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Is this cupcake debate really about obesity? Or is it about uber-Moms with one too many subscriptions to Real Simple and Martha Stewart Living who feel like they must make every occasion an Event? Take away the cupcake and you remove the opportunity for an over-worked, stressed out Mom to prove to everyone how much she adores her child using nothing more than fondant and sprinkles.

You should also make sure your baking soda isn't ancient since it's your leavener (what makes your cookie rise/poof). And don't try substituting a stick of margarine for butter. But I agree with Mich23, I think your butter's too warm - it shouldn't be much softer than modeling clay when you begin creaming it with your sugar.

I miss my grandmom's after church Sunday dinners because it was all time-consuming stuff that no one longer makes - pierogis, stuffed cabbage, borscht, maybe a roast chicken with all the fixings. Pierogis alone probably took her all Saturday and we'd inhale them in minutes. Boy, we were spoiled.

Now, how did I know that everyone would tell me to fry 'em up? Heh. Ok, ok, I give -- you talked me into it (although okra curry sounds appealing). But what do I dip fried okra in - ketchup, spicy mayo, a remoulade...?

Yeah, we got it for free with some pizzas we ordered for a lunch meeting. You know if a bunch of network engineers won't eat something covered with crushed cookies, you got a problem.

These food bans get sillier and sillier. What in the world would be acheived by banning cupcakes? Oh right! Children would miraculously stop becoming obese!!! Are we living in Myanmar or something? Reducing sugar intake during the school day sounds like a better plan to me... I think children should be taught to be smart well rounded people first, then you can tackle obesity with silly bans. Can you imagine this generation of kids growing up to believe that cupcakes and the axis of evil are your enemies? HA!

I think everyone was in agreement that the school cafeteria needed to go on a diet. But banning cupcakes is tantamount to outlawing one of the last remaining bits of childhood that kids today have left. Merry-go-rounds, walking to school, trick-or-treating, and simply playing outside are now nearly things of the past.

OK, so the cupcake crisis is not exactly up there with global warming. But it is, nonetheless, important to our national heritage (and to our fundraisers), and it doesn’t take a think tank to solve the problem.

It’s apparent that the only way we’re going to have our cupcake and eat it, too, is to build a better one. Americans do it all the time. It’s our nature. Ban it? Why, when we can just improve it.

To be successful, it must be indistinguishable in flavor and texture from the original. Can it be done? It already has been done by hundreds of thousands of parents across America who have risen up (ahem…) and have overcome the cupcake crisis by simply adding a few healthy, and sneaky, ingredients.

As a “sneaky chef,” I discovered that because kids love them so much, cupcakes are the perfect “carrier” to deliver valuable hidden nutrition. How? By simply adding a few hidden ingredients. And what school nutritionist could object to a cupcake invisibly enhanced with pureed blueberries, spinach and whole wheat pastry flour, and with only half the fat and sugar?

With this simple solution–call it a “nutritional compromise”–our kids can enjoy a time honored tradition, and we can relax in the knowledge that they are also getting some much needed nutrition.

Parents, we must unite to save the cupcake, and the bake sale, as one of the last vestiges of childhood innocence and American nostalgia. By adding some sneaky nutrition, we can get cupcakes taken off the endangered species list and back into happy tummies. Let’s start baking again for fundraisers, and keep the fun in childhood and the specialness in birthdays.

It’s time to let ‘em know there’s a new cupcake in town!

Talk about a "Knee Jerk" reaction! The cupcakes are certainly not the problem. Shorter recesses, less frequent gym classes, school lunches full of starchy, overcooked, over-processed foods are some of the real problems that need to be addressed. It is amazing to me sometimes how the people who are responsible for educating our children can be so unintelligent!

Maybe these schools who are banning sweets and cupcakes ought to stop making chicken nuggets and cheeseburgers and pepperoni pizza "healthy" lunch fare.

In tomato season I have open-faced tomato sandwiches every day. My current fave: multigrain toast spread with goat cheese, a little black olive tapenade and thick-sliced brandywines sprinkled with sea salt. So good!