CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES

Chocolate Cupcakes are single-serving chocolate cakes.

• They're frequently baked in a paper or aluminum cup.
• They use the same basic ingredients as standard-sized cakes: butter, sugar, eggs, and flour.
• Nearly any recipe that is suitable for a layered cake can be used to bake a cup cake.
• And, as with larger cakes, frosting and other cake decorations are commonly used.

In the early 19th century, the term had two different culinary meanings:

• The first referred to tools used in its preparation.
• The second, the method of measuring ingredients.

Before muffin tins were widely available, small cakes were often baked in individual pottery cups, ramekins, or molds and took their names from the cups in which they wereprepared.This practice endured, and the name is now given to any small cake that is about the size of a teacup.


The other kind of "cup cake" referred to a cake whose ingredients were measured by volume--using a standard-sized cup--instead of by weight. Recipes whose ingredients were measured using a standard-sized cup were more commonly baked in tins (as layers or loaves) than in cups.

In later years, when the use of volume measurements was firmly established in home kitchens, these little cakes came to be known as "1234 Cakes" or "Quarter Cakes", so called because they're made up of four ingredients, specifically measured by volume: 1 cup of butter, 2 cups of sugar, 3 cups of flour, and 4 eggs.

They're plain yellow cakes, less rich than pound cake, due to using about half as much butter and eggs.

The names "Cup Cake" and "Pound Cake" were intended to signal the method of measurement to the baker:

◦Cup Cake uses a volume measurement
◦Pound Cake uses a weight measurement.

Cake in a Mug is a contemporary variation that uses a mug and can be "baked" in a microwave oven.

Butterfly Cake is another variation that's also called Fairy Cake--for its fairy-like "wings":

• The top of the cake is cut off or carved out with a spoon, and cut in half.
• The hole is then filled with butter cream, whipped cream or jam.
• Then, the two cut halves are stuck into the hole to look like butterfly wings.
• The wings are often decorated using icing to form various patterns.

Here are some delectable chocolate cupcakes from SHARI'S BERRIES:

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