Please help; cupcake trivia

Aura
Aura: my daughter needs to do a presentation at school and the topic is...cupcakes. (yeah well neither she nor I picked it) She needs at least 4 minutes and we timed it, what little we found so far takes up about 2 minutes. I must note, we can't go into ingredients and preparation because that's cover by her partner (yes, two students to cover a topic like cupcakes. What are schools coming to) All the websites have the same info on them, so I would like to know, does anyone have some cupcake trivia to share? anything at all can be helpful.
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Corwin
Corwin: Have you ever heard of a French Toast / Maple Syrup / Bacon cupcake? This is an actual cupcake recipe. Everything goes with bacon.
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Whimsical Fairy
Whimsical Fairy: I don't know what you already found, but this was interesting.


Cupcake History

While preparing Crazy About Cupcakes I spoke to folklorists, food writers and food history professors and searched many libraries to find out "Where did cupcakes come from?" What did I find? There is not much written about the cultural history of cupcakes. This is what I know.


The term 'cupcake' is first mentioned in E. Leslie's 'Receipts' of 1828. Breaking with tradition of weighing ingredients at this time they ingredients began to be measured in cups. According to "Baking in America" by Greg Patent, this was revolutionary because of the tremendous time it saved in the kitchen. "The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America." explains that the cup name had a double meaning because of the practice of baking in small containers — including tea cups.

Cups were convenient because hearth ovens took a long time to bake large cakes. Gem pans, early muffin tins, were common in households around the turn of the 20th Century and cupcakes were baked directly in these. Throughout the 1900's cupcakes became popular kids treats partly due to their ease in baking. In the early 1900's Hostess introduced the snack cupcake, but it didn't become the Hostess Cupcake we know today until the 1950's.

Many people associate cupcakes with the popularity of homemaking of the 1950's and 60's although this is an myth. Cupcakes were no more popular during that time period then they are today. More likely is that adults associate cupcakes with memories from their childhood. What is different today is that cupcakes have gone crazy. Traditionally they have been made for children in basic flavors. Today the cupcake has gone gourmet and is playful, hip and glamorous. Over the past few years cupcake bakeries have opened around the country with people waiting late at night on lines out the door. This craze is here to stay.

http://www.crazyaboutcupcakes.com/learning.htm

(Edited by Whimsical Fairy)
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Whimsical Fairy
Whimsical Fairy: The worlds largest cupcake was 1224 POUNDS and 2 million calories

http://www.allculinaryschools.com/culinary-careers/article/the-rise-of-cupcakes
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Whimsical Fairy
Whimsical Fairy: A Little Cupcake History

Today I found a newspaper article (registration required) that not only talked about cupcakes' newfound popularity amongst adults, it also gave some cupcake history. Thought I'd share that knowledge with you, the cupcake-devoted:


Here's a cupcake primer: A "cup" cake in 19th Century America might have been a small cake, but it wasn't necessarily so. They were so called because the ingredients for them were measured in cups instead of weighed, as had been the custom. According to "Baking in America" by Greg Patent, this was revolutionary because of the tremendous time it saved in the kitchen.

Whether it was a "cup," "measure" or "number" cake, the shift to measuring from weighing was indeed a significant one, according to "The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America." But it goes on to explain that the cup name had a double meaning because of the practice of baking in small containers -- including tea cups.

The cups were for convenience because hearth ovens took an extremely long time to bake a large cake -- and early cakes, by the way, were enormous -- and burning was common. Gem pans, early muffin tins, were common in households around the turn of the 20th Century and cupcakes were then baked in those.

(And if you're wondering, it was 1919 when Hostess introduced the famous snack cupcake, but it didn't become the cream-filled, squiggle-topped Hostess Cup Cake we know today until 1950.)

It's interesting to note that the cakes were likely called "number" cakes because of a mnemonic device for remembering the recipe: One cup of butter, two cups of sugar, three cups of flour and four eggs plus one cup of milk and one spoonful of soda.

The formula became known as the one-two-three-four cake, and today's cupcakes are mostly still made with similar traditional cake ingredients.

http://cupcakestakethecake.blogspot.com/2005/04/little-cupcake-history.html
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Aura
Aura: thanks a lot
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Whimsical Fairy
Whimsical Fairy: Your welcome, I hope it helps.

I had another thought, I don't know when she has to give her cupcake speech but the first post I made (from crazyaboutcupcakes.com ) has a contact email to the author. How cool would that be if she could get first hand info from the author

(Edited by Whimsical Fairy)
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ohnonotthatguy
ohnonotthatguy: Oh man and I raced over thinking i was going to eat cupcakes

Sorry i am bad at baking
(Edited by ohnonotthatguy)
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Mc Lovin
Mc Lovin: You look like Cameron Diaz
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Geoff
Geoff: Smooth, dude. Smooth.
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