But there is one alternative to a party cake which is quite popular in the States and not so much this side of the Ocean – cupcakes. At a first glance they resemble muffins, but their texture is much more feathery and light, and they always have a thick layer of special icing on top. And there are special cupcakes stands out there which can be used to build creative cupcake pyramids – the final result can compete even with elaborate multi-tired cakes!
I wasn’t exactly planning on baking these anytime soon, but two things happened – I came across a special cupcake stand on sale and couldn’t say no to it, and my husband mentioned he’d like to try some.
To my surprise my 5 overloaded shelves of cookbooks did not include anything on cupcakes, so I browsed the net and found this recipe for White chocolate cupcakes with raspberry frosting. I chose it because basically you cannot go wrong by marrying white chocolate with raspberries. But I have to admit I was not very happy with the result – the cakes were nothing ordinary, and the icing tasted too much of butter… The cupcake stand, on the other hand, played it’s role really well – see the pictures. So next time I’m just going to use it for muffins – it can be a really creative centrepiece for a party table ;-)