Cupcakes Ideas & Recipes

Cupcakes Ideas & Recipes features delicious cupcake recipes and cute cupcake decorating ideas for special occasions such as birthdays and holidays like St. Paddy's Day or Easter(coming up..)! In addition, we have also included a little game to entertain you.. :)

A cupcake is a small cake designed to serve one person, which may be baked in a thin paper or aluminum cup. As with larger cakes, icing and other cake decorations, such as candy, may be applied.

The first mention of the cupcake can be traced as far back as 1796. 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. 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. 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.

A standard cupcake uses the same basic ingredients as standard-sized cakes: butter, sugar, eggs, and flour. Nearly any recipe that is suitable for a layer cake can be used to bake cupcakes. The cake batter used for cupcakes may be flavored or have other ingredients stirred in, such as berries, nuts, or chocolate. Because their small size is more efficient for heat conduction, cupcakes bake much faster than a normal layered cake.

Cupcakes may be topped with frosting or other cake decorations. They may be filled with frosting, fruit, or pastry cream. For bakers making a small number of filled cupcakes, this is usually accomplished by using a spoon or knife to scoop a small hole in the top of the cupcake. Another method is to just insert the pastry bag in the middle of the cupcake. In commercial bakeries, the filling may be injected using a syringe. Elaborately decorated cupcakes may be made for special occasions.

Our Cupcakes Ideas & Recipes app is a collection of some of the most beautiful cupcake designs, ideas and recipes of 2016!! Have fun baking and.. enjoy!!!