The first mention of the cupcake can be traced as far back as 1796,
when a recipe notation of "a cake to be baked in small cups" was written
in
American Cookery by Amelia Simmons.
[1] 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.
[2]
In the early 19th century, there were two different uses for the name
cup cake or
cupcake. 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. 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. The name "fairy cake" is a fanciful description of its size, which would be appropriate for a party of diminutive
fairies to share. While English
fairy cakes vary in size more than American cupcakes, they are traditionally smaller and are rarely topped with elaborate icing.
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. In later years, when the use of volume
measurements was firmly established in home kitchens, these recipes
became known as
1234 cakes or
quarter cakes, so called
because they are made up of four ingredients: one cup of butter, two
cups of sugar, three cups of flour, and four eggs.
[3][4] They are plain yellow cakes, somewhat less rich and less expensive than
pound cake,
due to using about half as much butter and eggs compared to pound cake.
The names of these two major classes of cakes were intended to signal
the method to the baker; "cup cake" uses a volume measurement, and
"pound cake" uses a weight measurement.
[3]
In the early 21st century, a trend for cupcake shops was reported in
the United States, playing off of the sense of nostalgia evoked by the
cakes. In New York City, cupcake shops like
Magnolia Bakery gained publicity in their appearances on popular television shows like HBO's
Sex and the City. In 2010, television presenter
Martha Stewart published a cook book dedicated to cupcakes.
[5]
Cupcakes have become more than a trend over the years; they've become
an industry. Rachel Kramer Bussel, who has been blogging about cupcakes
since 2004 at Cupcakes Take the Cake, said in 2010 that "in the last
two years or so, cupcakes really exploded" with more cupcake-centric
bakeries opening nationwide.
