Today, November 10th, is National Vanilla Cupcake Day.

Cupcakes (aka fairy cakes) are small, individual cakes designed to be eaten by one person. They are often cooked in small aluminium, or paper, "cups."

The cupcake can be decorated in a variety of ways, with toppings and icing, and flavoured. Vanilla cupcakes will typically have vanilla added to the mix. They can also be topped with vanilla icing.

Vanilla being one of the most expensive spices around, it is quite common for the "vanilla" used to be vanilla extract, rather than actual vanilla pods.

Image: By Clever Cupcakes from Montreal, Canada (Giant Vanilla Cupcake) [CC BY 2.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons