Cupcake: Named for the Measuring, Not the Shape
A cupcake is a small cake baked in a paper case. The name probably comes from the old habit of measuring ingredients in cups rather than weighing them.
A cupcake is a single-serving cake baked in a paper or foil case. Most people assume the name describes the cup-shaped case. The likelier explanation is older: nineteenth-century American recipes measured by the cup, and a cup cake was one made to that simpler method.
- A small individual cake. *A tray of iced cupcakes.*
- An endearment (American informal). *Come here, cupcake.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | cupcake | A chocolate cupcake. |
| Plural | cupcakes | Two dozen cupcakes. |
| British equivalent | fairy cake | Fairy cakes for the party. |
| Related | muffin | A blueberry muffin. |
| Related | buttercream | Piped buttercream. |
How it is used in a sentence
- She decorated the cupcakes with buttercream.The topping is what distinguishes them.
- Fairy cakes are the older British version, and smaller.Usually topped with icing rather than piped cream.
- The cupcake boom peaked in the late 2000s.Specialist bakeries opened worldwide.
Cupcake, fairy cake and muffin
- Cupcake — American, larger, usually with generous frosting
- Fairy cake — British, smaller, lightly iced, sometimes with wings cut from the top
- Muffin (American) — denser, less sweet, mixed by a different method
- Muffin (British, traditional) — a flat yeasted bread cooked on a griddle
- The two muffins are entirely different foods sharing one name
The word is recorded in American cookbooks from 1828. Baking by volume rather than weight was the practical American method, and the cup measure remains the standard in American recipes today.
Cupcake or muffin?
A cupcake is a cake with frosting. A muffin is denser, less sweet, and mixed quickly rather than creamed.
What is a butterfly cake?
A fairy cake with a disc cut from the top, halved and set into the icing to look like wings.