Finding happiness in a cupcake

Recently, I've addressed an important question that's been nagging at me for the past several weeks: how do bakeries make muffins with those beautiful, break-them-off muffin tops?

Perhaps a little background is necessary first.

As I've mentioned previously, I've been on a bit of a cupcake binge lately. However, my cupcakes are always so small and humble-looking. In the back of my mind, what I'm really thinking about are those behemoths that they sell at Starbucks. If I was truly a cupcake connoisseur, my creations would be just as glamorous looking. Besides, more cupcake is always better, right?

So, I was delighted when I found the answer last week: they make a special muffin pan for this task. The pans have an ordinary-sized recepticle for the paper liner, but the top quicky flares out allowing for muffin-top maximus.

The pans work as advertised, but I quickly discovered a problem.

Imagine a cupcake shaped like a portobello mushroom: it has a small base and a comically-large muffin top. In fact, the top is so large that the cupcake acts as a tiny pedestal for a lot of frosting. And then--just as quickly as you can say 'Williams-Sonoma' (professional 12-cup muffin pan, $17)--all of the balance that makes the cupcake so wonderful and so enticing disappears into a top-heavy, 500 calorie turd.

The cupcake--in its infinite wisdom--has taught me something about happiness: find satisfaction in your current abilities because more isn't always better.