Cupcakes

  S'more cupcakes Total time: 1 hour, 20 minutes Servings: Makes 20 cupcakes Note: Graham flour, the coarsely ground whole-wheat flour traditionally used in graham crackers, is available at Whole Foods. You can use semisweet chocolate chips or a coarsely chopped 70% chocolate of your choice. Our recipes, your kitchen: If you try this or any other recipe from the L.A. Times Test Kitchen, we would like to know about it so we can showcase it on our food blog and occasionally in print.

For confectionery-crazed Angelenos, the newest development in vending culture is the sweetest one yet: a 24-hour cupcake-dispensing machine at Sprinkles, the Beverly Hills-based Holy Grail of cupcakery. And it's pink. The automaton will vend freshly-baked cupcakes, mixes, apparel and other goods, according to its Facebook page . The company has yet to announce a launch date. Customers visiting the machine's profile on the social networking site seemed enthused, with comments deeming the cupcake ATM “very dangerous” and “ingenious.” One visitor wrote: “Is this a GREAT COUNTRY or what?

Dear SOS: I am a huge fan of the vanilla cupcakes at Joan's on Third. I have tried all the other cupcake spots in town, and they can't compare. Is there any way you can obtain the recipe? Thanks. Justin Radell Los Angeles Dear Justin: With a light crumb and bright vanilla flavor, this is one cupcake that doesn't need to rely on a ton of decoration to be a hit. Joan's on Third was happy to share its recipe for vanilla cupcakes. They're simple and easy to make, and are sure to be a hit at home.

There's room for only one cupcake company called Sprinkles, and that's the one in Beverly Hills, a newly settled lawsuit seems to suggest. The popular chain, which first launched in Southern California in 2005, recently settled a trademark infringement lawsuit against a Fairfield, Conn., bakery that was calling itself Pink Sprinkles. That business, which opened in 2009, is now calling itself the Pink Cupcake Shack. Its website calls the shop “Fairfield's first cupcake boutique in Brick Walk Promenade” and touts the staff's decades of experience.

The gig: Owner of Rossmoor Pastries, one of the region's largest independent commercial bakeries. It supplies pastries, cakes and other baked goods to large clients, including Disneyland, Staples Center, Angel Stadium, Universal Studios and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Some big projects : Created a gingerbread version of Staples Center that was rolled out to center court during halftime of a Los Angeles Lakers game. Baked a 5-foot-tall birthday cake for pop star Miley Cyrus.

It’s more than an army that travels on its stomach. A presidential campaign is also carbohydrate-challenged  as President Obama demonstrated in his Seattle stopover Thursday. The president’s day began with Obama and entourage hitting a local coffee shop, the Top Pot Doughnuts.  “Hey guys,” Obama said, getting some cheers from the dozens of other customers. As Michael Jackson’s “Beat It,” played in the background, Obama stepped up to the counter, according to media pool reports.

Vons Grocery Co. has removed from all 179 of its stores packages of Hostess "Sno Ball" cupcakes, after a 9-year-old girl discovered a fishhook in one of the cupcakes purchased at a market in Camarillo, a company spokesman said Saturday. Suzanne Dyer, spokeswoman for the El Monte-based chain of markets, said the fishhook was found Thursday and that Vons was notified of the incident on Friday by the Ventura County Sheriff's Department.

It was a sweet day in Southern California ? and a not a bad day to be a food judge. Hundreds of people clutching "tasting tickets" lined up Saturday for Cupcake Camp L.A. at the Music Box Theater in Hollywood, a fundraiser that also served as a celebration of that childhood favorite. Meanwhile, across town, staff and students at the Pasadena Le Cordon Bleu cooking school tested dozens upon dozens of holiday cookies entered in the inaugural L.A. Times Holiday Cookie Bake-Off. Both events pitted amateur bakers against professionals, and if that sounds like an unfair match-up, Jackie Brubaker's table didn't show it. A music writer and producer, she was one of the first bakers to run out of her confections at Cupcake Camp L.A., which was produced by Bakespace.

If, perchance, you are a fan of magazines prominently displayed in grocery checkout lines, please accept my apologies for any shattering of delusions that may be about to take place. A few days ago, I was in one of these lines, my eyes wandering over the various magazines, one revealing a bikini-clad and heavily Photoshopped Kim Kardashian, something about someone videotaping something they shouldn't have, some allegedly famous guy cheating on some girl of equally dubious fame — and cupcakes.

EVENTS The Pacific Asia Museum kicks off its new summertime evening series Fusion Fridays with a dance-themed night of belly dancing and Bollywood performances and lessons. Enjoy cocktails and cupcakes from Auntie Em's while checking out the new exhibit, "Visions of the Orient. " In addition to DJ sets, demos and cultural activities, food trucks the Frysmith and Sweets will dish out gourmet fare. Pacific Asia Museum, 46 N. Los Robles Ave., Pasadena. 7:30-10:30 p.m. Fri. $15. (626)

Say what you will about the latest Internet video sensation - in which someone lampoons one group of humans or another based on certain conversational proclivities - but if nothing else, we can credit it with bringing mainstream awareness to the word "meme. " That's the term coined by Richard Dawkins for the way evolutionary principles can be used to explain how cultural ideas take hold. It's now basically turned into a fancy way of talking about things that are popular on the Internet.

If you aren't up to speed on what the Transportation Security Administration has labeled Cupcakegate , here's a quick synopsis . Traveler Rebecca Hains of Peabody, Mass., last month had a cupcake confiscated as she passed through airport security at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas. The TSA maintains the cupcake raised suspicions because it came in a jar and contained "gel-like" frosting that was deemed to have exceeded the 3-ounce limit. Enter the TSA Compliant Cupcake, a new product from Silver Spoon Bakery in Providence, R.I. "We wanted to take a tongue-in-cheek look at what the ideal cupcake would be to be TSA compliant," Silver Spoon owner Kelly Colgan says Thursday.

San Jose State will play football Saturday at the Rose Bowl, a gift of scheduling for UCLA that the Bruins paid for with a hefty guarantee. The Spartans have lost 17 consecutive games to teams from Bowl Championship Series conferences. That includes last week's 57-3 loss to Stanford, which left San Jose 2-34 against BCS teams since 1996. Meanwhile, UCLA has not lost to a non-BCS team since . . . well, last week against Houston. Still, the Bruins are 21-point favorites, and what happens in Vegas often happens on the field — UCLA was a 31/2 -point underdog in Houston and lost by four, 38-34.

  S'more cupcakes Total time: 1 hour, 20 minutes Servings: Makes 20 cupcakes Note: Graham flour, the coarsely ground whole-wheat flour traditionally used in graham crackers, is available at Whole Foods. You can use semisweet chocolate chips or a coarsely chopped 70% chocolate of your choice. Our recipes, your kitchen: If you try this or any other recipe from the L.A. Times Test Kitchen, we would like to know about it so we can showcase it on our food blog and occasionally in print.

EVENTS The Pacific Asia Museum kicks off its new summertime evening series Fusion Fridays with a dance-themed night of belly dancing and Bollywood performances and lessons. Enjoy cocktails and cupcakes from Auntie Em's while checking out the new exhibit, "Visions of the Orient. " In addition to DJ sets, demos and cultural activities, food trucks the Frysmith and Sweets will dish out gourmet fare. Pacific Asia Museum, 46 N. Los Robles Ave., Pasadena. 7:30-10:30 p.m. Fri. $15. (626)

One of the nice parts of my job is I get to interact with a large number of people in the building. And although I have written hundreds of items for The Times, this series has gotten the best reaction among my co-workers and friends than anything else I've done. People who hadn't any reason to do more than say hi are now passing by saying, "Lookin' good, Slim" or "I love what you're writing. " It's hilarious and very supportive, and you can see that they're genuinely rooting for Jimmy and me. RELATED: Temptation lurks at every corner None of which would have happened if I didn't have a big mouth and announced my plans, which I recommend to you. Add a little pressure to your goal.

Buttermilk has a thick, rich texture and a deliciously tangy, buttery flavor, but it is made with less than 1% butterfat. All of which makes it a perfect ingredient for low-fat baking. Like yogurt and sour cream, buttermilk is made from milk that thickens and curdles when combined with acid-producing bacteria. Cheese, on the other hand, uses rennet--an enzyme from a calf's stomach--for its texture and taste. Traditionally, buttermilk is the liquid left over from making butter.

Hostess Twinkies are becoming the latest product remade and repackaged into 100-calorie snack packs, a product some analysts say could do well given that more people are packing their own lunches in the slumping economy. The maker of the golden yellow, creme-filled cake has launched "Twinkie Bites" nationwide. It's also introducing a snack pack featuring strawberry cupcakes as it extends the 100-calorie pack line originally aimed at women who wanted to snack more sensibly. Hostess launched its 100-calorie cupcakes in 2007 but held off on making a version of the Twinkie because the 150-calorie product was a favorite overall, said David Leavitt, vice president of snack marketing at Hostess owner Interstate Bakeries Corp.

Is pie the new cupcake? Cupcakes became so popular over the last few years that upscale bakeries sprang up across the nation to offer them in red velvet, mocha and chai latte. A fan site featured pictures of cupcake tattoos on aficionados. But new versions of the all-American favorite ? pie ? are increasingly popping up at bakeries and restaurants. Pie has replaced cake at some weddings. There are pie happy hours and pie shooters served in shot glasses. "Pie is hot," said Andrew Freeman, a restaurant industry consultant who predicts pie will be the top food trend for 2011.

It was a sweet day in Southern California ? and a not a bad day to be a food judge. Hundreds of people clutching "tasting tickets" lined up Saturday for Cupcake Camp L.A. at the Music Box Theater in Hollywood, a fundraiser that also served as a celebration of that childhood favorite. Meanwhile, across town, staff and students at the Pasadena Le Cordon Bleu cooking school tested dozens upon dozens of holiday cookies entered in the inaugural L.A. Times Holiday Cookie Bake-Off. Both events pitted amateur bakers against professionals, and if that sounds like an unfair match-up, Jackie Brubaker's table didn't show it. A music writer and producer, she was one of the first bakers to run out of her confections at Cupcake Camp L.A., which was produced by Bakespace.