This baking trend must be stopped.

jwgtn, Jun 4, 2:42am
using muffin mix to make a cup cake. It's really annoying buying a nice looking cup cake with pink icing only to find it's a muffin in disguise.
cookessentials, Jun 4, 3:03am
Not into muffin mix personally. So much easier to make your own and you know what's in it!
elliehen, Jun 4, 3:17am
I think there must be a giant barrel of generic stuff labelled 'MIX' in the back of supermarkets and cafes ;)
eastie3, Jun 4, 3:22am
I agree
bill241, Jun 4, 3:40am
I can't tell the difference.we use Champion muffin mix at work and it seems pretty light and cakey to me. I'm easily pleased when it comes to baking though
ange164, Jun 4, 4:27am
what *is* the difference!
ngacooky, Jun 4, 5:17am
but its so easy to make good muffins, why use expensive muffin mix!
Its all in the mixing - do not over mixthem
bill241, Jun 4, 5:17am
There might be some technical differences that a cook could tell us about, but from the consumer's point of view, the difference seems to be that a cupcake really is like a miniature cake: light in weight, sweet, and often covered with icing and decorations. It tends to be not too tall because it's texture isn't strong enough to allow for a very tall structure. It's always made with white flour as far as I know. A muffin is significantly heavier in texture and also in weight; with its cohesiveness, it can contain fruit, nuts or chocolate chips, which are not common in cupcakes. It is never iced and need not be particularly sweet. It can be made with ingredients as heavy as bran, and can be rather tall and have a large overhanging rim that doesn't threaten to fall off. (The cupcake also has a rim, but it is rather delicate and not too large.)

If you threw a cupcake against the wall, you would hear something of a "poof!" If you threw a muffin, you would hear a "thud!"

A muffin goes with coffee, a cupcake with tea. (That's a rather controversial statement, so perhaps this discussion should be moved to the controversial topics zone.) Fast food joints deal in muffins, especially in North America, but I have never seen one that sold a cupcake. Sociologically, a muffin is everyday living, whereas a cupcake is "we're getting fancy." Theoretically, a man could say, "hey honey" to his waitress while he was chewing on a muffin, but with cupcake in his mouth he could only say, "my dear." If you were writing a novel, it would be a gross literary error to substitute a cupcake for a muffin.

(from: some website I googled)
bill241, Jun 4, 5:18am
We just use it at work to make big batches of 100+ muffins, to take less time than measuring out the individual ingredients. I've never made mix muffins (or cupcakes) outside of work though.

I should add that I work in a rest home kitchen, not a cafe, where you'd expect more than a run-of-the-mill muffin. At the rest home the muffins are nice, but not 'homemade-y'
bill241, Jun 4, 5:18am
We just use it at work to make big batches of 100+ muffins, to take less time than measuring out the individual ingredients. I've never made mix muffins (or cupcakes) outside of work though.
kinna54, Jun 4, 5:28am
ick! I can tell muffin mix as soon as I pick it up. I like a cup cake to taste like a cup cake should be.light and fluffy.
And a muffin should not be sticky, heavy and gluey as with the mixes. I can pick it in an instant, often the cooked product has a slight sheen,and it leaves a gluey after taste in your mouth.
Firm I worked for catered for up to 600 students, our muffin quota was between 150 - 250 per day (that was to cover the morning tea crowd, usually only a few left at lunchtime :no -one wants to buy muffins much after the morning tea rush) and our muffins were made by hand without mixes: just good recipes, and woman power.

And the difference is: cup cakes are made by creaming your butter sugar extremely well, and add your eggs and sifted dry ingredients.

A muffin recipe should be dry ingredients with the addition of melted butter or oil, and milk and beaten egg, which should be just quickly stirred in, just enough to incorporate all ingredients together.
kinna54, Jun 4, 5:33am
exactly
ngacooky, Jun 4, 5:36am
i make 80 odd muffins at a time, and it doesnt take that long to measure out all the ingredients and mix them together
marcs, Jun 4, 6:06am
I agree. I see something nice and thing oooh that would taste great and then I am disapointed with it.
dezzie, Jun 4, 5:03pm
To me, a muffin has the flavour IN the muffin, a cupcake has the flavour in the icing.
mwood, Jun 4, 9:01pm
and Savoury Cup Cakes sound so Provincial
hmck, Jun 4, 10:11pm
If you threw a cupcake against the wall, you would hear something of a "poof!" If you threw a muffin, you would hear a "thud!"

Thanks bill241 - I am so tempted to go home, bake and throw one of each against the wall to test this theory!
bill241, Jun 4, 10:33pm
lol yeah I picked that definition because it sounded funny, I liked the part where you can only say 'my dear' when eating a cup cake
jphs, Jun 4, 10:37pm
I think that a cupcake should be made by creaming butter and sugar where as muffins as we know them are based on american recipes that use oil or melted butter plus more baking powder. That is why cupcakes are light, fluffy and cake-like than the "generic" muffin things that we buy in cafes.