How are muffins different from cupcakes? In appearance - two identical confectionery.

In our country, it is difficult to find a person who has never heard of muffins - sweet delicious pastries that look like an inverted truncated cone (perhaps not the best, but rather accurate comparison), traditionally flavored with raisins and powdered sugar.

But there are not so many gourmets who have an idea about muffins - in form (but not in content!) One to one repeating cupcakes, and even more so those who know the key differences between these two confectionery products. And is there any such difference?

It looks like two identical cupcakes. But it turns out - no, one of them is still a muffin! Let's try to explain how to distinguish it from a cupcake.

Where is the guest from?

Despite their obvious superficial similarities, muffins and muffins are not closely related. The birthplace of muffins is considered to be Egypt, and the ancient one. It is possible that the pharaohs themselves feasted on the prototypes of today's cupcakes.

According to the Egyptian recipe, a muffin was considered a classic (then it still had the shape of a cake) not with raisins, but with dates and figs.

In those days, muffins were of great practical importance - they could not only be eaten as a ready-made dish, they were also used as "containers" for storing ripe fruits.

The recipe for such cakes was adopted by the Romans, but they made the pastry more like bread with the addition of pomegranate, nuts, honey.

Gradually evolving and changing, the cake reached Europe, where by the 16th century it became a very popular dish. It was during this period, thanks to the abundance of American sugar, that the cake became sweet, which it has remained to this day.

Muffins have a slightly different history of conquering the world. We owe this dish to the ingenious servants of the British rich, who have adapted to baking pretty oval buns from the remains of the master's table.

Today with meat leftovers, tomorrow with fruit leftovers, and so on. Moreover, the pastries turned out to be so varied and tasty that over time they began to serve them to the owners themselves.

Initially, muffins were made unsweetened, both from yeast dough and from ordinary. Many ingredients were added to them: ordinary flour and corn flour, oats, dried fruits, apples, raisins, etc.

The difference between muffins and cupcakes

Nowadays, there are an incredible amount of recipes and muffins and muffins. Each nation has its own and reflect the peculiarities of the national cuisine, and also contain those components that are characteristic of a particular region.

But, there is one "but" that makes such similar dishes completely different - this is the cooking technique. Thanks to her, muffins and muffins are different in taste.

It is rather difficult to say exactly what muffins are. This is neither a cake nor a pie. Rather, an original loaf or portioned bun with a sweet or salty filling. The mass of variations and ease of preparation made muffins the favorites of all culinary specialists.

Cupcake is a pronounced dessert, and it can be of any size and shape, while muffins are always prepared small. Muffins can be yeast or biscuit, with or without raisins, nuts.

The most interesting thing is that to prepare two different dishes, the same ingredients are needed - these are eggs, flour, sugar, salt, soda or baking powder for the dough. Milk is sometimes added to muffins.

Muffins are prepared by mixing dry ingredients with dry ingredients, and liquid ingredients with liquid... Then both masses are simply mixed with a spoon, without beating, without rubbing lumps and other energy-intensive procedures.

The lumps are left on purpose; during baking, they retain air bubbles around them, which then form a porous airy structure of the dough, which in the finished product looks like large voids, by analogy with cheese.

Any fillings are added to unsweetened muffins - mushrooms, cabbage, meat, ham, cheeses, and to sweet ones - berries, chocolate.

The dough kneading procedure takes no more than 5 minutes, and the baking procedure takes only 25-30 minutes, which makes muffins easy to prepare, and the abundance of filling options is still beneficial.

When preparing muffins, they always put in a lot of sugar and butter. All ingredients are combined together, and the porosity of the structure is achieved by thoroughly whipping the mass with a mixer or a whisk.

Key differences between muffins and cupcakes

1. A cupcake can be turned into a muffin, but a muffin cannot be turned into a cake.

2. Cupcakes are sweet, and muffins can be both a dessert and a snack.

3. Muffins can be low in calories, but muffins are not.

4. It is allowed to add flour of different sorts to muffins.

5. Muffins are not afraid of drafts and temperature changes during baking, unlike biscuit dough for muffins.

6. Muffins are easier to prepare.

7. Muffins are loose and muffins are porous.

8. Milk is added to muffins, it is not put into muffins.

9. The technique of cooking products is completely different.

10. Cupcakes can be of any size and shape, muffins only small.

Try to make muffins (no beating, lumpy dough) and muffins (smooth, well-beaten, biscuit) from the same set of products and see what happens.

Perhaps from this moment you will discover not only cupcakes for tea, but also muffins that can ennoble any filling.

Cupcakes and muffins are gaining more and more popularity in Russia, but few people understand the difference between these two types of baked goods. But in fact, everything is simple, and in this article I will tell you about what muffins and cupcakes are and how they differ from each other.

First, here are the definitions:

Muffin Are small baked goods, born in England and mentioned in recipes since 1720, which are most often served for breakfast or as a snack. This name itself has a couple of versions of its origin:
1st version is French.
The word muffin came to Britain in the 11th century from the French word moufflet, which means soft bread.
2nd version is German.
The word muffin comes from the German muffe - one of the types of bread.

Be that as it may, but muffins are precisely a type of bread, not muffins, as many people think. Moreover, muffins are divided into English and American. English muffins are made from yeast dough, and baking powder or soda are added to American muffins.

The muffins themselves are not too sweet if they contain berries, fruits or nuts. There are also many types of muffins with vegetables, cheeses and even meat.

According to the cooking technology, the dough for muffins is not whipped, but only slightly mixed.

Cupcake - in fact, this is a small portioned cake, which can be with or without filling, but in any case, decorated with a cream cap or icing. The term "cupcake" was first mentioned in 1828 in Eliza Leslie's cookbook.

According to one of the versions, many, many years ago, cakes were baked in ceramic cups or molds the size of a teacup, hence the name "cupcake".

Oh yeah, cupcakes have another name - “fairy cake”. Cupcakes are often served on children's birthday parties and presented as a gift from a fairy due to its small size. I think our mothers of little children will like this idea.

So, a cupcake is a small cake and it is such not only by the presence of a cream cap, but also by the composition of its dough. It is made almost exactly like regular cake dough, with butter, eggs, sugar and flour, although sometimes it is more muffin in structure. And unlike muffins, cupcake doughs beat well.

After reading all this, you should have understood that muffins and cupcakes are completely different products, although they are united by a similar appearance and baking dish, although there is always cream or icing on the cupcakes.

Now a little about the differences.

Muffins - a type of bread used for breakfast, does not have decorations on its surface (meaning cream, icing or something like that, and so confectioners got used to decorating muffins with beautiful paper molds or ribbons), when cooking, the dough is only slightly mixed, but not whipped ...

Cupcakes - portioned cakes, the size of a teacup, have a cream cap or are covered with icing, often have a filling, made from ordinary dough for large cakes.

I didn't want to write this, but I need to dot the i. In our country, it is customary to call muffins and cupcakes muffins, which is not true. A muffin is not a muffin at all in its essence, a cupcake can be a muffin if it is made from muffin dough.

Now, in terms and why we have a legend that cupcakes are cupcakes, the ingredients for which are measured in cups:
cupcake - portioned cake, as it is customary to call a small cake with cream and filling, which was baked in cups;
cup cake is a way of weighing ingredients. Ekaterina Yegorushkova is right when she says that now any cake or cupcake can be called a “cup cake”, since in the English-speaking culinary sphere, ingredients for almost all pies and cupcakes are weighed in cups.

I understand that you are confused by the word cake in the term, but it means not only cupcake, it is also called cakes, and biscuits, and pies. That is, cupcake is precisely the name of a small cake made from even a biscuit, even from a muffin dough, at least from any other, of a certain shape, and cup cake only means that for this type of baking, the ingredients were measured in cups. In the Russian language, the word "cake" is precisely a type of baking, a certain dough.

(text by Anna Nechaeva)

ZY: if you want to copy this text, put the link, please.

ZYY: all pictures are taken from Google.

When ordering a dessert in a cafe, you can get into a situation where the waiter will bring you not what you wanted. But you will be wrong, not the employee. Any self-respecting establishment has a wide variety of sweet dishes. For example, you can order a muffin, or you can order a cupcake. It seems to many people that they are one and the same, but there are still differences in taste. How exactly are muffins different from cupcakes? We will give a comprehensive answer to this question in this article.

What is a cupcake?

Since childhood, we are all accustomed to eating my mother's pastries. Today, women may not be standing at the stove, and before that there was no opportunity to buy sweets. How are muffins different from cupcakes? To understand this, you need to consider separately one and the other dessert.

A cupcake is a confectionery product that is made according to a biscuit recipe. It contains flour, butter, eggs, milk and yeast. As additives, confectioners pour nuts and raisins into the dough. Not so long ago, muffins began to be made with jam, boiled condensed milk and other sweet filling. Their structure turns out to be loose due to the fact that pastry chefs stir the dough for a long time using a mixer. And first you should beat the whites with sugar, and then add other ingredients. Cupcakes are usually served in the afternoon, for tea.

What is a muffin?

Cupcakes in Russia became known at the end of the 18th century. But the word muffin came into the lexicon of our compatriots relatively recently. This confection appeared in America. It was there that the confectioners stopped beating the dough for a long time, and began to make it more liquid. By deviating from the classic canons of biscuit making, people have managed to create baked goods that are less porous and more oily.

Muffins are made in silicone molds. This makes it easy to remove the culinary product without damaging the soft edges. These buns were great for breakfast. Indeed, most often they are baked either without filling at all and spread with butter on top, or they are made with meat or vegetable fillings. How are muffins different from cupcakes? Berries and fruits were often added to the first culinary product, if it was baked with a sweet filling. Fruit comes into muffins only in the form of jam, preserves or candied fruits.

How are muffins different from cupcakes?

An experienced hostess will be able to determine the type of culinary product not only by its taste, but also by its appearance. But how can a common man understand how muffins differ from cupcakes?

• Muffins have a dense structure. Cupcakes are more porous, airy, as they say, melt in your mouth.
• Americans grease muffins with butter to make it more fatty and tasty. Such operations are not performed with a cupcake.
• Muffins contain more liquid. Milk, eggs and melted butter are the basis of the dough. Flour is added to give a viscous consistency.
• Traditionally, muffin is considered to be a portioned dessert. But cupcakes have recently acquired a small size. Previously, this type of baking was more like a biscuit, which does not need to be greased with cream. Accordingly, it took the form of a full-fledged pie or a loaf of bread.
• Muffins are less sweet. Even if they contain fruits and berries, less sugar is added to the dough than to muffins.
• Muffins are most often baked without filling. And if the pastry chef nevertheless adds it, then most likely it will be meat or vegetables. Cupcakes are made only with sweet filling: raisins or jam.

Muffin recipe

There will be no hassle with the preparation of such a dessert. What are mini muffins and muffins made from? To prepare them you will need: cottage cheese, butter, sugar, flour, eggs and baking powder.

In what order should the products be mixed? First you need to combine 100 g of butter with 150 g of cottage cheese. Then you need to add 150 g of sugar to this mass. While stirring, add two eggs to the dough in turn. Then you should gradually introduce 150 g of flour and 1 tsp. baking powder. When the dough is smooth, it can be considered ready.

We put future muffins in silicone molds and send them to the oven for half an hour. After the dessert is ready, you can sprinkle it with powdered sugar or garnish with whipped cream. And also today it is fashionable to decorate culinary products with various figures from mastic and chocolate.

Cupcake recipe

To prepare a classic culinary product, you will need: sugar, butter, eggs, salt, flour, baking powder.

Homemade raisin muffins are prepared as follows. Mix 1.5 cups of flour with half a teaspoon of salt and the same amount of baking powder. Then melt the butter. Now you need to beat 4 eggs with 250 grams of sugar. This process should be continued until a thick foam forms. Now you need to pour 250 g of melted butter into the egg mass. Whisk all the liquid ingredients a little so that they mix well. After this, the dry mixture should be gradually introduced.

If desired, you can add raisins, nuts or candied fruits to the cake. When the dough is ready, pour it into a greased mold. The cake should be baked in a well-preheated oven for half an hour. After the product has cooled down, you can sprinkle it with powdered sugar.

Everyone loves to eat! However, when choosing food, there are often difficulties associated with a great variety of culinary masterpieces. How to distinguish entrecote from roast beef, and beef stroganoff from kebab? What is the difference between kebab and just grilled meat? Sometimes only true gourmet experts can give objective answers. But today we will try to understand a little about sweets and distinguish a muffin from a muffin. While the first definition is known to many, the second is by no means. Let's take a journey together to the fascinating land of taste and discover the differences between these two confectionery products.

Definition

Cake- is a kind of dough casserole stuffed with raisins, jam or nuts. For baking, yeast or biscuit dough is most often used. Traditionally, muffins are supposed to be served on the table on big celebrations: Christmas, wedding, anniversary and other holidays. Interestingly, this culinary masterpiece was known back in the days of Ancient Rome, then pomegranate, nuts and raisins were kneaded in barley puree. In those days, sugar as such was not yet known, it became known only from the sixteenth century, and it was from that time that cupcakes spread throughout Europe, and then became famous in the New World. Now in different countries there are many recipes for these products.

Cake

Muffin is a small sweet pastry the size of a palm, round or oval in shape. The product is heavier by weight than the cake and has different proportions of ingredients. Chocolate, fruits, berries, and more are often added to muffins. There are several legends about the origin of this culinary miracle. According to one version, the word muffin comes from the French moufflet, according to another - from the German muffe. At one time, they were small cakes and were a kind of corn substitute for wheat bread. Muffins are usually divided into English and American: in the first case, yeast dough is used, and in the second, a special baking powder or soda is used. Due to the fact that this product is quick and easy to prepare (there are even preparations for special culinary mixtures), it quickly gained popularity in many countries.

Comparison

We can say that the classic muffin is a kind of yeast dough pie stuffed with raisins or nuts. It can be defined as a kind of analogue of the cake, since almost the same ingredients are used to knead the dough. Cupcakes come in both small and large sizes. But the muffin is a more miniature and at the same time dense culinary product. It can fit in the palm of your hand and looks like a small cake.

There are also certain differences in cooking. For a cake, all products are kneaded in one bowl at the same time. Muffins are made by separately mixing the "wet" and "dry" components, which are then combined. In general, it is believed that muffins are more difficult to prepare, require a mixer, while muffins, on the contrary, are easy to prepare and knead with a regular spoon.

Conclusions site

1. In appearance, a muffin often looks like a pie or cake, and a muffin is like a cake.
2. Some muffins can be quite large in size, but muffins are always miniature, but heavier and have a denser texture.
3. The components of the cake are kneaded together, and the muffin separately.
4. The muffin is more difficult to prepare, while the muffin is much easier.

"Muffin" and "cupcake" are often used interchangeably - a person not versed in cooking is likely to really mistake them for something similar, focusing only on appearance. And indeed, at first glance, they are similar: both in appearance are just a small cupcake.

But, in fact, muffin and cupcake are very different concepts, and one differs from the other so much that their recipes are almost impossible to confuse with each other.

Muffin: a quick and convenient snack

Although muffins did not receive much commercial popularity: their main drawback that excluded them as a popular snack was that they quickly became stale. Thus, muffins became an accessory of coffee shops and pastry shops as a possible accompaniment to a cup of coffee or tea. But it is difficult to find a confectionery specializing only in them - it's easier to make muffins at home.

Muffin - baked goods that look quite modest, but are distinguished by a huge variety of flavors. There is no end to the options for what is added to muffins in various recipes: fruits, berries, nuts, dried fruits, and chocolate ... In general, whatever product comes to your mind - most likely, there is already a recipe with it muffins.

In addition, muffins differ from cupcakes in that different types of flour can be used for baking them: corn, oat and wheat muffins are distinguished.

The ingredients for a typical muffin look like this:

• Flour.
• Vegetable oil.
• Milk or yogurt.
• Eggs.
• Sugar.
• Baking powder.
• Additives to taste.

The proportions can vary depending on the recipe, but in general, most muffins are made with these ingredients.

Muffins have been and continue to be a popular breakfast option in America and the UK as they can be prepared quickly. Basically, the cooking process consists of just three steps:

• Mix dry ingredients.
• Mix wet ingredients.
• Combine dry ingredients with wet ingredients and stir.

After that, the muffin dough is ready, but it does not take long to bake, so in half an hour you can taste this popular pastry.

Cupcake: miniature and festive

Unlike a muffin, a cupcake cannot boast of an individual recipe for the dough: in fact, “cupcake” is the name not of a dish, but of a baking method. Simply "cake" in English is called a cupcake, and small cupcakes, cupcakes in cups - "cupcake", that is, "cup" + "cupcake".

So, most often cupcake dough is based on the classic English recipe for muffin dough, which was called "four quarters" because it required a quarter of a pound of four products:

• Flour.
• Butter.
• Sugar.
• Eggs.

All other additives and spices were optional. But the basis of the recipe remained unchanged: Isabella Bitton, author of the most popular book on household chores of the time of Queen Victoria, recommended this option to her readers.

However, fashion trends are penetrating here and recently there are deviations from this recipe: cupcakes are also prepared on biscuit dough, wheat flour is replaced, for example, oat flour, sugar substitute is added instead of sugar, adapting recipes for diabetics ...

However, this does not change the very essence of the cupcake: it remains small, for one bite, with a cupcake, often decorated and stuffed. Often, such cupcakes are served on birthdays as a substitute for cake: it tastes just as good as it does, but the risk of getting dirty becomes less.

Incidentally, one of the most important features of a cupcake is that it is usually lavishly decorated. If you see small cupcakes in a photo or in a bakery, covered with frosting, garnished with sprinkles or topped with a curl of cream, you can be sure that this is a cupcake.

Common between muffin and cupcake

The unifying features of muffin and cupcake can only be considered their small size and the fact that most often these pastries are cooked sweet.

Although the sweet taste cannot be accepted as a rule: there are also snack muffins, and, although much less often, neutral or even unsweetened cupcakes. They are commonly used as a substitute for canapés, brioches and the like as an appetizer on those celebrations where a short buffet is expected before the main action.

However, both the muffin and the cupcake have one more indisputable advantage: both tastes good.

Differences between muffin and cupcake

The differences between muffin and cupcake are much more than similar: firstly, their recipes overlap only by the fact that both flour and eggs are used there. Otherwise, they are radically different.

The cupcake is often much smaller than the muffin - it is meant to be “one bite”, while the muffin is baked rather as a complement to breakfast and must be satisfying.

By the way, a cupcake differs from a muffin also in structure: in a cupcake it is denser, while in a muffin it is looser and more fluffy.

In addition, the fillings of the muffin and the cupcake differ: for the muffin, it is added directly to the dough and mixed into it, like berries or pieces of chocolate, while the filling is usually added to the cupcake after baking, and the inside of the cupcake is cut out with a spoon or knife. Thus, the cupcake is very rarely stuffed with something like berries. The most typical fillings for him are jams, preserves, cream.

Decorations for a muffin are uncharacteristic and are most often limited to a cap of icing, and then only occasionally. As for the cupcake, the imagination of the confectioners unfolds on them with might and main: hats made of cream, glaze, sprinkles. Cupcakes decorated with cartoon characters sculpted from mastic have long been popular at children's birthdays.