The first known recipe using the term “cupcake” appeared in an American cookbook in 1826, although they were probably made long before then. It became revolutionary because of the short length of time it took to cook, their size meaning that the outside was not burnt before the inside was baked. In recent years the U.S. has had something of a great cupcake awakening, as blogs and bakeries have devoted themselves to its pleasures (with at least a half dozen bakeries dedicated to cupcakes in Austin alone). Some attribute this renewed popularity to the cupcake-indulging characters of HBO’s Sex and the City, and food historian Susan Purdy also credits dietary awareness – “you can have your low-calorie cake and eat it, too.”

Either way, this was to be no ordinary cupcake. This was to be a giant cupcake, standing at 10 inches wide, and almost a foot tall.

Sadly the entire thing is not cake, it wasn’t meant to feed that many people, the cup portion is made entirely from styrofoam, covered in fondant.

The top portion is all cake. We took a standard round cake and carved it into a dome. Using fondant we made the swirls that would later form the detail of the “icing” on top. Covered in a layer of pink fondant we  made inch long “sprinkles” and a little cherry to go on top!

This was a new flavour combination for us, chocolate mint. They wanted it to taste like a peppermint patty. Both the cake and the buttercream was chocolate mint flavour, we did consider splitting it up and having a chocolate cake with mint icing, but felt that having both of them the same flavour would work better.