The Rise of the Cupcake

So many of us enjoy this delicious pastry. But how many of us actually know the origin of the cupcake?By way of definition, a cupcake is;

1.a small cake,the size of an individual portion,baked in a cup-shaped mould.

 2.Older Slang

a. sexually attractive young woman.

b. beloved girl or woman.

We stumbled upon some interesting facts and information that we decided to share with you guys.

Here we go! Blast from the past…

The cupcake evolved in the United States in the 19th century, and it was revolutionary because of the amount of time it saved in the kitchen. There was a shift from weighing out ingredients when baking to measuring out ingredients. According to the Food Timeline Web, food historians have yet to pinpoint exactly where the name of the cupcake originated. There are two theories: one, the cakes were original cooked in cups and two, the ingredients used to make the cupcakes were measured out by the cup.

In the beginning, cupcakes were sometimes called “number” cakes, because they were easy to remember by the measurements of ingredients it took to create them: One cup of butter, two cups of sugar, three cups of flour, four eggs, one cup of milk, and one spoonful of soda.

Pound cakes use the same device, by weight, for remembering ingredient proportions. Clearly, cupcakes today have expanded to a wide variety of ingredients, measurements, shapes, and decorations – but this was one of the first recipes for making what we know today as cupcakes.

Cupcakes were convenient because they cooked much quicker than larger cakes. When baking was down in hearth ovens, it would take a long time to bake a cake, and the final product would often be burned. Muffin tins, also called gem pans, were popular around the turn of the 20th century, so people started created cupcakes in tins.

When food historians approach the topic of cupcakes, they run into a Gray area in which the practice of making individual cup-sized cakes can become confused with the convention of making cakes with cup-measured ingredients. From a recipe published in 1828, we find instructions for baking a cup-measured cake in small tins instead of a large pan. This tells us that the origin of the diminutive cupcakes we all know and love dates from at least the early 19th century .

The notion of baking small cakes in individual containers probably began with the use of clay or earthenware mugs. It could have been a way to use up extra batter; to make the most efficient use of a hot oven by placing small ramekins, or little baking dishes, in unused spaces; or to create an evenly baked product fast when fuel was in short supply.

Early in the 20th century, the advent of multi-cupcake moulded tins brought modest mass production methods to cupcake making, and a modern baking tradition was born .

Cupcake or Muffin

This leads to an interesting distinction between small, individual cake-like pastries. Muffins and cupcakes can look similar, so what’s the real difference between them?

Well, although there’s a margin for interpretation here, cupcakes are typically sweet confections while muffins are savoury. Two notable differences are that cupcakes are usually frosted and have a lighter consistency than muffins. The muffin vs. cupcake question showcases one of the problems with making culinary divisions between similar foods. Both cupcakes and muffins can be made in the same style of tin and contain mostly the same ingredients.

The popularity of cupcakes continues for many reasons;

• They are proportionally one serving size.
• They are easy to carry and pack.
• They are convenient and easy to clean up after.
• There is versatility in the packaging, decorating and shapes.

Cupcakes were first made in muffin tins and now they can be made in cupcake tins that have special shapes like hearts, stars, and so many more options!

Sources:

http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/spring07/ayers/history.html

http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/food-facts/who-invented-the-cupcake.htm

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cupcake

http://ezinearticles.com/?History-Of-The-Humble-Cupcake&id=322039

http://EzineArticles.com/322039