Sparkle Up Your Day with Cupcakes – 21st Century Cupcakes

Cupcakes have come a long way since we were kids. Gone are the days of the simple chocolate, vanilla or strawberry options. Today’s cupcakes come in endless flavors and toppings and even a variety of sizes.

Cupcakes date all the way back to the late 1700’s. Their name was coined by being a cake baked in a small cup. The earliest documentation of the term cupcake was in “Seventy-five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats” in 1828 in Eliza Leslie’s Recipes cookbook. It has also been suggested the name came from the cake’s ingredients. Everything was measured by “the cup”. One cup of butter, two cups of sugar and three cups of flour…

Fast forward to the 21st century and you will find big and small cities alike with numerous stores devoted to nothing but cupcakes. Some stores have managed to expand their brand by opening franchise locations nationwide.

Much like the Cosmo (Cosmopolitan), cupcakes became the sexy guilty pleasure on HBO’s “Sex in the City”. The Magnolia Bakery had repeat appearances in the show, making it THE place to go for a cupcake when in New York City.

Today’s television programming has created numerous shows about cupcakes such as the ever popular “Cupcake Wars” where bakers from across the nation face off in challenges created by some of the lead cupcake and food critics to bake the ultimate cupcake. While other shows such as “DC Cupcakes” follow the daily drama of owning a cupcake store, and what it takes to keep their product in front of their following and not kill each other in the process.

By Reyne Hirsch

Reyne Hirsch is a Huffington Post writer, cupcake queen and a philanthropist.