A cupcake is a small cake designed to serve one person and today (17th August) is cupcake day, like we need an excuse!

Let’s see some amazing facts and trivia about them…

1. The first mention of the cupcake can be traced as far back as 1796, when a recipe notation of “a light cake to bake in small cups” was written in American Cookery by Amelia Simmons.
2. The earliest documentation of the term cupcake was in “Seventy-five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats” in 1828 in Eliza Leslie’s Receipts cookbook.
3. In the early 19th century, there were two different uses for the name cup cake or cupcake.
4. In previous centuries, before muffin tins were widely available, the cakes were often baked in individual pottery cups, ramekins, or molds and took their name from the cups they were baked in.
5. This is the use of the name that has remained, and the name of “cupcake” is now given to any small cake that is about the size of a teacup.
6. The other kind of “cup cake” referred to a cake whose ingredients were measured by volume, using a standard-sized cup, instead of being weighed. Recipes whose ingredients were measured using a standard-sized cup could also be baked in cups; however, they were more commonly baked in tins as layers or loaves.
7. A standard cupcake uses the same basic ingredients as standard-sized cakes: butter, sugar, eggs, and flour.
8. Nearly any recipe that is suitable for a layer cake can be used to bake cupcakes.
9. The cake batter used for cupcakes may be flavored or have other ingredients stirred in, such as raisins, berries, nuts, or chocolate chips.
10. Because their small size is more efficient for heat conduction, cupcakes bake much faster than a normal layered cake.