 Plain cupcake with strawberry icing and chocolate cupcake with chocolate icing | |
| Alternative names | Fairy cake, patty cake,[1] cup cake |
|---|---|
| Type | Cake |
| Place of origin | United States |
| Main ingredients | Butter,sugar,eggs,flour; optionally,frosting and othercake decorations |
Acupcake (AmE,CanE),fairy cake (BrE), orbun (IrE) is a smallcake designed to serve one person, which may be baked in a small thin paper or aluminum cup. As with larger cakes,frosting, icing and various othercake decorations such as fruit andcandy may be applied.
The earliest extant description of what is now often called a cupcake was in 1796, when a recipe for "a light cake to bake in small cups" was written inAmerican Cookery byAmelia Simmons.[2][3] The earliest extant documentation of the termcupcake itself was in "Seventy-five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats" in 1828 inEliza Leslie'sReceipts cookbook.[4][5]
In the early 19th century, there were two different uses for the termcup cake orcupcake. In previous centuries, beforemuffin tins were widely available, thecakes were often baked in individual pottery cups,ramekins, or molds and took their name from the cups they were baked in. This is the use that has remained, andcupcake now refers to any small, round cake that is about the size of ateacup. While English fairy cakes vary in size more than American cupcakes, they are traditionally smaller and are rarely topped with elaborate frosting.
The other kind of "cup cake" referred to acake whose ingredients were measured by volume, using a standard-sized cup, instead of being weighed. Recipes whose ingredients were measured using a standard-sized cup could also be baked in cups; however, they were more commonly baked in tins as layers or loaves. In later years, when the use of volume measurements was firmly established in American home kitchens, these recipes became known as1234 cakes orquarter cakes, so called because they are made up of four ingredients: one cup ofbutter, two cups ofsugar, three cups offlour, and four eggs.[6][7] They are plain yellow cakes, less rich and less expensive thanpound cake, due to using about half as much butter and eggs in comparison.
The names of these two major classes of cakes were intended to signal the method to the baker; "cup cake" uses a volume measurement, and "pound cake" uses a weight measurement.[6]
A standard cupcake uses the same basic ingredients as standard-sized cakes:butter,sugar,eggs, andflour. Nearly anyrecipe that is suitable for alayer cake can be used to bake cupcakes. The cake batter used for cupcakes may be flavored or have other ingredients stirred in, such asraisins,berries, nuts, orchocolate chips.
Because their small size is more efficient for heat conduction, cupcakes bake much faster than a normal layered cake.[8]
Cupcakes may be topped with frosting or othercake decorations. Elaborately decorated cupcakes may be made for special occasions.
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They may be filled with frosting, fruit, or pastry cream. For bakers making a small number of filled cupcakes, this is usually accomplished by using a spoon or knife to scoop a small hole in the top of the cupcake. Another method is to just insert the pastry bag in the middle of the cupcake. In commercial bakeries, the filling may be injected using asyringe.[9]
Originally, cupcakes were baked in heavy pottery cups. Some bakers still use individualramekins, smallcoffee mugs, large tea cups, or other small ovenproof pottery-type dishes for baking cupcakes.
Cupcakes are now usually baked inmuffin tins. These pans are most often made from metal, with or without anon-stick surface, and generally have six or twelve depressions or "cups". They may also be made fromstoneware,silicone rubber, or other materials. A standard size cup is 3 inches (76 mm) indiameter and holds about 4 ounces (110 g), although pans for both miniature and jumbo size cupcakes exist.[10] Specialty pans may offer many different sizes and shapes.
Individual patty cases, or cupcake liners, may be used in baking. These are typically round sheets of thinpaper pressed into a round, flutedcup shape. Liners can facilitate the easy removal of the cupcake from the tin after baking, keep the cupcake more moist, and reduce the effort needed to clean the pan.[10] The use of liners is also considered a more sanitary option when cupcakes are being passed from hand to hand. Like cupcake pans, several sizes of paper liners are available, from miniature to jumbo.
In addition to paper, cupcake liners may be made from very thin aluminum foil or, in a reusable version, silicone rubber. Because they can stand up on their own, foil and silicone liners can also be used on a flat baking sheet, which makes them popular among people who do not have a specialized muffin tin. Some of the largest paper liners are not fluted and are made out of thicker paper, often rolled at the top edge for additional strength, so that they can also stand independently for baking without a cupcake tin. Some bakers use two or three thin paper liners, nested together, to simulate the strength of a single foil cup.
Liners, which are also calledpaper cases, come in a variety of sizes. Slightly different sizes are considered "standard" in different countries. Miniature cases are commonly 27 to 30 millimetres (1.1 to 1.2 in) in diameter at the base and 20 millimetres (0.79 in) tall. Standard-size cases range from 45 to 53 millimetres (1.8 to 2.1 in) in diameter at the base and are 30 to 35 millimetres (1.2 to 1.4 in) tall. Australian and Swedish bakers are accustomed to taller paper cases with a larger diameter at the top than American and British bakers.[11]
Thecupcone is a cupcake baked directly in an edible, flat-bottomedice cream cone.
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Cupcakes are sometimes used to celebrate and illustrate specific events or themes. Popular themes includeunicorns and mermaids.[23] Holiday-themed cupcakes, such asreindeer at Christmas, are popular in grocery stores.[23]
Among educational themes, a periodic table of cupcakes is a collection of decorated cupcakes arranged in order to represent the atomic elements of theperiodic table.[24] The cupcakes are usually frosted with the appropriate atomic number and chemical symbol.[25] The first person to bake and ice a set of cupcakes organized and colored to represent the elements of the periodic table wasIda Freund in 1908.[26] The first woman to hold a post as a university chemistry lecturer in the UK, Freund used the cupcakes as a pedagogical tool to engage and amuse her female students at Cambridge University.[27]
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Cupcake kits are kits which provide a set of parts needed to allow an amateur baker to produce a themed batch of cupcakes, often to tie in with themed parties. Examples of themes includeprincesses,pirates,fairies anddinosaurs. Typically kits include appropriately decorated cupcake cases and cupcake toppers, but some kits are available which also include the ingredients needed for baking.
Cupcake kits were introduced in 2008 by the partyware companyMeri Meri[28] and continue to be popular items in kitchenware stores.
In the early 21st century, a trend for cupcake shops, specialized bakeries that sell little or nothing except cupcakes, developed in the United States. This trend played off of the sense of nostalgia evoked by the cakes. In New York City, cupcake shops likeMagnolia Bakery gained publicity in their appearances on popular television shows like HBO'sSex and the City.[29]
Crumbs Bake Shop, a publicly traded business running the largest cupcake shop chain in the U.S., reached its peak stock price in 2011. Declining sales, due to competition from locally owned mom-and-pop specialty stores as well as increased competition from grocery stores, caused a sharp decline in the company's prospects and stock price in 2013.[30]
Georgetown Cupcake was the first cupcakery to open inWashington, D.C. The cupcake shop gained widespread publicity after the 2010 premier ofTLC'sDC Cupcakes, a six-part reality show about the shop and its owners, sisters Sophie LaMontagne and Katherine Kallinis.[31]
Based in Beverly Hills, California,Sprinkles Cupcakes is owned byCandace Nelson, who is also a star judge on theFood Network'sCupcake Wars, and her husband, Charles Nelson.[32] Sprinkles is the first cupcake shop to debut a cupcake ATM, which could hold up to 350 cupcakes at one time.[33]
The first recipe in my school recipe book was for patty-cakes, now known all over the country by their American name, cup cakes.
We found a very large board with the Table set out. The divisions across and down were made withEdinburgh Rock, numbers were made of chocolate, and the elements were ice cakes each showing its name and atomic weight in icing.
Media related toCupcakes at Wikimedia Commons
