A little cup of sunshine...

Ain't it the truth. Cupcakes are just perfect little cups of (insert favorite image here). I love all kinds, especially those piled high with good frosting and cutsy decorations. There are no shortage of blogs extolling the virtues of cupcakes (I have a couple linked in my blog read section) and recipes are everywhere. But good cupcakes can be elusive. They can be dry, crumbly, tasteless, and generally lackluster if the recipe or the baking aren't just right.

One thing that helps with making cupcakes, or any cake, is using cake flour. Cake flour is high in starch and made from soft wheat, which gives the finished product a light texture. I use Softasilk, which has a great devil's food cake recipe right on the box. It works great for cupcakes too.

I'm taking a field trip today to check out a new cupcake bakery in town. Rumor has it that the bakery makes red velvet cupcakes on weekends, so I'm off to find out. I'll let you know how it goes.

UPDATE: Well, we sampled several varieties and I'm sorry to report that it was just Meh. I'd like to give a plug to a good local bakery starting out but this ain't it. So man your batter stations (oooh, punny) and make up a batch for yourself.