A Harte Appetite: Cupcakes no longer just for children

When Candace Nelson was looking for space to rent for her new Sprinkles Cupcakes shop in Beverly Hills back in 2005, an apprehensive landlord asked, "But what else will you be selling?" He needn't have worried. Today Nelson's store routinely sells about a thousand cupcakes a day, and she has since opened four other stores.

Cupcakes, once consigned to grade school parties and bake sales as mere child's fare, now have grown-up appeal. They've even replaced the traditional cake at many a wedding reception. It's not hard to see why. There's something special about a cupcake.

Perhaps it's the ratio between cake and frosting. As the Food Network's resident geek Alton Brown observes, cake is just a delivery system for frosting -- and with a cupcake you almost always get more than you would with an ordinary slice of cake.

Or maybe it's convenience: You don't need a fork or even a plate. You just eat them out of hand. (And because they're individualized servings, you don't even have to share!)

Then again, possibly it's just how comforting they are. As Ruth Reichl, editor of Gourmet magazine notes, they take us back to more innocent times.

The red velvet cupcake is a signature item at Sprinkles, the California cupcake chain. (TOM HARTE)

But conceivably it's really because cupcakes are just plain sexy. Rachel Kramer Bussel, a contributing editor to Penthouse, says, "I consider a hand-delivered cupcake the perfect way to seduce someone."

No wonder, then, it was a character on "Sex and the City" who started the current cupcake craze. When Sarah Jessica Parker was depicted snacking on a pink-frosted cupcake outside the Magnolia Bakery in New York, the place, which started making cupcakes only as a way to use up leftover cake batter, became a tourist attraction.

Then when Barbra Streisand sent Oprah Winfrey a batch of cupcakes from Sprinkles, the original cupcakery (or all-cupcake bakery), she featured them on her show and soon star sightings at the Beverly Hills store became common.

Clearly cupcakes, or fairy cakes as they're called in Great Britain, have come a long way since they first appeared early in the 19th century. You might assume that the name cupcake simply refers to the fact they are literally little cups of cake, but this is not quite so. As culinary lexicographer Mark Morton tells us, initially they were called by the two-word term "cup cake," owing to the fact that all the ingredients in the recipe were measured by the cup. (Similarly, the pound cake got its name because its ingredients were measured by the pound.) Hence, you made a batch of cup cake. Only later in the 20th century were the two words joined to reflect the fact that the treats were typically baked in little molds or cups.

Either way, these days cupcakes truly take the cake.

Rows and rows of gourmet cupcakes lines the shelves at Sprinkles, the California cupcake chain. (TOM HARTE)

Brownie Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

This cupcake, with its dense brownie base, takes the combination of chocolate and peanut butter to a new level. You'd think the folks over at Reese's would have thought of it first, but the recipe is actually adapted from Bon Appetit magazine.

10 tablespoons butter, divided

1 1/4 cups chocolate chips

3 ounces chopped unsweetened chocolate

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 1/4 teaspoon vanilla, divided

1/2 cup flour

1/3 cup chopped toasted walnuts

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup powdered sugar

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

4 teaspoons cream

miniature Reese's peanut butter cups

Melt together 6 tablespoons butter, 1/2 cup chocolate chips and unsweetened chocolate until smooth. Remove from heat and whisk in both sugars and the eggs. Stir in 1 teaspoon vanilla, flour, walnuts, salt and remaining 3/4 cup chocolate chips. Divide batter among 6 greased or paper-lined Texas muffin cups. Bake at 350 degrees until tester inserted into center comes out with moist crumbs, about 25 minutes. Cool completely. Beat together powdered sugar, peanut butter, remaining 4 tablespoons butter and remaining 1/4 teaspoon vanilla. Add cream as needed to make a frosting of spreading consistency. Frost cupcakes and top with miniature peanut butter cups.

Tom Harte's book, "Stirring Words," is available at local bookstores. A Harte Appetite airs Fridays 8:49 a.m. on KRCU, 90.9 FM. Contact Tom at semissourian.com or at the Southeast Missourian, P.O. Box 699, Cape Girardeau, MO, 63702-0699.