Food Friday - Cupcake
19th century New England had two definitions for the word cupcake (or cup cake).
The first was simply a name for miniature cakes. Cake batter was poured into cups or mugs if they were the most readily available containers that would work. Any variety of cake in this smaller size could bear the name cupcake. Some of the British called them Fairy Cakes.
A second definition of cupcake is one that I recently baked. It is a cake made of a few simple ingredients that I’ll outline below. I was told that although this will produce one regular sized cake rather than several small ones, the name cup cake was given because of the easy to remember measures (one cup of this, two cups of that, etc). The ingredients that I was told are as follows:
One cup of butter
Two cups of sugar
Three cups of flour
Four eggs
One issue that I had was that I did not know what temperature would be best or how long to bake the cupcake. I was told verbally how what ingredients to use but should have questioned it further. I imagine in days gone by that people must have used an open hearth and just watched it carefully. I tried 350 degrees (Fahrenheit) for 30 minutes.
The cake came out with a great texture around the edges, but it was more dough like in consistency near the center, and was not as tall as the edges. The flavor was good. It was a flavor that was not too different from a teacake, or butter sugar cookie. A small piece was plenty, as it was very filling.
I just wasn’t happy with the overall texture so may make an attempt at this again later. I might add 2 tsp of baking powder and vanilla, maybe a cup of milk and a pinch of salt and cinnamon. We’ll see.
