Dear Lola – Lively family debates are healthy…

Dear Lola,

I recently bought a small cake at the grocery store, intending for my family to share it after dinner. When I returned home, my family was flabbergasted by the size of the cake. A lively debate ensued with half of us calling it a small cake and the other half calling it a large cupcake. We were unable to agree on what I had purchased. I maintain it was a small cake but we would like your expert opinion. What is the difference between a small cake and a large cupcake?

Sincerely,

The Cake Chronicles

Dear The Cake Chronicles,

I am delighted to hear that not only are you purchasing cake as a dessert – it is the yummiest of all the options – but that you also engage in lively debate over the nature of that cake. As long as the debate remains friendly, I see no reason why dessert would ever make it onto the list of topics that must be avoided when in polite company. I would hate to see something as delicious as cake be lumped into a list with religion, politics and the dreaded school dress code nonsense.

I can already feel some of my readers tensing in apprehension.

Have no fear! I shall solve this problem with expediency so that we can all enjoy a slice with a cold glass of milk. The properties of cake and cupcakes are technically very similar. They use the same ingredients, are baked in the same manner, and are frosted and decorated in ways that can be used on either dessert. Also, due to the creativity of cake and cupcake makers everywhere, both desserts come in a wide variety of sizes and shapes that make differentiating between the desserts incredibly difficult. There is, however, one distinct characteristic that separates the cupcakes from the cakes.

The prodigal dome.

Lavish and completely unnecessary, this dome draws the eyes of all who are in its presence. Even when the cupcake has fallen a bit flat in the oven, the skilled cupcake maker will create a dome using frosting, giving it the classic look we all enjoy. Cakes were never intended to have this dome effect and bakers across the globe have been eliminated from baking competitions for presenting one.

Wonky cake tops are judged harshly by society, and rightly so.

Standards must be maintained or the world will descend into complete chaos.

♥Lola♥

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