Ms Cupcake arrives on Coldharbour Lane, Brixton

[gabi]

classic urban thread

 

[quimcunx]

In the UK in 2011

a fairy cake is an individual cake often served with a topping of some sort. sponge predominates

a butterfly cake is a type of fairy cake with 'wings'. sponge predominates.

a cup cake is an extravagantly iced fairy cake. Icing predominates.

 

[trashpony]

I'm eating a fairy cake now. It has chocolate chips in it. Is it still a fairy cake?

 

[Biddlybee]

They're all little cakes

 

[spanglechick]

And larger 'cupcake'/fairy cake cases were widely available in the past - it's something we were always able to source in London

Not in my experience at all. I was passionate about making cakes as a small child (and in fact, well into my teens). frenzied. Had the local co-op, grocers, sainsburys or even the big ASDAs when we got that in the late eighties, sold anything other than the bog-standard shallow paper case, generally printed with ugly orange flowers, or as a very special treat - foiled - i would have been transported into delights. maybe brixton had a special line to deeper cases. maybe there was some kind of border control ensuring that only the brownies-approved shallow case made it into the suburbs, but certainly the deeper cupcake case was new to me when i first got hold of some about 12 years ago.

 

[Clair De Lune]

Where do muffins come into the cupcake/fairy cake debate?

Mrs. Muffins cruelty free, decorative splurge cakes

 

[toblerone3]

Two Fairy cakes, one cup.

 

[trashpony]

Can it still be a cupcake if it's made without two of the four primary ingredients?

 

[spanglechick]

well, you can make a resonable sponge with margerine (is margerine vegan?)... but eggless?

 

[Biddlybee]

You can get vegan spread.

 

[Clair De Lune]

And this for the egg http://www.naturallygoodfood.co.uk/Baking/No_Egg_egg_replacer_Orgran_GF_200g

 

[tarannau]

Not in my experience at all. I was passionate about making cakes as a small child (and in fact, well into my teens). frenzied. Had the local co-op, grocers, sainsburys or even the big ASDAs when we got that in the late eighties, sold anything other than the bog-standard shallow paper case, generally printed with ugly orange flowers, or as a very special treat - foiled - i would have been transported into delights. maybe brixton had a special line to deeper cases. maybe there was some kind of border control ensuring that only the brownies-approved shallow case made it into the suburbs, but certainly the deeper cupcake case was new to me when i first got hold of some about 12 years ago.

I can be fairly definite about this largely because I played for a rugby team in the 80s that, for some unknown reason, had a habit of eating fairy cakes at halftime. So much so that we were informally known as 'Jaqui's Fairies' around the London leagues - fortunately we were actually a fairly good team

But these were big fairy cakes, quite possibly cooked in US moulds, that nobody would have dreamed calling cupcakes. They were simply large fairy cakes. And the same scene was played out in many a bake off and cake stall for years

To me the difference between 'cupcakes' and 'fairycakes' was always arbitrary - we spent time between both the Americas and the UK and we simply switched terms dependent on where you were. It's one of those slight distinctions like 'pants' meaning underwear in the UK, but all trousers in the US.

 

[quimcunx]

Where do muffins come into the cupcake/fairy cake debate?

Mrs. Muffins cruelty free, decorative splurge cakes

Muffins are what we call fairy cakes when we don't want to admit to eating cake for breakfast.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

According to Wiki

The first mention of the cupcake can be traced as far back as 1796, when a recipe notation of “a cake to be baked in small cups” was written in “American Cookery” by Amelia Simms. The earliest documentation of the term “cupcake” was in “Seventy-five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats” in 1828 in Eliza Leslie's Receipts cookbook.[1]

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 persisted, and the name of "cupcake" is now given to any small cake that is about the size of a teacup. The name "fairy cake" is a fanciful description of its size, which would be appropriate for a party of diminutive fairies to share.

Totally irrelevant however. It's just another stupid American fad that's made its way to these shores in a bid to make the British even more overweight. This problem didn't exist when everyone ate fairy cakes.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Muffins are what we call fairy cakes when we don't want to admit to eating cake for breakfast.

Muffins

 

[Clair De Lune]

Muffins

google image search wholeheartedly disagrees with you

 

[tarannau]

The Americans have rebranded those things McMuffins

 

[dessiato]

Alright, now that that's established, tell us of the lesser evils of the sign.



You poor folks should realize that this is just the thin edge of the wedge. This cupcake business is bound to take off [cupcake stores are proliferating here in NA already]. In five years, there will be one on every corner of the high street of Brixton: just like Starbucks and KFC.

Woe betide the poor honest chippie, and the tobacconist's shoppe.

I have no other problems with the sign. If she wants to portray herself as a 0's housewife that's up to her.

We have a cupcake place in Parque Nascente, in Rio Tinto. They are expensive but a real pleasure to eat. AND they use real butter-cream. Of course this means they don't last as long as non-animal product ones might, but who wants to keep them? They are to be eaten and enjoyed ASAP.

 

[spanglechick]

I can be fairly definite about this largely because I played for a rugby team in the 80s that, for some unknown reason, had a habit of eating fairy cakes at halftime. So much so that we were informally known as 'Jaqui's Fairies' around the London leagues - fortunately we were actually a fairly good team

But these were big fairy cakes, quite possibly cooked in US moulds, that nobody would have dreamed calling cupcakes. They were simply large fairy cakes. And the same scene was played out in many a bake off and cake stall for years

To me the difference between 'cupcakes' and 'fairycakes' was always arbitrary - we spent time between both the Americas and the UK and we simply switched terms dependent on where you were. It's one of those slight distinctions like 'pants' meaning underwear in the UK, but all trousers in the US.

it think it's the american moulds thing. if you didn't know anyone who'd spent time in america - and i, like most brits in that period, just didn't - you wouldn't have been exposed to the bigger version until they were brought over by food importers in the nineties. and then it goes back to my earlier point: if they'd called them 'fairy cakes' they wouldn't have sold many - most people (without the benefit of transatlantic cake moulds in their social circle) would have expected them to be small, and not worth buying... they could have called them 'american style fairy cakes', but it was surely simpler to call them cupcakes because that's what they were called at home and it indicated that they were different.

 

[spanglechick]

According to Wiki



Totally irrelevant however. It's just another stupid American fad that's made its way to these shores in a bid to make the British even more overweight. This problem didn't exist when everyone ate fairy cakes.

yay -

the name of "cupcake" is now given to any small cake that is about the size of a teacup

your average british fairy cake (or butterfly cake) is nowhere near the size of a teacup. hurrah!

 

[Yu_Gi_Oh]

thank you - yet another lie my mum told me, then

Yeah, mine too, wtf is that all about?

I'm greedy and think that the ones with all the lurid icing on look the best. Vegan cake can be really nice too, in the war cakes were sometimes baked without eggs or dairy. I find it less sickly. You can eat more!

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

google image search wholeheartedly disagrees with you

That's because it's American so therefore biased

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

The Americans have rebranded those things McMuffins

Probably in retaliation for the British rebranding cupcakes as fairy cakes

 

[Biddlybee]

it think it's the american moulds thing. if you didn't know anyone who'd spent time in america - and i, like most brits in that period, just didn't - you wouldn't have been exposed to the bigger version until they were brought over by food importers in the nineties.

aren't yorkshire puddings made in the bigger/deeper moulds?

fuck it, small cakes are small cakes, who gives a toss what they're called as long as they taste nice?

 

[tarannau]

It doesn't change the fact that they're basically the same thing. The whole idea of trying to give them sort of differentiation based on the cup size is more than a little arbitrary given the similarity of ingredients and the ability to substitute one word for another without concern or confusion.

It's more akin to changing the size of a can of coke and giving it an attractively bright new rebrand - the product itself is largely unchanged, but it's a great tool of potential differentiation for marketeers everywhere. Fairy cakes were a bit faimilar, a bit too Wi, but cupcakes can be imbued with new and exciting premium associations.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

It doesn't change the fact that they're basically the same thing. The whole idea of trying to give them sort of differentiation based on the cup size is more than a little arbitrary given the similarity of ingredients and the ability to substitute one word for another without concern or confusion.

It's more akin to changing the size of a can of coke and giving it an attractively bright new rebrand - the product itself is largely unchanged, but it's a great tool of potential differentiation for marketeers everywhere. Fairy cakes were a bit faimilar, a bit too Wi, but cupcakes can be imbued with new and exciting premium associations.

if you're that gullible

 

[tarannau]

It works though, doesn't it? In the same way that Pret helped itself to a premium image by little touches like 'crayfish and rocket' sandwiches rather than plain old 'prawn salad'. The same old product offerings are refreshed and relaunched to help maintain interest

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

It works though, doesn't it? In the same way that Pret helped itself to a premium image by little touches like 'crayfish and rocket' sandwiches rather than plain old 'prawn salad'. The same old product offerings are refreshed and relaunched to help maintain interest

I buy Pret because I like the stuff, not because it has crayfish and rocket sandwiches which I wouldn't eat anyway

 

[rover07]

I fancy some cake for lunch.

(I probably shouldnt though)

 

[Orang Utan]

aren't yorkshire puddings made in the bigger/deeper moulds?

fuck it, small cakes are small cakes, who gives a toss what they're called as long as they taste nice?

It's the ludicrously baroque and overabundant icing that I have a problem. All that fuss for something that's over in a matter of seconds