Irrestible Cupcakes! 

Cupcakes are simply smaller, single-portion versions of cakes. Known as Fairy Cakes in Britain, they are convenient alternatives to full-sized cakes, especially for smaller families. Cupcakes may be topped with all kinds of frostings and icings and can be decorated exactly the same way as larger cakes. Cupcakes and Fairy Cakes are ideal for children’s parties because they are very handy, and nowadays, it has become trendy also to serve Cupcakes at weddings. 

Why Capcakes?

One of the advantages of Cupcakes is that they take lesser time to bake as compared to larger cakes (small size is more efficient to conduct heat).

Nowadays, individual cupcake liners, which are round sheets of thin paper shaped like small cups, are often used for baking Cupcakes, making it easier to remove the Cupcake from the baking tin.
Liners also help prevent the Cupcake from becoming too dry – and almost eliminate the need to clean the baking pan or tin. There are many sizes of cupcake liners and you can also use aluminum foil liners. Foil liners are strong enough to be used alone, and are useful if you do not have a cupcake pan. Cupcake pans, as most of us know, are baking pans with small cup-shaped ‘holes’ for individual cakes. A single  pan may have six or twelve cups. On average, each cup takes about four ounces of batter. However, you may have pans in different sizes and even with separately shaped cups. 

Usually Cupcakes can be made from any basic cake batter, but some food specialists think that there is a minor difference between Cupcakes and Fairy Cakes: British Fairy Cakes are made of less heavier cake batters such as sponge cake, whereas American Cupcakes generally use richer and thicker butter cake batter. Despite the fact that Fairy Cakes are lighter, an infinite diversity of recipes is there for both Cupcakes and Fairy Cakes. 

Cupcakes – Where Did They Come From?

There appear to be two origins for the word Cupcake. One hypothesis is that the name ‘Cupcake’ originated from the process of measuring components - by volume rather than by weight. To make a Cupcake you would use a cupful of flour, a cupful of butter, cupful of sugar etc. This is exactly the same way in which the name of pound cake originated. “In fact, the recipes for cup cakes and pound cakes include pretty much the same ingredients and would have produced similar results.”  

The second theory associates the name of Cupcake with the fact that these small cakes used to be baked in individual cups (earthenware teacups or small clay baking pans or ramekins). As we recognize today, the name ‘Cupcake’ is applied to any small cake that has the size of a teacup. Some bakers today still use individual ramekins for baking cupcake recipes.  

These two ‘theories’ do not contradict one another. In fact, historical evidence (old cookbooks) shows that both theories are correct. According to food historian Alan Davidson, Cupcake is, “The name given in Britain and generally in the USA to any small cake baked in a cup-shaped mould or in a paper baking cup. In the USA the word may originally have been linked to the American measuring system, founded upon the cup." Regarding the lovely British name of Fairy Cake, most likely it is originated from “a fantastic explanation of its size, which would be suitable for a party of very small, pretty and beautiful fairies to share.” 

In America Cupcake recipes are available since the 18th century. Below is a sample recipe that dates back to 1796 (note that at this early date the ingredients are still measured in weight, not in volume): 

"A light Cake to bake in small cups. Receipe: Half a pound sugar, half a pound butter, mixed with two pounds flour, one glass wine Rosewater, two do.[glass] Emptins, a nutmeg, cinnamon and currants." Below is the 19th century (1828) American Cupcake recipe for a customary-sized cup measuring system, indicating that volume measurements progressively became the routine in American home kitchens. 

19th century (1828) American Cupcake recipe
5 eggs. 
Two big tea-cups filled with molasses.
Two big tea-cups filled with finely grinded brown sugar. 
The same of fresh butter.
One cup filled with rich milk.   
Five cups filled with screened flour. 
Half a cup of powdered allspice and cloves.
Half a cup of ginger.
Cut  the butter in the milk, and warm them to some extent.                                             
Also warm the molasses, and swirl it inside the milk and butter: then stir in, progressively, the sugar, and keep it away to get it cooled. Hit the eggs very lightly, and stir them into the mixture with the flour alternately. Add the ginger and other spice, and stir the whole very hard. Butter small tins, nearly fill them with the mixture, and bake the cakes in a moderate oven." 

Different Cupcake Styles

Since a Cupcake is really nothing other than a small cake, there are as many varieties of Cupcake as there are kinds of cake. Two names that I came across repeatedly when reading about Cupcakes are ‘Queen Cake’ and ‘Butterfly Cake’. I was unaware of  what either of these cakes was, and at the same time I know that all readers are not as ignorant as myself, I concluded to incorporate a brief report of these two cakes.

Queen Cakes are a small, individual-size rich cakes that contain dried fruit. They are, “… made from a creamed mixture with currants, lemon zest, and sometimes chopped almonds, baked as individual cakes. They have been in style since the 18th century. Nowadays they are generally roasted in paper cases, customarily, small fluted moulds in stylish shapes were used;” 

The word ‘Butterfly Cake’ explicitly means a particular kind of Cupcake that is trendy in Britain, dispite of the fact that big complete-sized cakes are produced and beautified to look like butterflies and they are also called Butterfly Cakes. “In England … butterfly cakes are viewed as a special treat, and they can get quite elaborate.” Butterfly Cakes are prepared starting from Cupcakes (or Fairy Cakes, in Britain). The top of the cupcake is carefully scooped out and the cake is cut in half. After that the holes are packed with jam, frosting, whipped cream, or any extra filling, and the cake halves are cautiously placed back together, “… so that they seem similar to the wings of a butterfly.” Additional cake decorations may be used to enhance the appearance of the cake. 

So, comb through your cookbooks or favorite Internet sites and pick out any cake recipe you fancy. Use half the batter to make a few Cupcakes (freeze the rest if possible), or simply divide the ingredients in half and just bake a batch of Cupcakes. It’s an amazing method to measure your cake consumption!

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