Pecan butterscotch brownies??? You have my attention....

Just think how far Gailor could have gone if she had consumed enough sweet tea and soda. All the commercials show that people that drink Coke and Pepsi are winners.

I just bought an adorable book about making creative cupcakes, and I haven't made a cupcake since my kids were little (a long time ago). I must be expressing a wish for grandchildren ...

Mrs. Bucky and I were befuddled when Bucky Jr. got married two years ago, that his bride to-be wanted wedding cupcakes instead of wedding cake.

It turned out that they were a fashionable thing to do, at the time. It also turned out that wedding cupcakes are exceedingly expensive, since each and every serving has to be individually decorated.

They were a hit.

I guess they are considered to be a manageable portion size for those so inclined to eat an entire cake (as my mother used to do, one very very skinny slice at a time). I really see nothing special about them as they tend to be heavy on yukky too sweet icing and kind of dry. I'd much rather have a slice of pound cake if I'm going to inhale that many calories personally, but that's just me.

Good point Joyce because exactly what size is a slice of cake?

EL -- as with a great many trendy things, blame Noo Yawk for cupcake mania.

Dahlink, I also got a cupcake book a while back (at Wegman's I believe). Made the "Corn-on-the-Cob" ones for my office picnic just after I retired. You take four yellow or white cupcakes, line them up, frost them with a soft buttercream icing, and put random white, cream, and yellow Jelly Bellys on them to simulate the kernels. Add a cheap corn pick at each end and, Voila, you have "corn on the Cob" cupcakes. My ex co-workers didn't seem to be up on the concept. Sigh. So much for creative.

Thanks so much for the shout-out! Do try the peanut butter and jelly bars, if you and yours can eat peanut butter; they are really yummy. (But rich -- make the bars small.)

While we're all thinking about baking, I should mention that I made the apple "flip cake" that Kate wrote up last week and it was very good--but too messy for a bake sale!

RiE--"Hello, Cupcake!" I'm not coming on to you--that's the name of the cupcake cookbook. Did you add the fake butter pats?

And Bucky, how did the bride and groom cut the (cup)cake?

Did you add the fake butter pats?

Of course. I now have a bag of Starburst Fruit Chews minus most of the yellow ones.

I was in a club back in high school that did a lot of bake sales, and I always remember the brownies and choc. chip cookies selling way faster than, say, apple cake or pumpkin bread.

As for cupcakes, I'm now remembering a recipe I printed from some website or other a while back for cupcakes with a little morsel of chocolate chip cookie dough in the middle. Never made them, but after all this cupcake talk, I may have to hunt that back down . . .

So muffins always seem to have muffin tops, but cupcakes don't. What's up with that? What is the difference between a muffin and a cupcake? Aren't they really the same? Like pigeons and doves?

Dahlink - They had a small cake to cut, but the guests were served cupcakes that looked like little individual wedding cakes.

Oh, we're talking baking? I made the new quick version of the NY Times no-knead bread last night. Took about 6 hours.

Not as good as the non-quick, but not a bad loaf. The crumb wasn't as good, nor did it taste as good, but the crust was nice.

Reasonable reduction in quality versus convience.

Well, RiE, lucky for you, Halloween is coming.

If all y'all want to see great creative cupcakes, wander on over to B-More Sweet. She makes the most incredible cupcakes!

The wife and I were married a bit more than a year ago and paid for the entire ordeal ourselves. At our reception (in Patterson Park - cost about $150), we too had the one small cake and a friend made cupcakes for the guests. It went over very well and saved us at least another $500!

he book Hello, Cupcake! has lots of creative cupcake ideas. They can be every bit as pretty as a regular cake, but much easier to serve.

Here's a link to a picture of one of those that a friend of a friend made.

Bucky Jr- that one broke me up!