National Hostess Cupcake Day

National Hostess Cupcake Day is coming up on May 11th, representing the birthday of Hostess Cupcakes. There’s no better way to celebrate the first commercially produced cupcake than by indulging in a delicious cupcake! In this blog post, we will discuss what National Hostess Cupcake day is all about, as well as how you can celebrate this sweet holiday!

Hostess Cupcakes have been around for over 100 years, and their popularity has only grown over time! Their delicious combination of cream-filled chocolate cupcake with chocolate icing has made them a favorite among cupcake lovers everywhere. Here is a brief history of the Hostess Cupcake:

The first Hostess Cupcake was created in 1919 by the Taggart Baking Company, which was later bought by the Continental Baking Company. At the time, the Taggart bakery was known for its line of baked goods, which included a variety of breads and cakes.

Inspiration came from a cake that was popular at the time called the “chocolate cup.” In fact, the name ‘cupcake’ came from this method of baking cakes in small cups. Chocolate cup cakes were made up of two chocolate cake rounds that were filled with chocolate frosting and then stacked on top of each other. They decided to adopt this same concept, but replace the chocolate cake with white cake and fill it with vanilla frosting. Thus, the Hostess Cupcake was born!

Hostess cupcake cut to show creme filled center

Fun fact: rich chocolate cake was referred to as Devil’s Cake because it was so good as to be considered sinful!

The Hostess Cupcake quickly became popular with its iconic white squiggly line made of loops of icing and soon became one of America’s favorite desserts. In fact, in 2012, it was voted as America’s favorite dessert in a national survey! And now, 82 years after it first debuted, the Hostess Cupcake is still one of America’s favorite desserts.

The Amazing History of The Cupcake

Let’s time travel to the late 1700s to learn about the history of cupcakes!

Cupcakes are courtesy of the United States of America as that is the country they were invented. One might even say it is the best culinary offering ever.

The earliest description of a cupcake, or at least what we know nowadays as a cupcake, dates back to 1796, where “a light cake to bake in small cups” was written in a first recipe in American Cookery by Amelia Simmons. As for the earliest mention of the word cupcake itself, the first official use of the phrase was in Seventy-five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats in 1828 by expert Eliza Leslie in her Receipts cookbook.

Then, by the 19th century, there were two different uses for the term cup cake and cupcake. Before muffin tins were available, cakes were often baked in individual pottery cups, ramekins, or molds, and took their names from the cups they were baked in, so that is the name that was kept and used by the general public. Nowadays, the term “cupcake” is given to any small and round cake that is the size of a teacup. It’s important to note that English fairy cakes, although similar in recipes, tend to be smaller than American cupcakes and rarely topped with elaborate frosting.

Now, there is another kind of “cup cake”, which refers to a cake whose ingredients were measured by volume instead of being weighed and using a standard cup. Those recipes that were measured by volume using a standard-sized cup could sometimes be baked in cups, but most of the time they were baked in tins as layers or loaves. After some years, once the use of volume measurements was more established, these recipes became known as 1234 cakes or quarter cakes. Why? The answer is very simple: because they are made up of four ingredients: one cup of butter, two cups of sugar, three cups of flour, and four eggs. These recipes are slightly less rich and less expensive than the famous pound cake since it uses about half as much butter and eggs compared to the pound cake.

Of course, today’s cupcakes are more interesting than a plain yellow cake mix and can have many different ingredients stirred in them to create a wide variety of flavors, such as chocolate chips, fresh fruit or dried fruits, as well as delicious marmalade fillings or sprinkles on top of the frosting. The combinations are pretty much endless.

But even though Amelia Simmons was the first person to talk about cupcakes, even without using the word, there’s no single inventor of the first cupcakes. It is hard to trace back exactly who was the first person to come up with the original recipe as most recipes were created in home kitchens and then passed down through generations. All we know is that we are grateful they exist.

Hostess Cup Cakes

Hostess Cupcakes are the first snack cake made commercially available to the public on a national scale, which is why this date is so significant.

Today cupcakes made by Hostess come in a variety of different flavors, from classic vanilla cupcakes with vanilla creme filling to combinations of golden, orange, and lemon cake plus seasonal varieties throughout the year.