Turns Out We've Been Eating Cupcakes Wrong All Along

With sweet frosting, super-light sponge, and rainbow sprinkles, what's not to like about a traditional cupcake? It cheers even the dreariest of Scrooges and puts a welcome swing in our workday step. But did you know there's a better way to enjoy these dreamy treats than stuffing them into our mouths at speed, only to be left with a nose full of frosting and a bellyache?

When it comes to eating frosted fairy cakes, the traditional method is to take a generously big bite of cupcake from the top down, but this classic technique has room for improvement. Firstly, when cupcakes are eaten this way, the buttercream gets all over your face, and secondly, the final bite never seems to have enough frosting; the ratios are always wrong.

It may sound odd, but the best way to eat a cupcake is to turn it into a sandwich or whoopie pie with the frosting in the middle and the cake on the outsides. This little trick takes seconds to execute but will change the way you enjoy your cupcakes forever. It's especially useful to employ this hack when serving cupcakes to children at birthday parties because it prevents sticky faces and fingers.

To eat a cupcake the right way, you'll need to do a little rearranging after you've left the cake store. Begin by removing the wrapper from the base of your cupcake and breaking off half of the cake portion from the very bottom with your fingers. Try to do this as evenly as you can, or use a knife if you have one nearby to achieve a neater finish with a level surface. Having said that, using your hands makes for a far more fun, sensory experience and cupcakes are a grab-and-go treat anyway that are best savored sans cutlery. Finally, take the portion of cake you've broken off and place it on top of the frosting, pressing down very gently to help the cake adhere to the whipped icing. You should be left with a re-assembled cupcake with frosting in the center that you can pick up like a mini-sandwich.

Enjoying a cupcake in this way makes for a neater bite because it contains the frosting within the middle portion of the confection. The proportions of the cupcake change, too, so you get the perfect amount of frosting and cake in every mouthful instead of heaps of sugary icing and a little morsel of sponge. So, if you're looking for a more refined way to enjoy your cupcake with minimal mess, try splitting it and eating it like a sweet sandwich.