Muffins and cupcakes; the difference
Muffins and cupcakes are often confused together. Some people believe that both muffins and cupcakes are almost similar, but the truth is, muffins are muffins and cupcakes are cupcakes. The taste, ingredients and occasions mainly differentiate between cupcakes and muffins. Both the dessert are a delight, tempting and satisfying to enjoy once. Let’s closely understand the basic difference between a sweet cupcake and savoury muffin.
Cupcakes and muffins
Not too sweet, not too creamy and not too soft, Muffins and cupcakes are entirely different. The contents, icing, filling are some of the common differences that makes muffin and cupcakes two unique desserts. The dry texture over soft bite, the dense appearance over creamy toppings and the savoury taste over the sugary delight makes cupcakes and muffins different.
Cupcakes can be the compared to the miniature cakes that come in some of the tempting flavours like the coffee cupcake, vanilla cupcake, chocolate cupcake, red velvet cupcake and fruity cupcake. For muffins, you have the option to choose from Apple-Cinnamon Muffins, Banana Muffins, Blueberry Muffins, Cornbread Muffins, Honey Muffins, Pumpkin and Cream Cheese Muffins etc.
The toppings
The first difference can be made on the basis of appearance. The frosting or icing over the desserts brings the major difference between cupcakes and muffins. The sweet cupcakes are topped with a wide variety of toppings like buttercream frosting, fruits, nuts syrups etc. When it comes to muffin, the top is often adorned with a sugar coat or thin glaze. The cupcakes are filled from the top while muffins are filled from the inside. The hidden fruits and nuts inside the baked batter create an excitement to taste and indulge in the savoury zest. But if you think removing the frosting from a cupcake makes can make it a muffin, then you are wrong. Cupcake can be compared with a piece of small cake while muffin is bread stuffed with nuts and fruits.
The ingredients
The ingredients of muffins and cupcakes are somewhere similar but the major difference comes with the use of flour. Muffins can be prepared with all-purpose flour, wheat flour, oat flour or even various nut flours. The cupcakes require only all-purpose flour to prepare the batter.
While baking muffins, one can add tasty additional mix-ins like the dried fruits, nuts chocolate chips or fruits. The muffins are considered healthier than cupcakes as the butter can be replaced with vegetable oil, and the use of sugar can be minimized. Cupcakes require a lot of butter and sugar making it unhygienic and unhealthy.
On a brief, it can be said that the number of ingredients used in muffins is doubled when it comes to baking a cupcake.
The making
The batter of cupcake and muffins is differently made. The consistency of batter, thickness and beating time bring another point of difference in muffins and cupcakes. For making cupcakes, butter and sugar are mixed and beaten together for a long time to get a smooth and spongy batter. The muffin batter is beaten slightly that makes it dense and lumpy.
For muffins you can mix all ingredients at once to obtain a dense batter, cupcakes need more time and separate mixtures for a smooth and creamy touch.
The occasions
Cupcakes are the sweet creamy and terming piece of cake that is mostly eaten during some occasion. The muffins and cupcakes can be differentiated on the basis of the time when they are served.
The muffins contain less cream, sugar and more nuts as compared to Cupcakes. At the same time, the use of wholegrain flour can add more nutrients to a muffin as compared with a cupcake. This is the reason that a muffin is considered to be the healthier option than cupcakes. This makes muffin suitable for breakfast especially when you are having savoury muffins. But cupcakes are sweet creamy loaded with fat, thus cannot be savoury and healthy. These are served as dessert during the parties or weddings.
Being a miniature form of cake, cupcakes are served cold. They are baked and left to cool down and settle. Muffins are served both cold and hot as per the preference of one. The occasions and servings also mark the difference between cupcakes and muffins.
But whatever may be the difference, one thing that makes cupcakes and muffins same is the irresistible taste and the cravings for both the delightful desserts. Bake them order them but enjoy them both as a cupcake and a muffin. No more confusion now.