The Cupcake Conundrum

Yesterday, someone at my office brought in homemade cupcakes (yellow cake with chocolate frosting--my favorite), and today someone else brought in cupcakes (this time, pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting). Both were absolutely delish.

After stuffing my face with (ahem, several of) these confections, I got to thinking about cupcakes in general. I know they've been all the rage in New York and L.A. for the past several years (and in Knoxville for the past, um, year), but I'm not really sure why. Because, when you think about it, cupcakes are about the most awkward, hard-to-eat dessert there is.

First of all there's the process of removing the wrapper, during which I usually get about half of the cupcake's frosting on my fingers.

Next there's the problem of biting into the cupcake, which I find to be nearly impossible to do without getting the remaning frosting on my nose.

Furthermore, aside from the fact that most of the frosting ends up on my fingers and nose, the shape of a cupcake is not conducive to frosting anyway, because inevitably I will eat the top half of of the cupcake first, leaving an entire bottom half with no frosting. Oh the humanity.

Why in the world have these disasters-waiting-to-happen become so popular??? Much less at weddings? I just don't understand.

Personally, I would much prefer to eat a slice of double-layer cake or, even better, triple-layer cake. If I put the slice of cake on its side and eat it with a fork, I can usually manage to get a little bit of frosting with every bit, and when I get to the end of the piece, there is an abundance of frosting (because that's the outside of the cake). I like to think of that as my own private happy ending (much more innocent than the massage kind.) Also, when I'm finished eating, I don't look like the pictures from a one-year-old's birthday party.

Not that I'm complaining about the cupcakes at the office. If these ladies are willing to keep making them, I'm certainly willing to keep eating them. I'm just pointing out that "popular" doesn't always mean "best." (Actually, it rarely does.)