When I first saw what were called "meatloaf cupcakes," I thought, "How cute - tiny rounds of meatloaf with a dollop of mashed potatoes on top." They were only called cupcakes, though, because they were small and topped with something.

However, Fine Furious Life has made meatloaf cupcakes that really, well, take the cake. The meatloaves really do look like cupcakes (they'd only be slightly better if they were in paper wrappers), and the most impressive part is the mashed potato frosting that really does look like frosting because 1) it's piped into swirls, and 2) there are two colors!

I am amazed.

And who knew that so many other cooks could make an everyday meatloaf look so adorably delicious?

You're baking cupcakes for a special event, but lacking in the "fancy baking tools" department. Never fear -- you can frost stellar-looking cupcakes with nothing more than a knife.

In all the hubbub over super bowl treats, we can't forget the vegan(s) in our lives. Thankfully, Gail at Cooking at the Pacific Outpost has us covered: here's her recipe for vegan sugar cookies, that can be cut out with football-shaped cookie cutters and decorated with vegan frosting to signify the team of your choosing. Y'know, because you will suffer humiliation when the team from my town defeats the team from your town.

Vegan Sugar Cookies
Makes: About 24 cookies

You will need:

¾ cups Earth Balance, softened (FYI: Earth Balance is just a butter substitute - it won't kill you, I promise)
1 cup sugar
½ cup soy yogurt
½ tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp almond extract
2 ½ cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt

In a large bowl, cream the Earth Balance and sugar with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Beat in the soy yogurt and the extracts. Sift in the flour, baking powder, and salt and stir until well combined. Cover the dough and chill it in the refrigerator for at least one hour.

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Shape the cookies and place them 1" apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for approximately 8 minutes. Cool completely before icing.

Makes approximately. 24 cookies.

My birthday was this past Saturday, and I forgive all of you for not buying me a gift. I didn't even have any cake! Though the Mexican food and beer and wine I had more than made up for it.

Cake is something I don't eat much of, for both weight reasons and I'm not much of a baker and don't really think about buying one. But a good chocolate cake with a tall glass of cold milk is one of life's great pleasures, and AOL food has recipes for various birthday cakes (scroll down to "Great Cake Recipes") you can try. They go as far as to say that birthday cake has surpassed apple pie as America's greatest guilty pleasure.

I don't agree with that, but there are some good cakes here, including Chocolate Walnut Cake, Kentucky Butter Cake, Linzer Cake, Flourless Sponge Cake, and something called Kitty Litter Cake.

It looks like Hansel and Gretel aren't the only ones who tried to advantage of crumbs to lead them to where they wanted to go. The police in Sylva, North Carolina were able to use a very literal - not just literary - trail of cake crumbs to track down two thieves who attempted to break in to the police station last week.

The two suspects damaged the door of the station in their attempt to gain entry and, when they couldn't force the door, instead stole a sign, some flags and flagpoles before making their getaway. The door to the station was "smeared with cake and frosting" and a trail of the same sweets led along the main street, leading away from the station. It didn't take long before the detectives found their way to the two suspects, who "had cake all over them."

As you might expect from two people who smear themselves with cake and try to break into a police station, the pair had been drinking (heavily) at a birthday party in a nearby restaurant. Witnesses identified the suspects as having been serving the cake to partygoers, and then later also spotted them with the stolen goods.

Piping frosting onto cupcakes, instead of simply spreading it on, can really change the look of your desserts. With neat little swirls, the presentation will look a cleaner and more professional. I have a pastry kit and will use the various star tips from time to time, but the best - and by far the easiest - way to pipe on frosting is to use a regular plastic bag. Simply scrape the frosting into the bag with a spatula, twist the bag at the top, just above the level of the frosting (this pressure forces it to go forwards, rather than getting stuck in the bag) and snip off the corner. A large opening is the best for covering large areas, but a small opening can let you get really precise when you want to use this method to ice cookies or other intricate patterns.

Kids love to use bags like this for decorating, by the way. They are much easier to maneuver than a spatula full or frosting and usually end up making less of a mess. Use a ziplock bag for an extra barrier between the frosting and the floor, just in case.

By now, with all of our Christmas cookies recipes - Gingersnaps (two ways!), Cranberry, Orange & Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies and Chocolate Peppermint Drops - your cookie plate is going to look very appealing when you put it out with a nice variety for Santa on Christmas Eve. But Christmas just isn't quite right unless you get to spend some time decorating cookies. Not only is it a great creative outlet, but you get to eat the results.

Rather than opt for the traditional gingerbread men with royal icing, especially in light of the fact that I made gingery cookies last week, I opted to make some of my favorite Vanilla Cutout Cookies. These cookies are soft, but not cake-like, and are very easy to make. They use both butter and buttermilk in dough, both of which add a richness to the cookie, and vanilla extract with a touch of almond to keep the flavor bright. As always, I recommend using a very high quality vanilla extract or something even more vanilla-y, such as vanilla bean crush or vanilla paste to boost the vanilla flavor.

While I enjoy the flavor of a good frosting, I find that it can often overwhelm a cupcake, especially with cupcake bakeries pushing the trend towards really piling it on. Once there is more frosting than cake, it's time to cut back. As a result, I often opt for glazing cupcakes with chocolate or a powdered sugar glaze to make things simpler and maintain a good cake-to-frosting ratio. Another option is to just use a simple dusting of powdered sugar. Sprinkles don't really adhere to this type of cupcake topping, but by using a stencil, cut out of a stiff piece of cardstock or other thick paper, you can easily dress them up.

For this design, I used a simple line design and dusted the cupcakes with a mixture of cocoa powder and cinnamon, but anything that will create a color contrast will work well. If you are going to use a sticker buttercream-type frosting, you can use colored sugars with the stencil to make designs that way, but it's best to keep the frosting level and not pile it on to ensure a clear pattern.

Cakes always look better when they are decorated, even if it is with a simple "happy birthday" messaged piped across the top with some sugar gel. Sprinkles are a good option, introducing color and a sense of festivity, but for a more grown-up look, chocolate shavings are the way to go. For example, the black and white cake made by Anita, from Dessert First, only needed a few shavings to turn into a "wow" dessert. Not only are they beautiful, but the shavings are no more difficult to produce than shaking sprinkles from a little container. To make them, all you have to do is (carefully) run a potato/vegetable peeler over the edge of a chunk of chocolate, allowing the "peel" to fall onto the cake. It helps to use cold chocolate, so it will shave cleanly and not get stuck in the peeler.

Circus Animal cookies were one of my favorite types of cookie when I was in school. Not only were they sweetly addictive, but they were covered in frosting, decorated with sprinkles and shaped like animals. When combined, those traits make up a combination that is irresistible to kids. The fact that the "animals" were next-to-impossible to identify was not an issue, since my primary objective when faced with the cookies was to find the white ones with the most sprinkles and eat them first.

Adults rarely seem to buy these cookies for themselves, which is unfortunate because they're still fun to eat. Instead of going out and buying a bag, try making them at home, as Peabody from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody did. They look just as good as the originals and, since they're homemade, they probably taste even better. They'd be a great thing to take to a party because they're something that no one would expect you to be able to make at home, not to mention that they're just hard to resist in general.

Admit it: the reason that you like cupcakes is that they give you an excuse to eat like a kid again. A single-serving cake in a cute wrapper will unfailingly bring a smile to the face of any hungry onlooker, but it is not the cake itself that inspires lust for the little treat. It's the frosting.

This rich chocolate frosted cupcake was spotted on Cupcakes Take The Cake, a blog that is one of the finest resources for cupcake photos on the internet. Somewhere under this decadently fudgy topping is cake, but with frosting that looks this good, the only reason for the cake to be there is to support its weight. After all, the kid in you probably want to lick the frosting off and toss the rest of the cupcake - and when frosting looks this good, we can't blame you.

Personally, I like both the cake and the frosting when I have a cupcake because the two elements balance each other when eaten together. For others, the cupcake experience is all about the frosting, which they feel should be sweet, indulgent and in huge, billowy piles. They could take or leave the cake part. While the cake part of the cupcakes featured above is probably tasty, the thick frosting is one that should send thrills of joy through the hearts of frosting-lovers.

This is a Peach Cupcake with Martha Stewart's Mascarpone Frosting, made by the Cupcake Queen at 52 Cupcakes. The frosting is a combination of mascarpone, whipped cream and a little confectioners' sugar that is beaten at high speed until it is light as a cloud and richer than just about any other frosting you're likely to come across. With the peach cupcake, the frosting makes the dessert taste like peaches and cream, but it would work well on a chocolate or vanilla cake, too.

No, this isn't just a meat cake because it has a T-bone steak in the icing. This is actually three layers of meatloaf and ketchup glaze frosted with mashed potatoes. So far, it's the only thing posted at BlackWidowBakery.com. The meat cake's creator says it was made for the wedding of friend who wanted "A guy's cake. Like..made out of meat." The meatloaf recipe looks pretty standard, as does the glaze. The mashed potatoes came from flakes, however, to ensure a smooth frosting. The results were "delicious" according to the baker. I wonder what the groom thought.

The World's Greatest Mom cookie collection is offered for Mother's Day from Eleni's Bakery in New York, though there is no doubt that Mom deserves something special more than once a year. Eleni's specializes in elaborately decorated cookies, all done by hand, that are as much a treat for the eyes as they are for the taste buds. This cookie gift set includes 21 iced sugar cookies, each one unique and mom-related. It's $65 for the cookies, which come packaged in a lovely gift tin.

Eleni's also has an I Love Mom set and a floral Mom's Bouquet collection, both of which would also be great choices for a Mother's Day treat. 

For the full assortment in the World's Greatest Mom tin and the other collections, click past the jump.

Yesterday, I talked about the Cook's Illustrated review of egg white substitutes, which concluded that you are best off working with real, fresh egg whites. The pre-packed, pasteurized egg white substitutes didn't hold up when whipped as well as the real thing. There is one more type of egg white substitute that is known for its ability to whip up, though: meringue powder.

Meringue powder is a mixture of dried, powdered egg whites, cornstarch and gums, which help if bind together. Some powders include sugar, but the majority do not. When mixed with sugar and water, meringue powdered can be reconstituted and beaten to soft or stiff peaks. It can be used to make royal icing, baked meringues, and even angel food cakes, which I have tried with good success. It can not be substituted for egg whites in other recipes, though, only in recipes which call for beaten egg whites. Meringue powders, other than being used for frosting, are best used in recipes where the egg whites would have been uncooked, like in some mousses and sorbets. Keep in mind that meringue powder can have a sort of starchy aftertaste from the cornstarch, so don't reduce the amount of sugar or other flavorings in the recipe you're using unless you want to add another flavor to your dessert.