Monday, December 30, 2013

Upcakes!


The upcake is the sweeter big sister to the cupcake. It has no wrapper, and when frosted, looks like a little cupcake mountain. Why make the switch to upcakes? More icing! There are a few tricks to baking these adorable sweets, so read on!


The ingredients are the same as a cupcake, but rather than being baked in cupcake tins, I baked mine in little tomato sauce tin cans. There's a good reason for the smaller size of the can, aside from the preportions. You'll find out about that later. To prep the cans for baking, spray the inside with cooking spray, and cover the side in a cut roll of parchment paper. I put in about 1/3 cup of batter into each tin, and mine slid right out after baking!

To frost, hold lightly at the top and the bottom, like you're pinching it, and roll the upcake around while slathering frosting on the sides. (If you use a standard size can for baking you won't be able to manage this move, your upcake will be too wide to hold and frost in this way.) Load up those sides with sprinkles, before you set the upcake down. 


The frosted sides make the upcake really hard to move after frosting, so I set mine down on squares of parchment paper so that I could transport them to storage after decorating. 

Now it's time to frost the top... lay that icing on, and try to smooth out the place where the top and sides meet.

Upcakes are really too messy to pick up with your hands, you'll want to use a fork, and I know where you can get some really cute ones

I don't know about you, but my whole family is ready to make the permanent switch from cupcakes to upcakes! My favorite vanilla cupcake recipe, and the one I used, is from Cupcake Project, and I love their vanilla frosting too.

Do upcakes really exist? Yes! I searched to find what I could and came up with a lot of "Up" movie themed cakes. But I first saw an upcake, as shown above, on my Instagram feed. I can't remember who posted it, but they were visiting a diner in Pennsylvania called Dixie Picnic, and I think they are the ones who created the upcake. I've changed the shape a little to make them much more vertical.

Go forth and tell all of your friends about upcakes!

1 comment:

  1. What a cute idea! These would be GREAT for a birthday party!

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