Bake the Book: 'The Butch Bakery Cookbook'

Cupcakes are not exactly what you'd call gender-neutral desserts. With their frilly frosting, lacy liners, and intricately decorated tops, these pint-sized cakes are decidedly girly. I mean, really, when's the last time you saw a big burly dude chomping down on a pastel buttercream-topped cupcake? That's why cupcake shop Butch Bakery specializes in—you guessed it—cupcakes with a masculine point of view.

Founder David Arrick incorporates the usual suspects—beer, bacon, whiskey, and chiles—into his cupcakes, creating desserts that pack a far greater punch than the comparatively tame vanilla, chocolate, and red velvet that grace the shelves of more ladylike cupcakeries.

But Arrick's newly released The Butch Bakery Cookbook is hardly just for men; it's perfect for those who have acquired a serious case of cupcake fatigue over the past few years. Each cupcake recipe is packed with unexpected flavor combos, from sweet and salty to boozy cocktail-inspired cakes, all of which are not only exciting but tasty enough to keep the cupcakes from feeling even a little bit clichéd.

For the next two weeks we're going to be dusting off the cupcake pans and baking our way through The Butch Bakery Cookbook with adults-only recipes like the Beer Run, chocolate stout cupcakes topped with vanilla stout buttercream and finished off with chocolate covered pretzels; whiskey soaked Old Fashioned; and the Driller, a maple cupcake topped with chocolate ganache and candied bacon.

Win A Copy!

Thanks to the generous folks over at Wiley, we are giving away five (5) copies of The Butch Bakery Cookbook this week.

All you have to do is tell us about your favorite dessert that appeals to a manlier palate in the comments section below.

The standard Serious Eats contest rules apply.