While growing up in San Francisco, I haunted my neighborhood bakery, which sold all kinds of cupcakes: Chocolate, maple-frosted, banana-nut, and coconut cream were my favorites. The first thing I did with my weekly allowance was buy a cupcake, sometimes two. I loved peeling the paper away slowly, to be sure I didn’t tear the tender cake. Then I’d bite a bit off the top to get a good gob of icing and nibble down to the base of the cupcake. This was my cupcake-eating ritual, and it never varied.
The recipes here were all inspired by the cupcakes I ate decades ago, although now I’m more interested in exciting flavor combinations and taste and texture harmonies. Butterscotch and caramel are so scrumptious that I decided to put them together in the Caramel Cupcakes with Butterscotch Frosting. Ginger is available in so many forms—fresh, ground, and crystallized—that I wanted to try them together in one cupcake. The flavor of ginger is intense, so I decided on mini cupcakes that can be eaten in one or two bites, and I added a lemon–cream cheese frosting to help balance the ginger. And finally, the combination of coffee and chocolate inspired the Mocha Chip Cupcakes with Chocolate–Sour Cream Frosting.
