Monday, March 8, 2010

Cupcakes or Muffins??

During the past few months I've had quite a few orders from friends who wanted me to bake cupcakes and muffins.  However, upon closer questioning of what they really wanted there seemed to be a little bit of confusion.

To me, cupcakes use cake batters and are baked in small paper cups.  They are usually light, made with butter, moist and have a pretty topping (although I sometimes omit this so it's not too sweet).  People usually eat this at tea time.  An example would be a sponge cake with butter cream frosting.

Muffins, on the other hand are more dense, heavier in texture and usually made from vegetable oil instead of butter.  They are also more breadlike and can be sweet or savoury.  Many people eat this for breakfast.  One example is banana bread (which usually tastes better the day after baking).

This week I'll be baking 30 apple crumble cakes (a light muffin cake) for a friend's son's kindergarten, 2 large apple crumble cakes and 2 large American carrot cakes for a friend's office.  The trick is in knowing how much one recipe yields and multiplying it to suit the needs.  One problem for me is knowing how much of batter to fill a cupcake paper cup so the little cakes don't overflow! 

I think I'll have to buy quite a lot of green apples and carrots today!

Have a great one!

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