Get Ready Cupcake Lovers

Banana Angel Food Cake with Banana Infused Dulce De Leche Filling
It's a Virtual Cupcake Crawl!

Cupcakes
A Bit of History

American ingenuity, or mistake, cup cakes or cupcakes, entered the world of food in the United States sometime in the 19th century. Brits refer to them as fairy cakes, gotta love that, and down under, well they call them pattycakes! Considered by some to be a revolutionary idea for several reasons: the amount of time saved in the kitchen because ingredients were no longer weighed, decreased cooking time as they were smaller and fewer burnt cakes (cooking in a hearth oven requires great skill and timing). I'm sure no one initially thought about them being easier to transport. I would have loved to have seen the faces of the congregation at the church potluck where they made their debut!

At first, cupcakes were often referred to as number cakes, referring to the measurements of ingredients it took to make them: one cup butter, two cups sugar, three cups flour, four eggs, one cup milk and one spoonful of soda. Like many other food 'inventions,' no one can pinpoint the exact origin of the word cupcake. However, it is conceivable that it was either because the ingredients were measured in cups or because they were baked in them. The Australians pattycakes are named after the patty pan in which they were baked, and the Brits refer to them as fairy cakes, due to their diminutive size. Today however, cupcakes have catapulted into the baking spotlight, having a cult like following, with limitless variations. Just Google cupcake recipes and you'll find 2.8 million links to choose from. That's a lot of flour and sugar!

With cupcakes garnering so much creative input from all over the world I decided we, fellow foodies, need to have a virtual cupcake crawl! What's that you make ask, well, I'm inventing as I go along but here's what I believe it to be.

We cupcake lovers create a cupcake recipe, bake it, post the recipe and a photo, then share it in a virtual cupcake 'forum,' in this case, here!

Gourmet Girl Magazine gets cookbooks all the time to review and I have quite a stash. So I decided, why not share the wealth, after all, true food lovers share their ideas and their resources! That being said, I'm going to give away two cookbooks; First prize will be Cat Cora's, Cooking From the Hip ($39.95)! Thanks Cat for sending it my way for my readers! (You can check out the fantastic recipe she sent, Crispy "Fried" Chicken, for our readers to try out.) The runner up will receive Emily Franklin's, Too Many Cooks ($24.99). (Review coming soon!)

The CRAWL

1. Send an email (info@gourmetgirlmagazine.com) that you will be participating, include your contact info. (Please
note all information is kept confidential. I/we do not share or sell our contact information.)
2. Create, bake, post the recipe and photo on your site by July 19, 2009 (midnight EST), include in your post
Summer 2009 Cupcake Crawl with a link back to here so folks can vote!
3. Tweet, Stumble or Facebook (and let me know) about the Virtual Cupcake Crawl, including a link here, to get an
additional BONUS entry.
4. Join the Gourmetgirlmagazine.com official fan page on Facebook for an additional entry.
5. Come back here and post the name of your cupcake and a link to your post so everyone can check out what you
made. If you tweeted, stumbled, posted or join the fan page include that too!
6. July 20th voting opens for the favorite cupcake, and will close midnight July 25th. Winners will be announced
July 30th.

I will send out a reminder for everyone who participated to tell their fans, friends, and followers to vote for their favorite.

BONUS GIVEAWAY-CLOSED
I'm such a lover of sweets I decided to include an added bonus, so people who don't bake have a chance to have some fun too! How would you like to win a gourmet goodie, like a Good Now Spatula used on the Iron Chef, Zhi Gourmet Tea, or Gourmet Popcorn Seasonings, to name a few? I have 10 things to give away to make your summer cooking awesome. Go to Gourmet Girl Magazine and find the spectacular cupcake that Executive Chef Paw created. EMAIL me between July 1-15th the name of the cupcake. DO NOT POST YOUR ANSWER HERE. On July 20th I'll draw one name for each of the 10 items.

So, let the crawling begin!!!

Food images property of GGM.
Product image provided by Good Now.