The cupcake method can be used in project management, designing customer experiences and in my case for personal future plans. In a nutshell, a cupcake supports you in focusing on three levels: You should include a "Wow" in your plans, some elements to increase your "Performance", and last but not least the "Basics" that represent the crucial goals. With this distinct separation you broaden your view on your personal goals, customer features or projects requirements.
Wow is the cherry or the sprinkles on the cupcake and represents an extraordinary thing you want to achieve. It is more than a nice-to-have, because it could create incredible value or impact to your project, design, life etc.
Performance is the topping and represents to enable any performance improvement. As an example, in a project you can say that with this feature X a user can find faster the results.
The basic part is the main dough at the bottom of the cupcake and represents for the must-haves, or the things that you have to consider in your life, in a project etc.