A cupcake is a small, round sweet baked good topped with frosting. Cupcakes are often served as treats for special occasions like birthdays and wedding showers or as a dessert at dinner parties. They are often shaped or decorated to fit a theme, such as a spider for Halloween or a princess for a child’s birthday party. Cupcakes can also be made to look elegant, with a swirl of icing or a flower topping. Often they are presented on a cupcake stand or cupcake tree to create a centerpiece that will catch the eye.<\/p>\n
A standard cupcake consists of a small cake batter that is baked in individual, circular, paper-lined indentations on a baking sheet. They can be flavored or have other ingredients stirred in, such as raisins, nuts, chocolate chips, fruit, or whipped cream. After baking, a cupcake is usually topped with a large amount of a creamy frosting. The tops of the cakes can be leveled or have a domed top, depending on the baker’s preference. Occasionally, a plastic food syringe can be used to squirt frosting or other filling inside a cupcake for added decoration.<\/p>\n
The term cupcake originally described a type of cake that was baked in a heavy pottery cup. Later, it came to be applied to any cake that was baked in a muffin pan with individual depressions for each cake. Today, cupcakes are most often baked in metal tins with either six or twelve cups (or “cupcakes”), although specialty pans for both miniature and jumbo cupcakes exist.<\/p>\n
Generally, cupcakes are prepared with the same basic ingredients as a traditional cake: flour, butter, sugar, and eggs. The batter is normally mixed according to a cake mixing method such as the creaming, reverse creaming, genoise, or chiffon method. This creates a very fine crumb structure compared to the more coarse texture of a muffin.<\/p>\n
Because of their small size, cupcakes require shorter cooking times and lower temperatures than larger cake sizes. The low temperature prevents the tops from browning too quickly and allows the interior to bake through before the outside overcooks. In addition, a higher temperature will cause the outer edges of a cupcake to set before the center is fully cooked, creating an undesirable crusty exterior.<\/p>\n