It's an age-old debate, and one that was stirred up for us again in last week's post on over-the-top brunch muffins. Once you start loading muffins with things like chocolate and topping them with sugary glazes, it starts getting hard to distinguish it from a cupcake! Where do you draw the line between muffins and cupcakes?
As we mentioned in the post last week, we love a good over-the-top muffin. But to be honest with you, we'd probably nudge it over into the cupcake side of the spectrum.
To us, a muffin is still something that's relatively healthy. It's not too sweet, is perhaps made with whole wheat flour, and is more likely to be loaded with fruit than candy. A muffin can also be savory instead of sweet. The texture is usually dryer and slightly denser than their cupcake cousins.
Cupcakes are, well, miniature cakes. They're sweet by definition, coming in flavors like vanilla, chocolate, and red velvet. A cupcake is tender and rich with eggs and butter. They're a dessert item, not an everyday breakfast food. And cupcakes always have frosting.
For us, that's actually the real defining feature: frosting. A drizzle of glaze is one thing, but once you put frosting on a muffin, it's no longer a muffin in our mind. Hey, you have to draw the line somewhere!
How do you distinguish a cupcake and a muffin? Where do you draw the line?
Related: Sugar High Strategy: How Do You Eat a Cupcake?
(Image: Flickr member moriza licensed under Creative Commons)
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I think of cupcakes as exactly what their name describes -- cup-sized cakes -- but to say that muffins are inherently healthy is definitely a misconception.
A muffin you get at Starbucks, Einstein, or a local bakery can often have up to 600 calories and 30 grams of fat.
If my 5 year old calls it a cupcake then thats what it is... she'll pass on a muffin, but cupcake... never. :)
For me it's texture. I don't like commercial muffins because they ALL seem cake-like with their very soft texture. A muffin should be closer to bread in texture. My family's favorite blueberry muffin, however, is a lot closer to being a very berry cupcake. The recipe starts by creaming butter and sugar, like a cookie recipe, and the texture is definitely softer.
I was once bringing in what I called "cupcakes", which I got the recipe for out of a cupcake cookbook to work.. but they had a powdered sugar & cocoa topping rather than actual icing. Someone commented that cupcakes are defined by having icing on them. But I still thought of them as cupcakes... I think it's more on what they're purposed for, and if they have a muffin top or not, plus the whole "do they taste like dessert?" thing.
And I agree with akay about muffins not being all that healthy. When I was doing weight watchers, I was so surprised to see how many points a muffin was - they were often as many as a dounut!
I'm going to have to say that the difference is in how aggressively you mix the batter. Muffin batter is generally not mixed very much and retains lumps whereas (cup)cake batter should be beaten pretty extensively. This obviously accounts for the differences in texture and homogeneity between cupcakes and muffins.
Cupcake frosting is another good indicator.
I tend to agree with the OP's definition: muffins, while not always, tend to be more on the healthy side with dried fruits, nuts, whole grains, etc. with the clincher being that cupcakes have frosting. But I can't argue with any of the subsequent comments either.
All I know is that I enjoy both.
Last week I made lemon muffins (no frosting, but light lemon glaze). They did have whole wheat flour, but still tasted a bit too decadent for morning. I dubbed them tea cakes. I have one about 10:30 or 2:30 with a cup of coffee or tea and they are sunny and delightful and perfect. If they had frosting they would be cupcakes. If I'd added blueberries and skipped the fruit, muffins. Either way = good!
I know the line can be blurry, but if there's fruit in it, I'd think of it as a muffin. Frosting? That's totally a cupcake. a
I just want to second Trish's definition, cupcakes are (usually, always?) made by creaming butter and sugar, so they have a lighter, and more consistent texture. Also, in my mind they should be smaller, and should always have frosting. But I think both of those qualities are dictacted by their texture, I don't want a huge cupcake because it would be too boring (I think this is why all good normal sized akes have some kind of filling layer), and any cake without frosting is pretty boring.
A muffin is a quick bread and has a much heartier texture, and you can put all sorts of stuff inside, and don't need icing or frosting to make it interesting.
Although there are lots of people who make huge cup cakes or who make very light and delicate muffins that would be terrible if they weren't dressed up with lots of sugary toppings - these people are the enemy!
I'm with Trish1980 -- cupcakes are miniature cakes while muffins are miniature quick breads. I don't eat either of them very often, but I can usually tell the difference right away, regardless of fruit, frosting, or anything else one might put in or on them.
I made sweet-potato muffins this weekend, but once they got cream cheese icing on them... definitely cupcakes!
Yes, Trish1980 hit it on the head. It's all in the mixing method and the final texture. A cupcake has a fine, even, tender crumb and a muffin has a craggier, heartier texture to both crumb and crust.
Frosting or no frosting, one bite gives it away! I know a muffin in drag when I taste one.
Since a cupcake is cake I make my determination that way. If I can use the same batter, bake it in a cake pan, frost it, and put candles on top then it's a cupcake. I also think of muffins as naturally flavored and cupcakes as artifically sweet.
I think that a cupcake without icing is just a muffin. All Flour-Containing cupcake-pan shaped food is a muffin unless it has icing, then its a cupcake. Its become quite an argument among my freinds. I searched it and there is a whole site about it haha - https://sites.google.com/site/itsamuffin/
Its very interesting
Q: whats up with flat top cupcakes? is that considered a proper cupcake? or am i just a fan of a muffin top looking cupcake with frosting?
I agree with those who explain the method of baking and the quantity of ingredients are the main differences between these two baked items.
Cupcakes are called muffins a lot, when in reality they're nothing like their fluffy cakey cousins. Muffins are more dense and tend to be larger in size, although this is dependent on the tins being used of course!
A better explanation is here:
www.wraggamuffins.co.uk/blog/2012/9/11/whats-the-difference-between-a-cupcake-and-a-muffin.html but for the most part people should just understand that muffins are muffins, and cupcakes are cupcakes. Let's stop comparing them :-)