Oh, and also, what kinds of flavours and icings do y'all like? Got any pictures of cupcakes you've made?

CUPCAKES CUPCAKES CUPCAKES!

aargh! Greece does not love cupcakes, but taz does! I can't even find cupcake tins. Cupcakes are the cradle of civilization, silly Greeks!!!

Pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

I know the kind of tin you're thinking of, probably a tart tray? That's probably not going to be great for muffins.

Here's a cake recipe.

Or how about a pumpkin pie? It's something I'd never eaten until I went to the States so that might be the first taste of Thanksgiving your co-workers have ever had.

Taz, that's tragic! Dessert foods are big here, as is *drool* a cheese course at the end of a meal.

Thanks, Jan. I don't really like pumpkin pie all that much, and have little-to-no faith in my pie crust skills, so I'll prolly just do a cake.

But I still wanna hear about cupcakes!

desserts are big here, but some things they just don't get _at all_. You would weep if you could taste what passes for cheesecake here. Unfortunately, I'm not a huge fan of the very, very sweet sticky honey pastries that are traditional, and not blown away by the more (relatively) nouvelle stuff. I like homey things like cookies and cupcakes, carrot cake... and these are exactly the things that aren't really grokked here.

You can get deep muffin tins here - I think I got mine at Debenhams (not sure, but I get most of my cooking stuff at D. or John Lewis so chances are it's one or the other). Your average jam tart tin probably won't do a very good job though it might work if you have the deep paper muffin cases.

For me "fairy cakes" are something specific from childhood, and are quite different from cupcakes (the main difference being that cupcakes are likely to have the really thick creamy American icing/frosting whereas fairy cakes don't), but that might be just me :).

Oh, and Greece does fabulous layers of fabulously flaky fabulous phyllo with fabulous stuff, of course... but sadly, that really not my thing.

The rise and fall of the cupcake class.

alto, I'm just going by the fairy cakes my sister-in-law makes, which are smothered with icing and coated with candy. This could be a regional thing... but more likely the influence of an assisting four-year-old.

taz, I know what you mean about not getting some dessert foods. I'm not huge on sweets, but I do enjoy a nice slice of carrot cake now and then. Here dessert is *always* served, and heavy whipping cream is poured over *everything*. Nice ripe mango and strawberry salad? Cream. Chocolate cake? Cream. German pancake with apple topping? Cream. UGH!

Well, I'll link here to my song at MeFiMu...

Cupcake, When You Have a Chance

Specklet, can you buy cupcake papers? If you can find the heavy foil-coated cupcake liners, you don't even need the cupcake tin.

I know it sounds crazy, but in their quest for the perfect cupcake recipe, Cooks Illustrated discovered that the heavy foil-coated cupcake papers can stand on their own on a baking sheet. You just line them up an inch or so apart(spacing them as if they were in a cupcake tin), fill them with cake batter, and bake 'em. You do have to handle the baking sheet a bit carefully so the cupcake liners don't go tumbling all over, but that's just an extra moment of attention getting them in and out of the oven. I have never tried this, but I trust CI. Now you have to ask yourself: do you trust them?

Mmmm, cupcakes.

I'm making cupcakes this weekend for a friend's birthday, and again next weekend for another friend's birthday. And because I will use any excuse to make cake.

You can also use the little cupcake liners in a tart pan and they'll work fine. (I always use cupcake liners because I hate having to scrub out each little indent in the pan.) I haven't made any pumpkin cupcakes this year. (I plan on checking out the pumpkin section at the grocery store on Friday since I don't feel like getting stabbed for taking my time to look at stuff before Thanksgiving.)
I've got some self-links of other cupcake recipes that I've made that came out quite tasty though: rainbow cupcakes, honey cashew cupcakes, french toast and bacon cupcakes, and sugar donut cupcakes/muffins.

speroseOMGgivemebaconcupcakenowplease!

I had the most amazing cupcake last week- the White Hot Chocolate cupcake at Crumbs. I'm not generally a big sweets fan, but holy cow, it was so good. I liked that it wasn't too much rich. Will definitely take my sister there this weekend.

There is a Crumbs 3 blocks from our apartment, TPS....

(I too have had the white hot chocolate cupcake. Nom. I still like the lemon meringue the best, a little tangy, no frosting making it all sweet)

If I could shove computers through the tubes, I totes would.

I live half a block from a cupcake shop.

I only make one kind of cupcake (the Magnolia Bakery vanilla/vanilla) but I make it very well. Photo.

I cannot tell you how thrilled I was when Cupcake Bakeshop by Chockylit came back online. I've never had a vanilla cupcake that I like better than her recipe. She often uses exotic ingredients and the recipes are usually fidly. But even if you pare them down to the cake and a frosting, so yummy

crush-onastick, I could kiss you for pointing out that Chockylit's back. KISS you.