I baked my version of the $3.00 cupcake today using the sour cream cake recipe from The Ebony Cookbook (1978), by Freda DeKnight, and a basic milk chocolate buttercream recipe from school.  Just to be interesting I used pans with odd shapes, like a ghost mini cake pan that springs into action every Halloween.  The cake was a bit rubbery so next time I’ll try a pound cake batter; most cupcake batters are just too soft for my taste.  Incidentally, this is one great cookbook.  No pictures, but a treasure of recipes, especially if you want to make things like coffee cakes and biscuits.  Plenty of good ideas for chicken, too.