Gretchen's table: Taylor Swift-inspired 'Lover' cupcakes help shake off sugary cravings
Published in Variety Menu
Taylor Swift is known for being a pretty good cook.
She's especially famous for her homemade sourdough bread and chai sugar cookies, the recipe for which was posted to her Instagram way back in 2014 and has since been replicated by numerous amateur and professional bakers.
Thanks to the release of a new cookbook by Leechburg, Pennsylvania, resident Lindsey Smith, Swifties will be able to expand their baking repertoire to include more than 50 sweet treats inspired by Swift and every era of her career.
"Bake It Off: An Unofficial Taylor Swift-Inspired Cookbook for Every Era, from Breakfast to Midnights" (Harvest, $25) has recipes for just about everything a fan with a sweet tooth might want to munch on while listening to her music. Choose from cakes and cookies to pies, tarts, pretzels, croissants and other pastries.
In a nod to the varying diets of her wide fan base, many are vegan or gluten-free, and Smith also includes a few nut-free treats as well. All come with pop star tips and pun-y titles. The author has also built custom playlists in Spotify paired appropriately to baking times and inspiring albums.
I received the pretty pink book just before a visit with my granddaughter, and since so many of its recipes look fairly simple, I brought it along with me to New Jersey to take it for a test drive.
While the recipe for pastry cream-stuffed eclairs made with choux dough looked awesome to Greta, I decided it was a little advanced for a 5-year-old. So we opted for her second choice: "Lover" vanilla cupcakes topped with a rich buttercream icing, pink sanding sugar and puffs of melt-in-your-mouth (and fingers) cotton candy.
"You'll feel like you are on cloud nine after one bite," Smith writes in the recipe's headnotes, and she's not wrong.
The addition of buttermilk gave the cupcakes a moist and tender crumb, and there's so much whipped butter in the icing — I used Irish Kerrygold, which has a higher butterfat content than American butter — it will literally melt in your mouth.
Naturally, we played Swift's music as I guided Greta's hands on the mixer and helped her spoon the batter into a muffin tin. We played it again while eating the light and fluffy cupcakes for dessert.
Which album, you ask? With its decidedly mature lyrics and occasional swear words — eight of its 12 songs are labeled "explicit" — I wasn't sure her latest, "The Life of a Showgirl," was appropriate for my granddaughter, who's in kindergarten. We opted for the more kid-friendly "1989" instead.
Lover Cupcakes
PG tested
Buttermilk is a key ingredient that helps make these vanilla cupcakes tender and flavorful. Be sure to use the spoon-and-level method of measuring to avoid using too much flour, which will make the cake dry.
For cupcakes
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup buttermilk, room temperature
Miss Americana frosting (recipe follows)
Cotton candy, for decorating
Colored sanding sugar, for decorating
For Miss Americana frosting
3 sticks unsalted butter, softened
4 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla
4-5 tablespoons whole milk or heavy cream
Make cupcakes: Set oven rack in the center position and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Line the wells of a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake lines, spray with cooking spray and set aside.
Place softened butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and cream together on medium-high speed until pale, light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
Add eggs, one at a time, and continue beating, allowing each egg to incorporate, and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed before adding the next.
Mix in vanilla.
Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.
Reduce the mixer speed to low. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture, then 1/4 cup of buttermilk, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Continue alternating between the flour and buttermilk, ending with the flour.
Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake liners, filling each about 2/3 full.
Bake until lightly golden on top and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 20-25 minutes. Let the cupcakes cool for 5 minutes in the tin, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Once the cupcakes are completely cool, apply frosting with a piping bag or a spatula and decorate with cotton candy and sprinkles.
Makes 12 cupcakes.
— "Bake it Off: An Unofficial Taylor Swift Inspired Cookbook for Every Era, from Breakfast to Midnights" by Lindsey Smith
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