Megan Seling - Bake It in a Cupcake: 50 Treats with a Surprise Inside

MEGAN SELING is a writer and baking enthusiast. Although she grew up in a family that loved making pies, cookies, and cakesher greatgrandma was known as the neighborhood Cookie Lady Megans own youthful kitchen exploits usually involved doctoring up boxed cake mixes or eating frosting straight outof the can.

Since launching her blog, Bake It in a Cake , in August 2010, Megan has been profiled by the Wall Street Journal and featured on the Blogging Today segment of Martha Stewarts Living Today radio show. Bon Apptit declared her pumpkin pie-stuffed cream cheese cupcake the most creative pumpkin dessert; FineCooking.com chose Bake It in a Cake as one of the Best Blogs of 2010; BuzzFeed included Bake It in a Cake on its list of Best New Tumblr Blogs of 2010. Her creations have appeared on Jezebel, Cakespy, I Can Has Cheezburger, Cupcakes Take the Cake, and other sites. Bake It in a Cake receives thousands of unique hits each day. Megan has worked at the Stranger , a weekly paper in Seattle, for over ten years, writing about music, food, and movies, and she also hosts a weekly local music radio show on KNDD 107.7 The End. She lives in Seattle,Washington, with her husband.

Bake It in a Cupcake text copyright 2012 by Megan Seling. Photography copyright 2012 by Clare Barboza. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of reprints in the context of reviews.

Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC

an Andrews McMeel Universal company

1130 Walnut Street, Kansas City, Missouri 64106

www.andrewsmcmeel.com | www.bakeitinacake.com

ISBN: 978-1-4494-2383-4

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012936293

Design and art direction: Kate Basart/Union Pageworks

Photography: Clare Barboza | Food stylist: Helene Dujardin

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A goofy baking experiment went from a weekend hobby to a personal obsession to a blog to a book deal within a year. For that I would like to thank/blame: my parents, Bill and Sue, and my sister, Katie, for, well, everything; Robby MacDonell for still marrying me when I decided it was totally possible to plan a wedding, bake hundreds (thousands?) of cupcakes, and write a cookbook all at the same time; Renee Zuckerbrot for making the terrifying process of writing a book proposal, pitching it to publishers, and signing a contract feel effortless and even fun; Jean Lucas and everyone at Andrews McMeel Publishing for knowing the world is still not done with cupcakes (and it probably never will be); Clare Barboza, Helene Dujardin, and Kate Basart for making my cupcakes look better than theyve ever looked before (that sounds kind of dirty, actually); Paul Constant for reminding me not to take it too seriously; all my coworkers at The Stranger who bravely ate dozens upon dozens of these experimental cupcakes without complaining even once; Jessie Oleson, aka CakeSpy, for being the very first person to write kind words about Bake It in a Cake, but more importantly for loving butter even more than I do; Zack Bolotin at Porchlight Coffee for hosting bake sales even though I never showed up on time; and, of course, the biggest, sweetest, most butter-stuffed and sincere thanks to anyone who has come to the bake sales, baked any of the recipes, sent me photos of their own Bake It in a Cupcake inventions, and/or recognized how ridiculous Bake It in a Cupcake really is and loved it anyway. THANK YOU.

C adbury Creme Eggs were the first candies I baked into a cake, but the first baked good I ever put into a cupcake was a miniature cherry pie. I stood next to the oven, with my fingers crossed tightly, hoping that my seemingly genius idea would actually workI had to fight the urge to open the oven door every 2 minutes to see how things were coming along. Just over 20 minutes later, voil! It worked! The mini cherry pie, crust and all, was sitting pretty in the center of the warm chocolate cupcake, just as I imagined it would. And it was absolutely delicious .

That was the very moment my new hobby became an obsession. That very day I made a list of all the other pies I could bake into a cupcakepeach, blueberry, blackberry, apple, etc. A list of cookies, cake, and other desserts soon followed. As this chapter proves, just about any baked good can be baked successfully inside a cupcake, including miniature pumpkin pies, coconut macaroons, peanut butter blossom cookies, and even baklava. Sure, some of these treats require twice the effort, but all your hard work results in twice the reward, too.