Hi, P.J.. I´m a great fan of Southern US culture. I love Mardi Gras and all the Jazz and Blues music and musicians from New Orleans. My favorites are undoubtedly Dr. John and the fantastic honky tonk piano player Jon Cleary. I love all the culinary of that region because it´s similarity with Brazilian Northeast State Bahia culture. There you have Zydeco, here we have Forró, a local rythm with accordion and lots of dances...and Carnival here is similar with Mardi Gras of New Orleans...and now we´re at Carnival Season here with lots of Samba...and lots of good foods too... I love the way you top those cupcakes. Are they in honor of Brazil??? It´s because you´d baked those cakes with Brazil´s flag colors on top. Blue, yellow, green!!!!!!!! Anyway, thanks one more time for this lovely recipe and i´ll bake them here with USA colors on top, in honor of you, P.J. and our good relationship at this fantastic blog!!! Here in Brazil we have similar cupcakes we bake here with coconut grated on top and condensed milk on filling we call here Mãe Benta!! Nice and deliciouss! Ooooh, sounds delicious, Ricardo - I love coconut. Thanks for making cupcakes with USA colors on top - and I'm glad mine have Brazilian colors, though it was happy coincidence: violet, yellow (gold) and green are the traditional colors of Mardi Gras. Thanks for staying in touch here - always interesting to hear from you. PJH

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