Cupcake
From Free net encyclopedia
Image:CupcakesFrosted wb.jpg A cupcake (or fairy cake) is a small cake designed to serve one person, usually made in a small paper cup container. As with larger cakes, frosting and decorations are usually applied.
Cupcakes are often served during a celebration, such as classroom birthday parties. They provide a simpler alternative to cake because they don't require plates, utensils, or dividing into pieces.
A simple cupcake uses the same ingredients as most other standard cakes - incorporating butter, caster sugar, eggs, and flour.
Cupcakes evolved from muffins during the 19th century, and gained the name "cup" cakes or "measure" cakes because of the use of the practice of measuring the ingredients using a standard-sized cup instead of the previous practice of weighing the ingredients. The fact that these little cakes were baked in cup-shaped muffin baking containers gave double-meaning to the term "cup cake", and was probably the main factor for "cupcake" becoming the standard term in the US.
It is also possible that cupcakes came into being simply as smaller versions of the victoria sponge cake, as the mixture required is exactly the same. The mixture is also the same as the quarter cake recipe, so called because it is made up of four ingredients in equal ratios; butter, self-raising flour, eggs and caster sugar.
A fairy cake is an integral part of the fictional Total Perspective Vortex from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Recipe
A simple recipe for cupcakes:
- 120g butter
- 120g caster sugar
- 120g self-raising flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 2 eggs
- 1-2 tbsp milk
- vanilla essence
Cream together butter, sugar and a few drops of vanilla essence together until light and fluffy. Add 2 beaten eggs gradually, beating well after each addition. Sift flour and baking powder together and fold into mixture. (Make sure that the sifted ingredients are still enough to complete the job—about 120g; if there is not enough flour-baking powder mix, the cupcakes may come out soggy.) Add 1-2 tbsp milk and mix in until a soft dropping consistency is reached. Spoon mixture into paper cupcake or muffin cases and bake at 190C for around 15 mins until light golden in colour. Cool cakes then decorate as desired. One simple decoration is to cream together equal amounts of butter and icing sugar to make a buttercream; this can be flavoured with such things as vanilla essence, or with lemon or orange zest.