History of the Cupcake

Today, while celebrating a colleagues birthday, with cupcakes of course, they asked, "where do cupcakes originate, they are definitely American." Let me note, the individual lives in France and it's possible the cupcake craze might be a little more evident here in the US. Anyway, this really got me thinking...(as I pretty much think about cupcakes everyday...by the fact that last night, I started researching what it was going to take to make the ultimate vanilla cupcake per cupcakeproject.com's recipe)...i digress as usual....anyway, it got me thinking, where do these personal, pint-sized joy's come from. Who invented them???

With a little internet research, information can be found.

There actually seems to be two theories of the origination of the name cupcake:

1. by the measurement of ingredients in the cake...cup of flour, cup of sugar, etc.

2. by the fact that they were originally baked in cups.

The first reference can be traced back to 1796 in a recipe written by Amelia Simms, the American Cookery, with a notation about a cake to be baked in small cups.

So was it America or somewhere else?

Well there are other references to Queen Cake that was apparently a lighter version of fruitcake that was popular in the 18th century in England.

It's possible we may never know, but America has a close tie and history with Great Britain, so...

it's food for thought.