{"id":2599,"date":"2013-06-08T11:30:38","date_gmt":"2013-06-08T16:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/headofstatecakes.com\/?p=189"},"modified":"2013-06-08T11:30:38","modified_gmt":"2013-06-08T16:30:38","slug":"the-dark-horse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/2013\/06\/the-dark-horse\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dark Horse"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"polk1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

James K. Polk<\/a> is sometimes thought of as the last strong president until Abraham Lincoln. Other times he is called the first “dark horse” president. While he was watching election-related things unfold, he realized that the presidential candidates, Martin Van Buren and Henry Clay were avoiding the highly contentious issue of expansionism. Polk brought the issue into the ring, declaring himself in favor of expansionism and became the Democratic candidate for the office. Some of this expansion had very much to do with the United States’ southern neighbor, Mexico. The rest had to\u00a0do with Great Britain. Since it was under the Polk \u00a0presidency that the United States gained most of what is now known as the southwest, I decided to play with the idea of Mexico for Polk’s cupcake.<\/p>\n

\"8952811605_28a930f685\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The cake:<\/p>\n

10 presidents into this project, and we haven’t yet had a chocolate cupcake. With James K. Polk it’s time to fix that. The cupcake name gives the perfect excuse to incorporate chocolate. To bring Mexico into the equation, I decided to add cinnamon to the cupcake, a nod toward Mexican chocolate. Also, I decided to add some spice in the way of cayenne. After all, to expand into someone else’s territory is pretty spicy. \u00a0The cupcake is topped with cinnamon buttercream, and garnished with four mini chocolate chips, a reference to Polk setting four clearly-defined goals for his presidency<\/a>. Overall, I would call this cupcake a success. This was one of the batches that I had to give away in quick order. Otherwise, too many of them would have resulted in thigh expansion for me. That’s no Manifest Destiny<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"polk3\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

James K. Polk is sometimes thought of as the last strong president until Abraham Lincoln. Other times he is called the first “dark horse” president. While he was watching election-related things unfold, he realized that the presidential candidates, Martin Van Buren and Henry Clay were avoiding the highly contentious issue of expansionism. Polk brought the
…read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[],"tags":[242,493,184,40,494],"class_list":["post-2599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-cakes","tag-cayenne","tag-chocolate","tag-cinnamon","tag-cinnamon-buttercream","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p33KTw-FV","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2970,"url":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/2013\/11\/polks-birthplace-and-dark-horse-cupcake-recipe\/","url_meta":{"origin":2599,"position":0},"title":"Polk\u2019s Birthplace and Dark Horse Cupcake Recipe","author":"admin","date":"November 8, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I get it; nothing is free. All sorts of folks are figuring out what they can do to make ends meet. This includes government. With the events of last month, that\u2019s no surprise. I was surprised, though, to learn that a few months ago a president-related historic site was in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "baking"","block_context":{"text":"baking","link":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/category\/baking\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/headofstatecakes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/polk1-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2888,"url":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/2013\/09\/the-tennessee-tailor\/","url_meta":{"origin":2599,"position":1},"title":"The Tennessee Tailor","author":"admin","date":"September 23, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Andrew Johnson is a president who I first remember learning about in the fourth grade. I remember learning about him and trying to understand what impeachment is. Andrew Johnson, like many of the other presidents is someone given to us by swirling, crazy circumstances. Abraham Lincoln choose him as his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "baking"","block_context":{"text":"baking","link":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/category\/baking\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"ajohnson1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/headofstatecakes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/ajohnson1.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/headofstatecakes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/ajohnson1.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/headofstatecakes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/ajohnson1.gif?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3247,"url":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/2014\/01\/the-kind-of-gal-who-likes-to-click-around-7\/","url_meta":{"origin":2599,"position":2},"title":"The Kind of Gal Who Likes to Click Around","author":"admin","date":"January 29, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"This Blood Orange Loaf Cake is so pretty that it looks like cutting into it might be a challenge. I bet though that if you're face-to-face with it, the cake's aroma helps you hop right over that hurdle. Making a bunch of President-themed cupcakes doesn't just make my obsession intense\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "links!"","block_context":{"text":"links!","link":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/category\/links\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"linklove","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/linklove.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":351,"url":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/2010\/02\/presidential-reading-aka-goal-26\/","url_meta":{"origin":2599,"position":3},"title":"Presidential Reading aka Goal 26","author":"admin","date":"February 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"So, one of the birthday goals is to read a biography of each US President. This goal came from writing a poem or two starring a few of our Presidents. Then someone asked me if I was going to write a poem about each US President. I thought that it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"books\"","block_context":{"text":"books","link":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/tag\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/uspresidents-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2866,"url":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/2013\/09\/the-better-angel\/","url_meta":{"origin":2599,"position":4},"title":"The Better Angel","author":"admin","date":"September 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"There are a bazillion sources of information on Abraham Lincoln. At Ford\u2019s Theatre, which I very, very much want to visit, there is a large spiraling tower of books about him. That makes it a challenge to identify just one element to focus on to create a tribute cupcake for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "baking"","block_context":{"text":"baking","link":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/category\/baking\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"betterangel1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/headofstatecakes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/betterangel1.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/headofstatecakes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/betterangel1.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/headofstatecakes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/betterangel1.gif?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4730,"url":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/2016\/03\/candidate-cookies-hillary-clinton\/","url_meta":{"origin":2599,"position":5},"title":"Candidate Cookies: Hillary Clinton","author":"admin","date":"March 17, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Candidate cookies are a quick look at the men and women who aspire to be President of the United States 2017-2020. It\u2019s not easy running for President of the United States when you have a long, public political history. It\u2019s also not easy for a presidential biocookieographer to decide how\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "baking"","block_context":{"text":"baking","link":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/category\/baking\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"hillaryclinton","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/headofstatecakes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/hillaryclinton.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/headofstatecakes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/hillaryclinton.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/headofstatecakes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/hillaryclinton.gif?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2599\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sherlonya.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}