The 'Party-Stopping' Way to Eat a Cupcake, According to a Food Editor

Cupcakes are cute and portable and the perfect treat for classroom birthday parties , tea partie s or even cocktail parties. The single serving of tender cake with a tall crown of fluffy frosting plus decorations screams "party." But managing a cupcake (especially as an adult) can be decidedly less fun. Once you bite into a cupcake, the frosting can get on your hands or worse, your nose, and the frosting-to-cake ratio can instantly be thrown off. (Yes, this is the kind of thing food editors really think about.)

Luckily, there's a simple solution that will help make eating cupcakes easier and less messy and also give you a perfectly balanced bite—and it's one I've been using for years. You'll draw a lot of attention when you do it at a party but people will thank you for helping them see the light!

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Why You Should Make a Cupcake Sandwich

I first learned of this mind-blowing hack when I was having dinner at my friend's house. On deck for dessert were the Magnolia Bakery cupcakes I brought over. My friend gently removed the cupcake from the paper liner and tore off the bottom half of her cupcake. From there, she flipped the frosted half upside down and sandwiched it with the cupcake stump, which smooshed the frosting in between the two cupcake halves. Clutching it like a sandwich she bit in.

As much as I have her to thank, the cupcake sandwich hackers run in numbers. Bon Appétit wrote about the trick back in 2012. Actress Anne Hathaway has gone on record to say this is the only way she eats a cupcake—so much so that she didn't find it unusual. "I did this thing and it stopped the entire party," she admitted to Kelly Clarkson in an interview a couple of years ago.

Why The Cupcake Sandwich Hack Works

With some cake on the top and bottom, a cupcake sandwich gives you the ideal cake-to-frosting ratio. It's almost like eating a whoopie pie . Eating a cupcake as if it were a sandwich can make it easier to eat without getting frosting all over your hands or face, making it a more tidy option. A few cake crumbs might fall but you have to pick your battles here.

Now go get a cupcake ( chocolate ! vanilla ! carrot ! red velvet !), rip it in half, sandwich it and enjoy a deliciously different way to treat yourself.

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