What is the difference between a muffin and a cupcake?

I’m going to have to side with two of the definitions and say that frosting and butter/sugar/flour distinguish the ol’ etymological brew-ha-ha.

Mostly frosting, I think. A cupcake without frosting is just naked.

A cupcake is usually more sweet, doesn’t have berries or grains, and usually had icing. I muffin is a little more savory, has berries or grains, and no icing.

and they’re all different in Britain… ;-)

@Zaku; I have read about fairy cakes in a number of British novels* and always wondered what they were. <NO BAD JOKES HERE – I mean you – Hoss, Kev, Andrew, etc. >

*and the Richard Jury detective series by Martha Grimes.

I believe fairy cakes equate to “fancy smallish cupcakes” in American terms. Modern USA muffins and cupcakes and scones are gargantuan by British standards. Muffins, scones, chips, biscuits, all mean different things from what they mean in the US.

One idea for a fun way to discover fairy cakes would be to follow a recipe and see what you get. ;-) See http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/fairycakes_83889.shtml

An easier way is go to google.com, click images and type “fairy cakes” – as far as I know, that’s a pretty good survey you get. I’m not an authority though.

I think the basic difference in cupcakes and muffins is that muffins are a “mini-bread” and cupcakes are a “mini-cake”

yea perchiks got it. a cupcake is made from a batter where as a muffin is made from a dough. also muffins are considered quick breads.

Muffins are also made from batter – or haven’t you ever baked one? The line between “quick bread” and “cake” is fairly hard to discern.

If you serve it as breakfast, it’s a muffin. If you serve it as dessert, with frosting, it’s a cupcake.

I don’t know about you, but I often have cupcakes for breakfast. =)

I have this theory that muffins and cupcakes can only be concretely defined in direct comparison with one another, i.e. a cupcake is a cupcake because it is not a muffin, therefore the definition of muffin is central to the definition of the cupcake because it outlines what a cupcake is not, while simultaneously carving out what a cupcake is by process of exclusion.

Obviously, I’ve thought about this way too much.