Cupcake

A cupcake is a small cake designed to serve one person, baked in a metal mould or a paper case. It originated in the United States and has become a staple of birthday parties and celebrations.

History

The earliest documented description appears in 1796, when Amelia Simmons included in American Cookery a recipe for a light cake to bake in small cups. The term itself first appears in print in 1828, in Eliza Leslie's Seventy-five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats.

For much of the nineteenth century these cakes were baked in individual pottery cups, ramekins or small dishes, and the name comes from those containers. When muffin tins became widely available, the name stayed, and today it refers to any small round cake roughly the size of a teacup. In Britain the same idea is usually called a fairy cake, while other English-speaking regions use names such as patty cake or bun.

The basic recipe is the same as that of any layer cake: butter, sugar, eggs, raising agent and flour. Because of their size they bake much faster than a whole cake, and the batter can take countless flavours. In recent decades specialist shops have multiplied, and the trend reached Spanish cities such as Madrid from around 2010.

Culture

Cupcakes are closely tied to birthdays and celebrations, since they are eye-catching, come in many flavours and are easy to share. The classic finish is buttercream piped from a bag or spread with a spatula. More recently fondant has become popular, allowing bakers to model figures and personalise each cake.

Variants include the mug cake, made in a cup in the microwave in a few minutes, the butterfly cake with its fairy-like wings, and the cake ball, a bite-sized piece of cake coated in chocolate. They are often confused with muffins and magdalenas, although the differences are real. In Venezuela all of them are known as ponquecitos.

Trivia