I have a slew of “What the???” moments to share and talk about, stemming back about two and a half years via rants on Facebook.

I am going to ease you all in with one of the biggest culprits – cupcake makers.

Discovered at Target. Shame on you, Sunbeam

I was very taken by the cupcake trend back in oh….2007. While I will always love the confection, I have been over it for quite some time, probably because my favorite cupcakes adorn such labels as Duncan Hines, Pillsbury, and Betty Crocker. The simpler the better. I like the nostalgia of my 1980s childhood, where cupcakes were a novelty for birthdays to be celebrated in school, and the most exotic cupcakes were chocolate chip with that awesome vanilla with tiny chocolate chip frosting that I have never been able to find or reproduce properly since 1987.

And while the food world is inundated with these treats, available in outlets ranging from gas stations to food trucks to mail order catalogs to gourmet bake shops, appliance manufacturers are trying to *ahem* simplify the process.

In walks Sunbeam with their Cupcake Maker. Okay, I can’t totally hate on them because after all, they are a business and businesses exist to make money. If anything, they may even borderline brilliant by taking advantage of the poor shmuck who will buy one of these. Though note the difference in price from when I saw it in Target to now.

The maker claims to produce six cupcakes in 10 minutes. OK, great! Now, the average muffin or cupcake pan has room for a dozen cupcakes. And the standard bake time is 20 to 25 minutes at 350 degrees. So…if I made six cupcakes in my maker, removed the six after ten minutes and prepared another six, wouldn’t that take me 20 – 25 minutes? And really, what cupcake recipe or cupcake eater is only going to want SIX cupcakes?

The only place I see this maker surviving is a college dorm room operating as a pot laced bakery.

I’m just shaking my head. #whatthe???