It's a Muffin, No it's a Cupcake!
So which is it? There seems to be a very fine line between the two. I've been reading a lot of cupcake/muffin recipes lately due to the latest Is My Blog Burning event with the theme of cupcake and muffin recipes, and I honestly can't decide what it is that differentiates a modern-day muffin from a cupcake, and vice versa.Is it the frosting? It could be, but if I make a chocolate cake, and bake it in tiny cupcake cups, and then I omit the addition of delectable frosting (although I'm not sure why anyone would do that), do I have a muffin instead? I'm going to have to say no. But what about the ubiquitous chocolate chip muffin, or better yet the chocolate-chocolate chip muffin. These muffins are entirely sweet, made with a mainstay of the dessert cupboard-- chocolate chips, so what is it about this breakfast treat that makes them indeed a breakfast treat, and not simply an after dinner addendum? Maybe it's the addition of buttermilk. But not every morning muffin has buttermilk listed as an ingredient. Perhaps it's the addition of some type of fruit that makes is a breakfast addition. But then there is the Poppyseed Muffin, no fruit there.
Feeling very much like I was preparing for Speech and Debate class in 7th grade, I resorted to The Oxford English Dictionary (OED), that veritable tome of all things English, and I offer you this: The OED doesn't even offer a complete definition for the word cupcake, but favors the hyphenated: cup-cake. It defines this word as batter: "baked in a small open container or from ingredients measured in cupfuls." Not really helpful. What sort of batter, any sweeteners, frosting? Not a mention. I turn the 1280 pages forward and try for the definition of muffin: "Originally a cake of any of various kinds of (esp. sweet) bread. Now a flat circular spongy cake of bread, often eaten toasted and buttered." Also not really helpful; this appears to be the definition of an English Muffin.
Still unsatisfied I resorted to the trusty The Oxford Companion to Food (thank you Nishka) to see what Alan Davidson had to say about the matter. (I know that by my two reference books of choice it may seem that I am quite the anglophile, I assure you that I am not, but the English do know their reference books.) Davidson has not even a hyphen between this otherwise contracted word, it is simply written as-- cup cake. He states that a cup cake is "the name given in Britain and generally the USA to any small cake baked in a cup-shaped mould or in a paper baking cup." No mention of a muffin also being baked in this same mould. Then he goes on to tell us about Elizabeth Ellicot Lea's baking of a rather large pound cake in 1845, when the term cup cake was used to describe the units of measurement. Sheesh, now I am thoroughly lost. A pound cake? Correct me if I am wrong, but pound cakes do not even have frosting, a glaze maybe, but usually not frosting. Besides the historical reference, it seems to me that pound cakes have very little to do with cupcakes. If we take The Oxford Companion to Food's definition, a cup cake, is anything baked in a cupcake pan.
On to the muffins, yet furthering the conundrum. After a rather lengthy definition of the English Muffin being very popular 19th century snack, synonymous with crumpets and pikelets, Davidson addresses the American muffin more directly as a "generally small, squat, round cake which may be yeast leavened, although baking powder is used in many recipes. It is usually sweetened with a little sugar. These muffins may be plain, but are often flavored with fruit, nuts, or savoury ingredients...American muffins, still extremely popular, are oven baked in muffin pans, or cups and are served primarily for breakfast or as an accompaniments to dinner." Please, Davidson does so much back-talking in this definition: they're sweet, no savory; plain, no adorned; you eat them for breakfast...and dinner. It's becoming clear that even he is unsure what makes a muffin. If we had a plain muffin as is said in this definition, what's to say it would not simply be an unfrosted, vanilla cupcake?
The wheel of Ixion rolls on.
14 Comments:
i think that a cupcake is any plain (vanilla, chocolate, etc) cake sometimes with the addition of frosting thats usually eaten as a dessert whereas a muffin (non-English) can be a sweet or savory cakelike thing with additions (fruit, chocolate chips, etc) that is more versatile and more likely to be eaten at anytime of day.
then again, im sure there's a cupcake or muffin out there that defies my definition...
Re: the Pound Cake. My understanding is that this got its name by the recipe calling for a pound each of sugar, butter and flour.
In general, I would agree with Tanvi about the sweet/savory divide between the two. I would also add that for the most part, muffins are of a somewhat denser texture. Except for my Mom's buttermilk muffins, of course. Those are lighter than air.
the difference, I think, is that a muffin is technically bread (though it is often cake-like) and a cupcake is technically cake. with the addition of more fat/eggs, the muffin becomes a cupcake.
I like cupcakes. I do not like muffins. Muffins can be blueberry. Cupcakes cannot. Cupcakes are frosted. Muffins are not. All cupcakes are muffins. But not all muffins are cupcakes. :]
quote "all cupcakes are muffins but not all muffins are cupcakes"
interesting... u remind me of my math class in middle school. Oh well, I have just come to canada for the first time, three months ago, (for education) and am really confused about this too. At times in store what I call a cupcake turns out to be a muffin and what I call a muffin is labeled as a cupcake.. its so difficult to understand!
But cant you have a muffin with frosting?
and what about an english muffin??
Cupcakes are open celled, Muffins are not.
what do you mean by open celled? how can cupcak mixture/muffin mixture be made of cells its not exactly "living"
If kids eat it because they like it - It's a cupcake but if adults it it because they think it's healthy...It's a muffin! LOL
well no not really considering you can have chocolate muffins which arent exactly healthier probably more fattening then a cupcake
Actually I learned this lesson in cooking class at school.
The difference between muffins and cupcakes is the fact that cupcakes will always use butter, while muffins call for oil instead (usually canola). Canola oil is a lot healthier for you when compared with butter, and butter contains the stuff that sticks to your veins and eventually leads to heart attacks in some cases (cholesterol).
Also, muffins are mixed in such a way that the dough is still fairly lumpy. Cupcakes however require much more mixing until the batter is a smooth substance. The shape of muffins will be much different compared to cupcakes, as well as the feel and the inside of the muffin.
Also, muffins are usually considered healthier, probably because many of them use whole wheat flour. Regular flour is okay, but the minute you put butter in there and mix it a lot, it's a cupcake.
LOL I was told the difference is how you make the dough - cupcake starts with "beat eggs and sugar until fluffy" and muffins "combine dry ingredients in one bowl, wet ingredients in another and mix..."
Another difference is that muffins were called "turban cakes" previously here in Sweden, and cupcakes "small cakes" - usually the cupcake cups aren't filled as high as muffin cups, so cupcakes are more like miniature cakes and muffins look like turbans or mushrooms swelling over the cup...
But - I don't know. I have been wondering this myself as well LOL
It sounds more like all muffins are cupcakes (baked in cups) but not all cupcakes are muffins... In Finland and Sweden they are all called muffins. And English muffins are called scones... now, there's your next question. What's the difference of English muffins and scones?
P.S. The cup cake - take one cup sugar, one cup eggs, one cup flour - is called glas cake in Finland - "take one glasful of sugar, one glasful of eggs, one glasful of flour..."
hmm..regarding what anonymous said:
The difference between muffins and cupcakes is the fact that cupcakes will always use butter, while muffins call for oil instead (usually canola).
i believe this is increasingly irrelevant if not already so in modern times, because chefs use oil/butter interchangeably depending on the effect they want their creations to achieve. butter may give a fluffy, lighter effect, whilst oil could produce a moister, heavier effect.
cheers
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