There’s no doubt that each of the 770 million cupcakes Americans consumed last year had a common purpose. During my bicycle trip last autumn from Ashland to Paducah with stops at 22 bakeries and cupcake shops, it became clear that cupcakes exist for one simple reason: to make us happy!
On this adventure, I journeyed across Kentucky to learn all I could about cupcakes, while searching for one special cupcake. My strategy was to ask the bakers I visited to select a cupcake they thought would make me happiest. Then, I would try a cupcake of my choosing. This journey would not be to find the prettiest cupcake or the one with the craziest name or even the one that tasted best. The sole purpose of the ride was to find the one cupcake experience that made me happiest!
Cupcakes
Happiness sometimes comes in small packages
EASTERN KENTUCKY
The fun began in the eastern part of the state at a fabulous cupcake shop named Double Drizzle on U.S. 60 southwest of downtown Ashland. I was warmly welcomed by Tracy Vipperman, Double Drizzle’s owner, baker and cupcake decorator. Vipperman answered my many questions about cupcakes and the cupcake business while enthusiastically describing the colorful selection in her display case. I was astonished when she stated that Double Drizzle had sold more than a million cupcakes in its first year of business! Double Drizzle offers 40 flavors of cupcakes, including one for dogs made with doggie treat bones, cream cheese, peanut butter and carrots.
Vipperman selected the Cookie Monster—chocolate cake with chocolate chips and cookie dough filling, cookie dough frosting and a mini chocolate chip cookie on top. I then made my choice, the spectacularly eye-catching Banana Split—vanilla cake with a crushed pineapple, banana and strawberry buttercream filling, beautifully layered strawberry and vanilla frostings, topped with nuts, chocolate drizzle, colorful sprinkles and a bright red maraschino cherry.
I moved on to Flatwoods, 15 miles north of Ashland, to Dave’s Bakery. Connie Belt and co-owner Billie Kersey welcomed me by presenting six attractively decorated cupcakes that immediately brought a big smile to my face. Kersey chose the Triple Chocolate cupcake as her candidate for the one that would make me happiest. I selected the Sunflower—vanilla cake with crumbled Oreo cookies blended into the batter, covered by a piped brilliant yellow buttercream icing formed in the shape of sunflower petals, with an Oreo in the center. Dave’s Sunflower cupcake oozes happiness and is more alluring than any sunflower I’ve ever seen, and I’ve lived in Kansas!
Thirty-six miles of biking over scenic U.S. 60 brought me to Grayson, a college town of 5,000 residents, where I found Sweet Escapes Bakery. Cortni Oakley is its gregarious cupcake baker and decorator. I was intrigued as she explained that most Sweet Escapes cupcakes are named after famous musicians. She suggested that I try the Chris Stapleton cupcake, a concoction of maple, bacon and a slight wisp of Tennessee whiskey created in honor of Chris Stapleton’s hit song “Tennessee Whiskey.” I enjoy manly cupcakes, so it was a hit! For my choice, I passed many tempting options to settle on the Bob Dylan—a blueberry cheesecake cupcake, so named because blueberry cheesecake is folk singer Bob Dylan’s favorite dessert.
Thirty miles after leaving Grayson, I arrived in Morehead for the evening. The next morning, as I prepared to leave the motel, a desk clerk asked what I planned to do. When I answered that I’d be checking out some cupcakes in town, she responded, “So, you’re the cupcake guy!” When I asked how in the world she knew, she told me that Jenni Butler, owner of Artsy Tartsy Custom Creations, Morehead’s remarkable cupcake shop, had informed the shop’s Facebook fans I’d be stopping by. She had asked her customers to vote on which cupcake they thought would make me happiest. The winner was the popular Reese’s Peanut Butter—dark chocolate cake with a Reese’s peanut butter filling, and a peanut butter buttercream icing, topped by a chocolate ganache drizzle and a peanut butter cup. My choice was the Blackberry—blackberry cake with buttercream frosting, covered with blackberry jam and topped off by a huge blackberry. I love blackberries, so my heart (and stomach) melted when I observed this elegantly decorated blackberry cupcake in the display case.
I continued over U.S. 60 to Swurlz Cupcakes on the west side of Mt. Sterling. The day happened to be the 40th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death. Cassie Jones, Swurlz’s co-owner and baker, had concocted a special cupcake in honor of the occasion: a peanut butter and banana sandwich cupcake that she named The Elvis. This kind of frivolity makes cupcake shops so much fun. Another customer was in the store buying dessert for her family’s evening meal. “Cupcakes make my kids happy like nothing else,” she said. “They’re always eager to see the crazy cupcakes I bring home.” That day, it was The Elvis.
CENTRAL KENTUCKY
The search for the cupcake that would make me the happiest continued at The Banery cupcake shop in Winchester. The maiden name of bakers and sisters Susan Mitmesser and Ann Stenzel is Bane, thus the place’s unusual name. Mitmesser and Stenzel are delightful conversationalists and talented cupcake artists. The sisters selected the Hot Fudge Brownie Sundae as their candidate for the cupcake that would make me happy. Indeed, it did! Since The Banery is in Winchester, I chose the Winchester Ale cupcake—lemon cake infused with Ale-8-One soda, and topped with a sugar glaze and a buttercream Ale-8-One soda icing.
I was eager to get to Lexington and visit a cupcake shop on Liberty Road, BabyCakes Cupcakes. BabyCakes has been featured in Southern Living and recently was named the No. 1 cupcake shop in Kentucky by the The Daily Meal website. Owner Tricia Clemons talked about the personal satisfaction that she realizes from making cupcakes that her customers so greatly enjoy. “We bakers do our very best to make customers happy,” she told me. She then selected an enticing Chocolate Bourbon for me to taste, and I picked out a Caramel Apple. The buttercream icings on both were fabulous.
BabyCakes is well-known for making a first birthday cupcake that Clemons calls the Smash Cake. The Smash Cake is slightly larger than a regular cupcake and is completely covered with colored buttercream icing. It’s perfect for 1-year-olds who like nothing more than smashing the cake into—or at least near—their mouth and for parents who want to take photos of this rite of passage, a face completely covered in gooey icing.
I then pedaled over to Caramanda’s Bake Shoppe on Southland Drive. I had heard that Caramanda’s offers a huge variety of cupcakes, and there were 23 flavors in the display case on the day I stopped by. It was there that I met Iain Knight, the shop’s baker. I especially enjoyed a sign above the display case that stated “Real Men Eat Cupcakes!” Knight made a terrific Hot Fudge Sundae cupcake for me to enjoy, and I chose the Coconut Cream with a coconut buttercream filling and a topping of toasted coconut shavings. Caramanda’s is also where I learned that cupcakes are taking the place of apples when it comes to bribing teachers. The customer who told me this was desperately hoping that a Peanut Butter Bliss cupcake would do the job later that day.
My next stop was in Junction City at Sweets by Cindy. Over the years, Cindy Nevius has developed a highly regarded cupcake shop and a loyal following. “I love making people happy,” she told me. “It gives me great pleasure and satisfaction to please my customers.”
Customers smile when they see Nevius’ cupcakes because she smiles when she bakes and decorates them. “My happiness passes into every cupcake I make,” she said.
Nevius is proud of her White Chocolate Raspberry cupcake, so that was the one she selected for me. I had a hard time deciding between the Chocolate Moonshine Cherry and the Bourbon Ball. The Moonshine Cherry won out. I wasn’t the only one who had a hard time deciding. There were so many fantastic choices. A fellow customer stood in front of the display case for 15 minutes before deciding which six cupcakes to take home. Another customer, who was to be married two days later, stopped by to confirm that her order of six dozen Peanut Butter Cookie, White Chocolate Raspberry and Death by Chocolate cupcakes would be ready on time.
The cupcake at Sweets by Cindy with the zaniest name was the crazy-looking White Trash. Nevius told me that each day after she is finished baking, she takes the leftover dough, icings and toppings and turns them into a cupcake for the next day. The result is the White Trash cupcake, which from day to day never tastes or looks the same.
Not everyone wants to mess with a cupcake, which can be challenging if you’re not experienced in the art of eating one, so a few cupcake bakers have created a cupcake in a cup, in which the ingredients that make up a cupcake are layered into a transparent cup. It looks great from the outside, tastes the same as a regular cupcake, and can be spooned from the cup. It’s a terrific idea whose time has come! I came across several cupcakes in a cup during the bike ride, but the most imaginatively designed one was the Scooby Scraps at Sweets by Cindy.
LOUISVILLE AREA
Eventually, I returned to U.S. 60 and found myself biking through Shelbyville. I wouldn’t normally stop at a pie shop when looking for cupcakes, but I’d heard that the Homemade Ice Cream & Pie Kitchen offers a popular “dipped” cupcake. While freshly baked and still warm, the bare cupcake is completely dipped, bottom side up, into a bowl of caramel or chocolate icing. The entire cupcake is covered—quite a sight! Needless to say, I had to try one … and then ended up eating two. The Pie Kitchen’s choice: Caramel Dipped. My choice: Chocolate Dipped. Both were draped with a chocolate drizzle and were fantastically enjoyable.
Continuing westward on U.S. 60, I came upon Sugar Mamas Bakeshop in Middletown. Sugar Mamas’ owner and baker Maggie Jones makes cake balls, egg-sized mini-cupcakes decorated in adorably cute ways. Anyone can buy them, of course, but Jones is known for providing cake balls for gender reveal parties. She told me about receiving sealed, unopened sonograms from doctors’ offices. After opening the envelope, only she knows the baby’s gender. Jones then prepares cake balls that have a neutral-color frosting on the outside, with pink or blue cake inside. Not until they bite into the cake balls do the expecting parents and their guests learn the baby’s gender.
My next stop, Gigi’s Cupcakes on South Hurstbourne in Louisville, provides a colorful assortment of cupcake options. On the day I visited, these included a Boo Box of six ghoulish cupcakes for Halloween and a Gobble Box of adorable Thanksgiving-themed cupcakes. Gigi’s chose a Chocolate Peanut Butter for me to try, and I selected the Blueberry Lemon. While I was enjoying my cupcakes, a woman stopped by to purchase a Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough cupcake. When I asked her why she was buying only one, she said that she was going to have lunch with her grandson to celebrate his 11th birthday. The cupcake was “a treat, not his gift,” she assured me. Another customer stopped in to purchase a jumbo Wedding Cake cupcake for her mother as a surprise for their afternoon tea together. “I do this fairly often,” she said, “making sure that I always take her a flavor that she’s not seen before. Variety is the spice of life!”
My next stop, JB Cakes on Goss Avenue in Louisville, was the most unique cupcake shop I visited. There were no finished cupcakes in the display case. Instead, owner-baker Kyle Griffith invites customers to build their own cupcake by selecting from his list of 16 cake flavors, 12 frostings and 22 toppings. If my calculations are correct, this means Griffith offers 4,224 cupcake options! After deliberating for a long time, I selected a grape cake with a peanut butter buttercream frosting that included a raspberry drizzle with peanut butter chips on top. Griffith encouraged me to try his favorite, a white chocolate cake with coffee buttercream frosting, topped with caramel drizzle and a crushed Butterfinger bar. I did and loved it, then quickly departed JB Cakes before I was seduced into tasting all the combinations.
The city of Radcliff and its A Sweet Retreat Bakery are a three-hour bike ride from Louisville. It was totally worth the effort. Between customers, who streamed in the entire time I was there, owner and baker Bess Outland described the challenge of producing more than 1,000 cupcakes a week. It takes a lot of imagination and planning, but providing a constant flow of interesting and new flavors is one way to keep customers satisfied and coming back. Outland showed me a list of more than 100 different cupcakes she has made and can offer with notice. From those available the day I was there, Outland decided her Chocolate Paradise cupcake would make me happiest. My choice was Lemon Raspberry, a lemon cake filled with raspberry gel, iced with raspberry buttercream frosting, and topped with white sugar pearls. I had only one pick of a cupcake at each place I visited during the cupcake ride, but if the rules had permitted two choices at Sweet Retreat, I’d have tried the S’mores cupcake for one reason: The toppings over the chocolate cake included crushed graham crackers, toasted mini-marshmallows and Hershey chocolate squares. Childhood memories of evenings around a campfire came flooding back.
I needed to be on my way to Glendale in Hardin County, because I had heard that the town’s annual award-winning Glendale Crossing Festival was going on. I love autumn festivals, especially those held in small Kentucky towns. Glendale is small—1 square mile, with a population of 350—but its autumn festival is a Very Big Deal, with 600 booths and exhibits, and loads of food and arts and crafts options. The weather was festival-perfect, so a huge crowd of 25,000 festive visitors were there to enjoy the day.
I was searching for cupcakes, of course, and did I ever luck out. Within 15 minutes of parking my bicycle, my eyes found a cupcake stand—actually a pink tent that housed Sugar Fashion Cakes, a Hodgenville-based order-only bakery. Sugar Fashion Cakes occasionally shows up at special events to offer cupcakes. Sarah Anthony, Sugar Fashion’s owner and baker, told me that every one of the more than 600 cupcakes she brought to the festival would be sold by mid-afternoon. I wasn’t surprised. With names such as Peanut Butter & Banana, Death by Chocolate, Hummingbird, Chocolate Sundae, Snickerdoodle, Wedding Cake and Lemon Blueberry, every cupcake was a temptation. Best of all, each cupcake was covered by a thick layer of buttercream icing (a closely guarded secret recipe, I was told) and included such attractive toppings as maraschino cherries, candy pumpkins, colorful sugar pearls, star-shaped sugar sprinkles, mini chocolate chips, Reese’s Pieces, lush blueberries, thick bacon strips and more. My choices were the Boston Cream Pie and the Pineapple Upside Down Cake, but truthfully, any of the 12 cupcakes offered at the festival by Sugar Fashion Cakes would have made me happy.
WESTERN KENTUCKY
I’ve biked in western Kentucky and the Purchase Area many times and always am delighted by the region’s picturesque scenery and hospitable residents. When I arrived this time, the land and skyscapes were spectacular. Traveling on a bicycle has a way of magnifying the enjoyment of these experiences. There’s a dramatic difference between whizzing down the road in a car with closed windows and riding leisurely and attentively on a bicycle. This is why I love biking on Kentucky’s country roads.
My destination was Owensboro, because I had heard about a shop called The Cup Cakery. Agnes and Skip Reynolds, the gregarious owners and bakers, had been informed that my friend, Paul, from Owensboro and I would be visiting. Agnes was ready. She insisted that her Wedding Cake cupcake would make me happiest. Being a chocolate junkie, I selected for my choice a Turtle cupcake of chocolate cake, pecans, coconut icing and caramel drizzle with a liberal topping of chipped pecans. I can assure you that both tasted even better than you are imagining.
Resuming my love affair with U.S. 60, I moved on to the Golden Glaze Bakery in Henderson. Since it was October, the bakery’s display case featured scary cupcakes. The icing was colorfully air-brushed with edible green and yellow spray dyes, and the toppings included spiders, hands sticking out of graves, ghosts and bloody eyeballs. What fun!
From there, I traveled south on U.S. 41 to Hopkinsville. I had been told about Amanda’s Cup Cake Café, and am glad I was. Like most cupcake shop managers and bakers, Amanda Fitzpatrick works incredibly hard to satisfy her customers. Obviously, she succeeds, as every customer I talked to had been there before. Fitzpatrick selected the irresistible Ultimate Chocolate cupcake for me. Having loved angel food cake for all my life, I ordered an Angel Food cupcake filled with raspberry jam and topped with homemade whipped cream and cinnamon sprinkles.
From Hopkinsville, it was a short and pleasant trip over State Route 91 and the historic Trail of Tears road to Princeton and Mrs. McLovets’ Cupcakes. I was not able to meet Mrs. McLovets—she’s a fictional character from English literature—but visiting with owner Cathy Lewis and former owner Nina McMillan was an absolute joy. This is cupcakery at its best! Mrs. McLovets’ cozy shop, only 8 feet by 22 feet, is adjacent to the Art Guild’s historic building in downtown Princeton. For many years (1949-90), the building was home to Miss Pickering’s beloved Tiny Café. Mrs. McLovets’ Cupcakes is open Wednesday-Saturday and features a delightful variety of cupcakes.
When I visited, the flavors included Chocolate Dipped Strawberry, Wedding Cake, Maple Bacon, Chocolate Lady and S’mores. It is impossible to describe the amount of pleasure derived from viewing Mrs. McLovets’ cupcake display case, and it is equally difficult to describe how great they taste. I broke my rule and tried five! I could not resist. The most intriguing: the Chocolate Lady. It featured a chocolate cinnamon cake with intricate, colorful flower petals made with a cranberry coulis and cinnamon buttercream icing. In the middle of the cupcake was a cute ladybug (with a head and eyes) made from a chocolate-covered cranberry. Totally adorable!
The Maple Bacon cupcake included real maple syrup and a fabulous chocolate ganache frosting, topped with flavorful candied smoked country bacon. Freely acknowledging that all men are little boys at heart, and remembering my childhood campfire experiences, I ended the visit by enjoying an incredible S’mores cupcake.
It was a perfect afternoon when I headed out of Princeton toward Draffenville. An hour later, I stopped to fill my water bottles at the Five Star convenience store in Eddyville. It was there that I noticed the nearby Our Daily Bread café and bakery. When owner-manager Randy Fraliex told me that his mother, Rose Fraliex, makes the cupcakes, I talked myself into a mid-afternoon treat of coffee and a colorful Funfetti cupcake. Funfettis are among the most playful of cupcakes. The vanilla batter and a fluffy vanilla buttercream icing are both loaded with colorful sprinkles. It seemed like my moist cupcake was bursting with an exploding rainbow. It was great fun.
Early the following morning, I stopped at Parcell’s Bakery just north of Benton in the Draffenville Plaza. I enjoyed visiting with owner Daniel Slayden, cupcake specialist Lisa Cooper and pastry supervisor Brian Steffen. They all were welcoming and eager to describe the 12 flavors of cupcakes available. I tried two—the Oatmeal Cream Pie and the Chocolate Salted Caramel—and if I were certain this was to be the last day of my life, I also would have gone for the Root Beer Float, Pumpkin Spice and Ginger Snap cupcakes. Suffice it to say that Cooper and Steffen are extraordinary bakers and cupcake artists.
There were still two hours of pedaling to the final cupcake shop I would visit. So I said goodbye to Parcell’s and headed for the south side of Paducah and Cass Sweets ’n Eats. Cass Schneeman painstakingly described each of the attractive cupcakes in her display case. Perhaps because Schneeman was so proud of them all, it was more challenging than usual to select two to taste. I finally settled on the oddly named Pig Lickin’—pineapple orange cake with a coconut cream filling and a fluffy pineapple icing—and the Caramel Apple, an apple cake with caramel filling and icing, drizzled with more caramel and topped with peanuts.
CONCLUSION
I’ve been on many bike rides. None were as much fun as searching for the cupcake that made me the happiest. Not surprisingly, I discovered that finding happiness with a cupcake is much like falling in love. Even though most of us are not sure what love is and are hard-pressed to define it when asked, we know beyond a doubt when we experience it. This is what happened when I encountered the cupcake that made me happiest. I knew it the second we were introduced. The attraction was electric. It was true happiness at first sight.
After enjoying 44 exceptional cupcakes, it was time to decide which one made me the happiest. My choice: the colorful, spirited, beautifully and creatively decorated, and utterly delicious Banana Split Cupcake at the Double Drizzle Bakery in Ashland. I break out in a huge smile every time I remember our meeting. Come to think of it, that’s the purpose of a cupcake!
10 Things I Learned About Cupcakes
- According to American Cookery by Amelia Simmons, cupcakes were first mentioned in 1796 when a recipe described a way to bake “a light cake in small cups about the size of a tea cup.” It was noted that each cake would serve one person.
- The popularity of boutique cupcakes began to skyrocket in 2000 when Sex and the City’s main character Carrie Bradshaw, played by Sarah Jessica Parker, ate a vanilla cupcake with pink buttercream frosting on the HBO show.
- In the United States, cupcakes are served at 13 percent of weddings.
- The primary reason cupcakes are fun to eat is because they are small. One can eat an entire cupcake and not feel guilty. Best of all, when the cupcake’s gone, it’s gone; there’s nothing left to nibble on the rest of the day.
- Cupcakes are much more than miniature cakes. They are individual works of art. Since every cupcake is handmade, its bakers and decorators can be imaginative, even adventurous. As a result, each cupcake possesses a unique persona.
- Even though cupcake makers constantly offer new flavors, according to what I discovered on my adventures, the Wedding Cake, Strawberry and Red Velvet are the most popular cupcakes in Kentucky.
- A surprising number of people buy doggie cupcakes as rewards for their pets.
- Grown men buy cupcakes, and they do so more frequently than one might guess. Men may say they are buying for someone else. It is doubtful, however, that most of those cupcakes ever reach that mysterious “someone else.”
- According to etiquette experts, there are four acceptable ways to eat a cupcake: The Neanderthal, The Sandwich, The Elegant and The Choo-Choo Train. The appropriateness of each method depends on the occasion, who you’re with, and the impression you want to make.
- Kentucky’s bakeries and shops specializing in creating high-quality cupcakes are conveniently scattered throughout the state. Most are locally owned, and the owner, store manager and baker are often the same person and sometimes the only employee. These people work hard and derive enormous satisfaction from pleasing their customers.
How to Eat a Cupcake
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to eat a cupcake, but as I prepared for the cupcake bike ride, I began to feel uneasy about an important matter: I did not know how to eat a cupcake. So I asked a knowledgeable friend to tutor me on each of the acceptable, if not totally proper, ways to consume one. They are:
- The Neanderthal Method. This requires picking up the cupcake in your hands, taking it out of its wrapper, and leading with your mouth to eat the whole thing without the aid of a spoon or fork. Depending on the size of the cupcake and your mouth, the frosting’s gooeyness and the toppings’ height, this may require a huge effort. Eventually, the entire cupcake will make it in. Several napkins will be needed. This method seems to generate an alarming amount of joy.
- The Sandwich Method. This involves dividing the cupcake into two parts by cutting off the bottom half, inverting it and placing it on top. The frosting and toppings then find themselves in the middle. Like a sandwich, this is finger food. No spoon or fork is permitted. This method makes you appear somewhat refined, with proper decorum.
- The Elegant Lady’s or Gentleman’s Method. First, use a spoon to delicately remove and ingest the icing and toppings, very small amounts at a time. Then, slowly and appreciatively spoon out the cupcake’s filling. Only then should you delicately consume the remaining cake. This method, which has been known to turn cupcake consumption into an art form, makes you appear sophisticated and etiquette wise.
- The Choo-Choo Train Method. Begin by licking off a small taste of the frosting and toppings. Then you attack the cupcake with the closest available utensil (any will do), slicing down one side from top to bottom and then the other. Since every bite includes all parts of the cupcake, this method ensures that you will enjoy the cake, filling and whatever is left of the frosting and toppings in one fell swoop! Each bite is “choo-choo trained” into the mouth. You may look ordinary, perhaps even bland … but, most importantly, you’ll be happy and content with life!
Kirk's Cupcake Superlatives
The Cupcake That Made Me the Happiest: The Banana Split Cupcake at the Double Drizzle Bakery in Ashland.
The Cupcake Shops Most Worth a Long Bike Ride: Mrs. McLovets’ Cupcakes in Princeton; The Banery in Winchester; Sweets by Cindy in Junction City; Artsy Tartsy Custom Creations in Moreheadl Double Drizzle in Ashland; and Parcell’s Bakery in Draffenville.
The Happiest Cupcake in Kentucky: The Sunflower at Dave’s Bakery in Flatwoods.
The Cupcake That Was the Quickest to Make Me Smile: The Chocolate Lady at Mrs. McLovets’ Cupcakes in Princeton.
Most Eye-Catching Cupcake Display Cases: Sweets by Cindy in Junction City; Artsy Tartsy in Morehead; Mrs. McLovets’ Cupcakes in Princeton; and The Banery in Winchester.
Kirk’s Kentucky Cupcake Hall of Fame: Chocolate Salted Caramel at Parcell’s Bakery in Draffenville; Banana Split at Double Drizzle in Ashland; White Chocolate Raspberry at Sweets by Cindy in Junction City; Reece’s Peanut Butter at Artsy Tartsy in Morehead; Hot Fudge Sundae Brownie at The Banery in Winchester; Chocolate Dipped Strawberry at Mrs. McLovets’ Cupcakes in Princeton; Sunflower at Dave’s Bakery in Flatwoods; Caramel Apple at Cass Sweets ’n Eats in Paducah.
The Most Adorable Little Ole Cupcake That You Ever Did See: Chocolate Lady (bug) at Mrs. McLovets’ Cupcakes in Princeton.
Coolest Commemorative Cupcake: The Elvis (peanut butter and banana sandwich cupcake baked on the 40th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death) at Swurlz in Mt. Sterling.
Most Unusual Presentations of Cupcakes: A Cupcake in a Cup at Sweets by Cindy in Junction City; an egg carton of Cake Balls at Sugar Mamas Bakeshop in Middletown; Pull-Apart cupcakes at A Sweet Retreat in Radcliff; the upside-down totally immersed dipped caramel cupcake at the Pie Kitchen in Shelbyville.
Most Inspirational Cupcake Signs: “Cupcakes Make Me Happy” at BabyCakes in Lexington; “Real Men Eat Cupcakes” at Caramanda’s Bake Shoppe in Lexington; “Will Work for Cupcakes” at A Sweet Retreat in Radcliff; "Keep Calm and Eat a Cupcake" at Mrs. McLovets’ Cupcakes in Princeton.
Most Compelling Reasons for Buying a Cupcake: “I want to thank my neighbor for mowing my grass”; “I need a raise, so I’m trying to butter up my boss”; “Could take medication to address my depression, but a cupcake is cheaper, more fun and I don’t need a prescription”; “The kids have been good this week, and it’s pay day!”; “I can eat an entire cupcake and walk it off by going to the mail box and back.”
Kentucky’s Unsung Heroes: Our state’s hard-working bakers and cupcake artists who possess a remarkable passion for providing extraordinary cupcakes and doing their very best to please their customers.
Kirk’s Greatest Regret: The decision to limit myself to two cupcakes at each place I visited.
Kirk’s Proposal for a Kentucky State Cupcake: The Commonwealth Cupcake! Chocolate cake with a bourbon infused chocolate fudge filling, covered by maple icing and a caramel drizzle, with pecan chips and candied smoked bacon pieces on top.