Anatomy of cupcakes (or how the 7th heaven became a revelation)

 I am wondering again on all these colorful blogs, getting inspiration from all sides. But I decided to use this post to tell a bit more about cupcakes, where they came from and all the basic information that some of you may not know.

What brought me to this topic is a dessert we had on this Sunday lunch- 7th heaven- a cake made of simple vanilla cake layer, topped with creme with walnuts. My grandma used to make this cake often and to me, it was just one of the simplest cakes, nothing that lingered in my mind.. Until I started seriously baking and thinking about cakes in a whole new light.

On contrary to what others may believe (including me), my grandmas old cakes are not really much different from todays cakes. People often look and search for new and better recipes, always in a search for something bigger, better... when in fact the only thing we need is to get back to our roots.. and you can hardly find a better recipe than the old cake and creme recipe from your grandma.

 When I first discovered buttercream, I was out of my mind.. I tried searching for the ideal recipe for it, so that its taste would not feel too buttery, nor too sweet or inedibly too fat. I have found so many buttercream recipes, tried them, scratched them over.. all so that I would find  the absolutely perfect one just this Sunday, eating by the possibly hundredth time in my life- my grandmas 7th Heaven. The best buttercream I have ever tasted! My grandma knew about and made buttercream for years, and than I selfishly thought that it was ME who brought it in the family as a new thing. NOT!

At the same time, I have tested and tried so many vanilla cake recipes, to find "THE" recipe for cupcakes.. I seriously believed that the Magnolia bakery recipe was the one, and there couldnt be anything better than that..
But, this weekend I also discovered that Magnolia could learn a whole lot from the cookbooks of my grandma.. Because the cake from the traditional, old recipe for the already mentioned 7th Heaven put the Magnolia recipe to the knees.. beat them by miles!

And so, by learning the new, we often come to the old.. The same way the 60s, 70s, 80s fashion keeps coming back, the recipes also slowly return to their originals, tradition and roots. I say "recipes", because the external appearance of cake will never get back to its old self.. that one continues on with the trends. Therefore, I am so excited to test the 7th Heaven in the new- cupcake form! My grandma would surely be happy to see them in those new, modernized forms.

So, as I said- in with the old, but out with the new.. Cupcakes are actually nothing but a traditional grandmas cake on the inside, but than on the outside- they are a new, modern and cute petite, originally decorated desserts. So, there it is- the whole anatomy of cupcakes (the photo from the blog Things) :