loved the cupcakes from the Magnolia Bakery in the City, and America has returned the favor by sublimating itself into a nation of cupcake fanatics. Don't take my word for it. I saw it on TV. NBC News said: "From coast to coast, cupcakes have become the hottest thing since sliced cake." That's serious. Cupcakes do seem to be everywhere. At the new year's party I went to, there were three times as many cupcakes as people, not to mention each cupcake was large enough to scare the heck out of a European -- the Double Gulp of the cupcake kingdom. Friends report they are now de rigeur at kids' birthday parties. NBC says Buttercup Bakery in New York is selling 2,000 to 3,000 a day and Sprinkles Cupcakes in Beverly Hills is selling 1,500. Of course, America will never be an enormous frosted cupcake. It will be 300 million enormous frosted cupcakes, because the whole idea of the cupcake is that it is a continent unto itself. And when we become the New Zealand of cupcakes, with more cupcakes than people, what will become of sliced cake? Or will the cupcakes have become so oversized as to require slicing? When is a cupcake no longer a cupcake? How do we feel about the cupcake trend? I'm tempted to say, I like cupcakes when they're good and don't like them when they're bad. But I won't. There must be more to it. Share your feelings.

I've made Sara Phillips Cherry Layer Cake and a plain Italian buttercream but am not sure what flavour buttercream would compliment this cake. Any suggestions? Thanks

Made the Meyer Lemon Curd Tart using her Sweet Tart Shell recipe and decorating it with Candied Meyer Lemon Zest. The dough was a bit of a bear to work with; very soft and sticky. Even on my cold marble living room table it took three tries to get it into the pan after it was rolled out. The dough uses confectioners sugar instead of granulated and the butter and sugar are creamed together for 8 minutes. The result is a crisp, but tender, cookie-like texture that ends up being well worth the trouble. The tart was just outstanding. Even after a very substantial meal all my guests had seconds and then hinted, not at all subtly, for doggie bags. Eagerly looking forward to trying more recipes from the book. If this one was any indication, there should be lots of winners here.

My son's birthday is this weekend. We are taking him and a bunch of friends to the Community Theater in Morristown for a comedy show and would like somewhere to go between Morristown and Livingston after the show for dessert.

Just hoping that someone who has the latest copy of Pastry Art & Design can sned me the recipe for the steamed orange pudding/cake. I remember taking my copy to work a couple of days ago to try it out and now the magazine is missing. Just hit up my local stores trying to find another issue with no luck. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Dan

I need your help/advice about this subject. Do you think (in a general way, not in any particular geographical situation) that a Dessert ONLY catering service has market? What kind of costumers might there be for a service like that since no savory food will be catered? (It does not include traditional birthday or wedding cakes, although some non-traditional proposals for the same purposes can be held)

I've been to Chikalicious and Room 4 Dessert - Where am I missing. I've heard of 2 or 3 other places - I think they are Asian influenced. They have either just opened or are about to open. Can anybody help with names or other places that are worth visiting just for dessert in NYC. Thanks.

I've been thinking about this for a while...I want to make a hot rootbeer float. I've been thinking about making a thick rootbeer sauce, foaming it, adding the ice cream, and it feels like it should be on a cakey type thing. I haven't gone too far with the idea so I thought I'd throw it out to you all.

Interesting books will be published in 2007: - The essentail Baker - The best bake sale cookbook - The art of desserts - icebox cakes - panna cotta - The sweet spot: asian inspired desserts - Apassion for Baking "Marcy Goldmen" Know any more?

I have the wonderful oportunity to move out of our current location (which I do love and is our little coffee/house cake shop baby) in our 2000 pop. town into our nearby city of 250,000. I opened a coffee house, with the main purpose of having an outlet and kitchen for my cake business. Through some incredible circumstances, I get to move that business and put my input into the design of the coffee house bar and more importantly, the kitchen. I have a 15' x 46' space to work with. Not incredibly huge, but much bigger than we have now. The location is right next to our University so along with the specialty cakes and wedding cakes, I plan to incorporate fun stuff like cupcakes and some healthy alternatives. I have no professional training, so setting up a kitchen is a little overwhelming and since space is tight, I want to make sure it is used well. I guess, I'd really like to see pics of your work spaces. I've done internet searches and cannot find any. Also, I've heard there is a convection oven that works better for cakes....can you help me with that? Thanks for your great input!!!

I will be attending a potluck with an Italian theme, and I signed up to bring a dessert. I don't want to make the usual tiramisu, cheesecake or zabaglione. It has to be something that I make in advance and can be easily self-served on a buffet line, so this rules out individual servings of something in a martini glass, for example. Any ideas or pointers to recipes? Thanks for any suggestions.

I have a client who wants a Napolean cake for his wedding cake. He described to me a cake that sounded similar to a napolean slice(or mille feuille): pastry cream layered with puff pastry (several layers tall)...no actual 'cake' is involved. He said it was a traditional cake in his family. I googled Napolean cake but didn't come up with much. Anybody have any suggestions/ heard of this cake before? Thanks in advance, D.

Has anyone ever made a Blue Cheesecake?? Maybe it would be more on the savory side? I've had a request for it from a new wine shop in town and I have not seen a recipe for one that I remember . . . but there must be something out there. Let me know if you have any ideas. Thanks. Patricia

woo hoo - starting a new job after a year of unemployment! the concept is 'american regional classics' - and yes, that's kind of vague my chef describes the menu as containing foods that remind you of things you ate when you were growing up - stuff you ordered at your local luncheonette, stuff your mom made, stuff that reminds you specifically of where you grew up. not necessarily retro - and not kitsch either: fried chicken, deviled eggs, green chili, chinese spare ribs, red velvet cake, etc. doing desserts this way should be a blast - i'm already thinking about how to make the perfect Ho-Ho! here's my question, then - what do you think of when you think of the desserts you grew up with? maybe store-bought things that were only sold in your area (like Moonpies, or Tastycakes)? or maybe something your mom or grandmother made & you loved to pieces? recipes are welcome, if you'd like to share, but even more than that i'm looking for ideas, memories, stories - anything you've got!

I recently made mini caramel-banana cakes from a recipe that originally makes one large loaf cake. The cakes were so good, I decided to try making the larger, single loaf cake version and was surprised that the texture came out very different. The main problem with the larger cake is that the crumb feels quite greasy. I did a search on eGullet as well as on the Web but can't seem to find the cause for greasy cakes. Does anyone have any guesses as to what happened?

I want to start offering a different kind of mini cakes to my customers. I already provide "fancy" decorated, tiered minis but they're very expensive and I rarely get orders for them. I decided to try offering minis that are cut from a sheet cake then wrapped in acetate and frosted/decorated only on the top. It's hard to describe and I can't find any pictures and haven't done any samples yet, so please use your imagination. I will of course try some samples and see how they go before officially offering them but I was hoping for some help with a few snags I foresee. First, I'm not quite sure how to use the acetate. I bought these: Acetate Strips My intention is to split and fill a sheet cake, then use a round cutter I bought to cut individual servings from the sheet. Wrap the edges with acetate (to prevent drying) then fill the top with icing and top it with some sort of quick gumpaste flower or something. 1) How do I hold the ends of the acetate together? 2) Will wrapping the acetate around the cut cakes keep them moist for a day at least? I really want to avoid icing the cut sides of the mini, hence the acetate wrap. If this isn't going to work though, I'm considering using the strips dipped in chocolate then wrapped around the mini, but only if the acetate alone doesn't do the job. Would this solution be the next best? Any tips/ideas appreciated.

I'm going to make the US Pastry Team's winning Orange Exotic cake this weekend. In a few steps it calls for using gelatin, and in the explanation it says to add melted gelatin. They use the term "melted" v. "dissolved." I've heard of but never seen or used gelatin sheets. Does anyone know if they are talking about gelatin sheets, or are they saying take gelatin powder and add hot water? Thanks in advance for the help.

We moved to Seattle two weeks ago and are staying in lower Queen Anne while looking for more permanent housing. My mom is visiting this weekend and I'd like to buy a cake early Saturday morning for her. Recommendations? Thanks!

Has anybody tried making the Trois Freres (Three Brothers sponge cake) from Healy's Art of the Cake? This recipe calls for using rice flour in place of the usual wheat flour. I'm not familiar with using rice flour in this type of recipe, although I've enjoyed many a Vietnamese baguette made with rice flour. I'm wondering what to expect taste-wise from this recipe. Also, should I expect any problems baking this in a sheet pan? Thanks.

Hello everyone! I am asking for some advice on how to create a cake in the shape of a little red schoolhouse big enough to feed 25 people. I've searched all over the internet, and I can't seem to find any pictures of anything like this. Obviously, it would be simple to do out of gingerbread, but I'm a little unsure on how to do it out of cake. I've done a few other sculpted cakes recently with much success, so I'm not afraid, just perplexed. I think it's that I just can't visualize it. Has anyone seen anything like this before, or have any tips on how to go about it? It's for my boss, whose mother used to teach in a little red schoolhouse, and he'd like to surprise her with this cake for her 85th birthday celebration next week. He's a super guy, so I'd really like to come up with something special if I can. Any thoughts are very much appreciated!

Dear Everybody, Just wondering if you have any good ideas on how to use up misc. cake crumbs and also crumbs made from baked crushed biscotti cookies? I already make rum balls with the cake crumbs and use biscotti crumbs for cheesecake bottoms instead of graham crumbs. Do you think cake crumbs could be recycled back into a cake instead of some of the flour for example? Thank you! Sean

Good morning everybody! Between the Dutch Cooking thread, the Amsterdam thread and my regular postings on the Dinner thread, I feel that my daily food-life is pretty well-documented here on Egullet. (too well, some of my friends might say). So when I was thinking about doing another foodblog (after the fun I had doing the first one February 2005), I wanted it to be really special. I was very happy when it turned out I had the opportunity to share one of my favorite weeks in the year with you all! I have a lot of fun things planned for this week. I have shuffled my workweek around a bit so I only have to be at the office 1 day during this blog, on Friday. The rest of the week will be devoted to food and festivities Tomorrow is my birthday. I love my birthday. I usually manage to get a whole week of celebrations out of it, and this year is no exeption. On Sunday I had the first birthday dinner for 10, with family. Tomorrow I’ll start the day with coffee and cake with a friend, then do a bit of shopping and sightseeing in Amsterdam, and have dinner at one of my favorite places with my husband and some friends later. On Sunday the 30th, there’ll be a party for about 18 people at my house! Lots of Egulletters have helped me plan the menu over on this thread, and I’m sure it’s going to be great! On Monday, I’m baking somethng to take to work on Tuesday and treat 20 or so co-workers. Now that’s the Birthday Cakes part of the blog title explained. I’ll talk about the Royal Celebrations part later… or maybe some of you already know what I'm referring to? If you have any question, things you would like me to eat or do, let me know. (but please don't say frites ) It looks like it's ging to be a nice, moderately sunny day in Amserdam today. I'm going to go out for some air & a little excercise. See you later!

Any top quality places in Richmond that are opened late without having to drive to downtown Vancouver or the West side? Tony

I bought a box of molten chocolate cakes from Presidents Choice that you cook from frozen in the microwave for 45 seconds or so. They come out perfect but the chocolate they use is inferior. My question is, if I was to make my own chocolate cakes let them cool, then freeze them, reheating them in the microwave for the same amount of time would they work. I like the fact that I can have a dozen or so in the freezer and just nuking them when friends pop in. Help me make this work! Please.

i just had a lovely almond cake the other night (served with whipped cream and stewed kumquats), and was looking for a good recipe to recreate. this was very moist, with a nice crumb and crispy exterior (i wonder if it was flourless/eggwhite-based?). any recipe help appreciated. and hey if you have any advice for stewing kumquats, i'll take that too. i think i can handle the whipped cream. gracias!