SPAM-tastic!

What’s your favorite flavor of cupcake? Chocolate? Yellow?

How about SPAM?

Cake decorator Estelle Schmidt won the national Best SPAM Recipe Competition with her savory SPAM Cupcakes, which originally took top honors at the Kansas State Fair. Schmidt first tried to concoct a full-size cake made of SPAM luncheon meat, oatmeal, milk and eggs. It didn’t quite work out, so she downsized. Then, she put her decorating skills to use, topping the cupcakes with a glaze, mashed potatoes and chives. These took the cake, winning Schmidt a $2,500 shopping spree, round-trip airfare and accommodations for two to Minneapolis, and the honor of having her recipe featured on the back of 10 million cans of SPAM. If you aren’t lucky enough to get one of those cans, you can get the recipe at www.spam.com. Click on the “Eat SPAM” link.

Coffee corner

If you’d rather sip a cup of coffee in your living room than at the corner caf?, Coffee-mate creamer has the contest for you. The winning essayist in the “Redecorate with Coffee-mate” contest will receive a $10,000 gift certificate to Linens ‘N Things, a personal design consultation, a coffeemaker and a year’s supply of Nestle’s Coffee-mate products, along with a trip for two to New York City to visit the Linens ‘N Things flagship store in Paramus, N.J. To enter, write an essay (maximum 200 words) that describes your favorite coffee-drinking spot, how that place influences your overall coffee-drinking experience, and why you would like to win a total decorating makeover to enhance that room or area, a photo of the room and one UPC symbol from any Coffee-mate product. Send it by March 15 to: Publicis Dialog, Attn: “Redecorate with Coffee-mate” Contest, P.O. Box 809014, Dallas, TX 75380. For information, visit www.coffee-mate.com.

Milk model

Supermodel Gisele Bundchen’s curvy figure is enough to make men feel weak, but she’s promoting strong bones in the 2001 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, which is on newsstands now. In the newest addition to the “Got Milk?” ad campaign, Bundchen wears a towel – and a milk mustache – to point out that one in five osteoporosis victims is male. A cold glass of milk can help prevent the bone-thinning disease, and it may just help SI readers cool off, too.