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Five Food Finds about Cupcakes:

•  Cupcake liners do more than make it easy to remove them from the pan. Traditionally, sides of tins are greased for easy removal, but also floured because the batter needs to have something to cling to. A cupcake liner takes care of both.
• On August 15, 2009 GourmetGiftBaskets.com broke the world record for largest cupcake ever made. The cupcake was 1,224 pounds, 4 foot tall by 10 foot wide, and had 2 million calories.
• One of the most popular cupcake bakery’s in the U.S. is Crumbs in New York City.
• The first mention of a cupcake recipe goes as far back as 1796. Amelia Simms wrote a recipe in “American Cookery” which referenced, “a cake to be baked in small cups”.
•  However, it wasn’t until 1828 that the actual word cupcake was used by Eliza Leslie in her cookbook “Seventy-five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats”.

Today’s Food History

• 1789 Mrs. Alexander Hamilton served a new dessert treat for General George Washington. The highlight of the dinner party was ice cream! And all this time you thought Dolley Madison was responsible.
• 1817 Richard Lovell Edgeworth died. An Anglo-Irish inventor, among his many inventions and innovations were a turnip cutter, various improvements in agricultural machines, and a velocipede.
• 1893 African American inventor T.W. Stewart received a patent for a mop.
• 2010 Jimmy Dean died at age 81. A country music singer he also founded Jimmy Dean Meat Co. in 1969, well known for its Jimmy Dean Sausage brand.