Cupcake

Did You Know?

• The first person to bake and ice a set of cupcakes organized to represent the periodic table was Ida Freund in 1908.
• Cupcake kits were introduced in 2008 by the partyware company Meri Meri.
• A standard cupcake uses the same basic ingredients as standard-sized cakes: butter, sugar, eggs, and flour.

History

The earliest known description of a cake baked in small cups appeared in 1796 in American Cookery by Amelia Simmons. The term cupcake itself was first documented in 1828 in Eliza Leslie's Receipts cookbook. In the early 19th century, the name had two meanings. One referred to cakes baked in individual pottery cups, ramekins, or molds, as muffin tins were not yet common. The other use described a cake whose ingredients were measured by volume using a standard cup rather than by weight. These volume-measured recipes later became known as 1234 cakes or quarter cakes, made with one cup of butter, two cups of sugar, three cups of flour, and four eggs. They were plain yellow cakes, less rich and less expensive than pound cake due to using about half as much butter and eggs. The names cupcake and pound cake signaled the measurement method to the baker.

Pans and liners

Back in the day, cupcakes were first baked in heavy pottery cups, and some bakers still use ramekins, small coffee mugs, large tea cups, or other ovenproof dishes for the job. These days, muffin tins are the norm. Usually made of metal with or without a non-stick coating, these pans typically have six or twelve cups, though stoneware and silicone rubber versions exist too. A standard cup measures 3 inches across and holds about 4 ounces, but you can find miniature and jumbo sizes, plus specialty pans with all sorts of shapes.

Many bakers use cupcake liners, also called patty cases. These are thin paper sheets pressed into fluted cups. Liners make it easier to pop the cupcake out, keep it moist, cut down on pan cleanup, and are seen as more sanitary when sharing. They come in sizes from tiny to huge.

Besides paper, liners can be made from thin aluminum foil or silicone rubber. Foil and silicone liners are sturdy enough to sit on a flat baking sheet without a muffin tin, which is handy if you don’t own one. Some large paper liners skip the fluting and use thicker paper, often rolled at the top for strength, so they can stand alone. A few bakers even nest two or three thin paper liners together to mimic the strength of foil.

Sizes vary by country: miniature liners are usually 27 to 30 mm wide at the base and 20 mm tall, while standard ones range from 45 to 53 mm at the base and 30 to 35 mm tall. Australian and Swedish bakers prefer taller cases with a wider top than American and British bakers. A cupcone is simply a cupcake baked right inside an edible, flat-bottomed ice cream cone.

Variants

A mug cake, sometimes called a cake in a mug, is made by cooking the batter in a mug inside a microwave, with preparation often taking under five minutes. A cake in a jar uses a glass jar as the cooking vessel instead of a mug, tray, or liner. The butterfly cake, also known as a fairy cake, gets its name from its wing-like appearance: the top is cut off and split in two, a filling like icing or jam is added to the center, and the two halves are placed on top to look like wings, often finished with sprinkles or icing sugar.

For special events like baby showers, graduations, or holidays, cupcakes can be elaborately frosted. A cake ball or cake pop is a round, truffle-like portion of cake coated in chocolate, usually made by mixing crumbled cake with frosting rather than baking it in a spherical shape. Gourmet cupcakes are a newer type, larger and filled, with flavors inspired by desserts like Tiramisu or Cappuccino, and shops selling only these have become more common.

Some bakers arrange standard cupcakes into a pattern and frost them together to form a large design, such as a flower basket or a turtle. A cupcake cone, or cupcone, is a cupcake baked inside an ice cream cone, which can be iced or decorated after baking.

Shops

In the early 2000s, the United States saw a rise in bakeries that focused almost exclusively on cupcakes, a trend fueled by a longing for the past. New York's Magnolia Bakery became well-known after being featured on shows like Sex and the City. Crumbs Bake Shop, the country's biggest chain of cupcake shops, hit its highest stock value in 2011. By 2013, its sales had dropped sharply, squeezed by both small local competitors and grocery stores. Washington, D.C.'s first cupcake-only shop was Georgetown Cupcake, which found fame following the 2010 debut of the TLC reality series DC Cupcakes. In Beverly Hills, Sprinkles Cupcakes, owned by Candace and Charles Nelson, introduced the first cupcake ATM, capable of storing 350 cupcakes at once.