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In your whole life, you must’ve ever encountered, heard, or ate a cupcake. Either at your friend’s birthday party, at your siblings’ wedding ceremony, or perhaps the ones your parents bought or made for you—these popular small cakes made from butter, sugar, eggs, and flour are one of the best sweet treats you can give or have in any occasion.
A cupcake has several names; Fairy cake in British English, bun in Hiberno-English, fairy cake, or patty cake in Australian English. A cupcake is a small cake and usually baked in an aluminum cup or small thin paper designed to serve one person. It is usually decorated with toppings like frosting and cake decorations such as candy, fruits, etc., to make the cakes look more attractive to eat.
Cupcake is also known for being popular English slang to describe a person as “soft and sweet.” Like the lyrics in the famous ‘Cuppycake Song,’ this small-sized cake is perfect for people with a sweet tooth. This cake also has its history, from its first appearance and its first name, the differences between the cupcake and the muffin, and the top 10 flavors of this fluffy cake. We will share them one by one for you in this article.
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The history of cupcakes
Cupcakes were first mentioned as “a light cake to bake in small cups” in the book written by Amelia Simmons, titled ‘American Cookery’ in 1796. The term ‘cupcake’ is later used in 1828 by Eliza Leslie in her cookbook titled ‘Receipts,’ categorized under the seventy-five receipts for pastry, cakes, and sweetmeats.
There are two different uses for the term ‘cupcake’ and ‘cup cake.’ Before muffin tins were available worldwide, the cakes were baked in individual pottery cups, molds, or ramekins, hence the name cupcake. Any small and round cake in the size of a teacup will be named ‘cupcake.’ The other ‘cup cake’ referred to a cake with ingredients that were measured not by weight, instead of by volume in a standard-sized cup. They are also baked in tins as layers or loaves. In later years, the volume measurements using cups was firmly established in home kitchens, thus making these recipes became known as ‘quarter cakes’ or ‘1234 cakes’, because they are made up of four ingredients: one cup of butter, two cups of sugar, three cups of flour, and four eggs. It will become a plain yellow cake, less rich and less expensive than pound cakes because they used half as much eggs and butter compared to pound cake. Therefore, the term ‘cup cake’ was used to signal the method to the baker. ‘Cup cake’ uses a volume measurement, while ‘pound cake’ uses a weight measurement.
Differences between cupcakes and muffins
Even though you may think that cupcakes and muffins are the same, but you’re wrong! They are different; cupcakes are cupcakes, and muffins are muffins. You can know their differences after your first bite.
A cupcake is a small cake, while a muffin is a small quick bread. However, before we get into the list of their differences, we will first talk about one of their similarity, which is the ingredients. Both cupcakes and muffins contain flour, eggs, butter, milk, and sugar. Muffins usually replace all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour, oat flour, or nut flour and replace butter with vegetable oil. You can fill them with dried fruits, nuts, or chocolate chips. But there is one difference in the ingredients too, the amount of butter and sugar used to make cupcakes are higher than muffins.
The batter of the cupcakes and muffins are also different.
To make cupcakes, cream together butter and sugar to produce a smooth and fluffy batter. This batter also requires longer beating compared to muffin batter. Therefore the batter has this uniformness of air bubbles. Muffin batter is usually beaten briefly. Thus it will remain relatively lumpy to create a more dense baked good.
The other obvious difference between the muffins and cupcakes is the visuals. Cupcakes are often always topped with creamy and delicious frosting. Still, muffins will only have a very thin glaze of sugar on top of it because muffins usually already have fillings inside them, so they wouldn’t need any additional toppings.
10 Most Popular Cupcakes Flavor
Cupcakes are always popular from time to time because they are relatively inexpensive and easy to eat. While being so, everyone usually has their preference in the flavor. We will now take you through a list of the ten most popular cupcakes flavors nowadays and the reasons why.
1. Chocolate and vanilla cupcake
They are the ‘timeless’ flavor that combines two of the essential sweet tastes. They have countless variations, from light vanilla cake with dark chocolate frosting to chocolate milk cake with creamy vanilla icing.
2. Red Velvet
Red velvet often outsells the other flavors. They can be the right choice for you if you want to have a treat in miniature form instead of having an entire red velvet cake.
3. Carrot
Carrot has been one of the principal ingredients in European sweet cakes since the Middle Ages. Carrots can offer a taste of indulgence without you having an entire cake.
4. Peanut
Peanut butter has become quite popular recently because they aren’t too sweet, so it makes them likable. They are slightly savory and taste nutty.
5. Lemon
Lemon cupcakes will taste like a bit of tart but sweet, with a little sour taste. They will be yellow-colored with slightly tangy yellow frosting.
6. Chocolate
Chocolate is probably the most common taste everyone would love. Be it dessert, sweet treats, and many more, chocolate flavor will always be available everywhere. Chocolate cupcakes are one of them; this is one of the reasons why the taste is popular.
7. Coffee
Coffee cupcakes are popular, too, basically because it goes well with anything sweet. Decaffeinated grounds can be used in any coffee cupcake recipe too.
8. Banana
Banana cupcakes taste like banana bread. They are surprisingly popular and go well with a variety of toppings and icings.
9. Pumpkin
Pumpkin flavors are very popular during Fall and Winter. The taste of these large orange fruits is pleasant and tasty.
10. Vanilla
It is one of the most classic flavors ever existed. Vanilla typifies sweet desserts and confections. It’s not a surprise that these cupcakes are easy to find and popular everywhere.
