Last week’s post I shared a few of my favorite professional outlets where I gather much of my inspiration for all things food-related. What I might have failed to mention, however, is that pretty much everything we do and everywhere we go has something to offer so long as our eyes, ears, and minds are open and ready to learn.

A tray of popcorn cupcakes didn't last very long at this carnival-themed birthday celebration!

With that, I bring you the Popcorn Cupcake… it looks just like, well, a cup of popcorn, wrapper and all. I was so mesmerized by this tiny, tricky treat that at first I didn’t understand how the popcorn texture was made let alone colored butter yellow so realistically. Upon further examination and conversation with the mom who made these cute cuppies (and my own ultimate consumption), the cupcake breaks down as a vanilla cupcake base topped with vanilla icing (butter cream or cream cheese depending on preference; these were cream-cheese frosted) and marshmallow “popcorn” pieces mashed together. To get the fresh-buttered popcorn look, you take some heavily watered-down yellow food coloring, a watercolor paint brush, and paint the tops of the cupcakes. You can finish the look by downloading, printing, and taping a red and white POPCORN label around each plain-wrapped cake to maximize the traditional popcorn bucket look (get your wrappers from a variety of vendors).

Thanks to our host at last Saturday’s birthday party for this week’s Treat Tuesday inspiration – and Happy Birthday again, Holden!