It’s a Big Ten Cupcake Orgy! Week 2 of Cupcake Season

Last week, Maryland got cupcake season off to a fine start when they dominated Mike Locksley’s alma mater, the Towson Tigers. Maryland finished the first quarter up 21-0, in route to a 38-6 victory. The defense looked solid, never letting Towson score a touchdown. Maryland’s biggest issue was the O-line. But, they were shuffling lots of linemen in and out of the game, still trying to evaluate who that starting five should be. Locks stated in his post-game presser that there will be more continuity on the Oline moving forward. The O-line is still a concern but given the amount of shuffling [and the fact that one of their starting tackles did not play], it is still too early to quantify how much of a concern the O-line will be.

This week’s opponent is Charlotte, who was bad last year. They are an FBS school, so technically they are not officially an FCS cupcake. But they should not be a challenging opponent for Maryland. Nevertheless, four Big Ten teams claim the dubious honor of playing genuine FCS cupcakes:

Indiana State at Indiana

Youngstown State at Ohio State

Delaware at Penn State

Richmond at Michigan State [huh?]

In last week’s article, I enumerated the advantages of cupcakes. It’s a pre-season game in which your 2’s and 3’s get actual playing time and experience while the game still counts as a win. I get it. It makes sense. And, in Maryland’s case you keep the pay-out to a fellow member of the University System of Maryland. Likewise, Ohio State and Indiana have scheduled in-state punching bags for their foray into cupcake land. I don’t know if the payout is kept in-house like Towson and Maryland being under the same roof of the 11-campus University System of Maryland. Even if you don’t keep the payout in-house, at least Penn State going out-of-state to beat their stiff into punch-drunk submission has taken travel into consideration. Delaware is about a 3-hour bus ride to State College. But Richmond traveling all the way to Michigan State? That’s odd. Someone, please explain that on to me.

The one potential disadvantage of paying a team to travel to your stadium to get the crap beaten out of them? What if you lose? You get a ton of well-deserved ridicule. It’s the best. So, here’s to rooting for the underdog FCS cupcakes this weekend, Indiana State, Youngstown State, Delaware, and Richmond.

Real Cupcakes, Not Figurative Cupcakes

Due to multiple requests, I have promised the recipe for those delicious chocolate salted caramel cupcakes:

https://www.browneyedbaker.com/salted-caramel-cupcakes-recipe/

The icing is made from four ingredients - powdered sugar, butter, cream cheese, and salted caramel sauce. I’m sure you can buy salted caramel sauce from Whole Foods or some other fancy-pants gourmet shop, but making the salted caramel sauce from scratch is what makes these suckers special, AND it’s what was such a pain in the ass when my daughters made them.

Here is the link for the salted caramel sauce recipe:

https://www.browneyedbaker.com/homemade-salted-caramel-sauce-recipe/

Good luck and enjoy.