It's not a cupcake it's a fairy cake with more butter icing than is proportionate to the amount of cake you are eating

[CanISawItOff]

My rage about cupcakes fairy cakes really is disproportionate to the matter at hand but really, seriously, just STOP WITH IT!

An angel cake is a proper cake with three coloured layers of sponge with a thin layer of icing in between each. Like this.

A butterfly cake is a fairy cake with a whole in the top filled with butter icing with the cut out bit of cake split in two and stuck back in the top like wings. Like this.

Ooh this bothers me too.

Fairy cakes, or butterfly cakes. Both yummy.

But fucking cupcakes seem to have taken over.

whole in the top?! Dear god, hole in the top.

A cupcake with a whirl of icing covering the top is ok, but some of them have half the case filled with the stuff which is grim.

yabu.

I always had a battle eating fairy cakes with their crappy little blobs of icing.

Give me a cupcake with 2" of glittery buttercream on it anyday.

YANBU.
It's the way the TWEENESS gets everywhere that I hate.
There is a cafe near me called Bessie's Sparkle Polka Dot Kitchen or somesuch, and they sell fairy cakes with too much icing, and everything is POLKA DOT and GINGHAM and like some acid flashback of a 1950's that never happened.
WHY??

I need to make butterfly buns now. You bastards.

YANBU. It feels like chewing on a cake with a block of butter on top. Unnecessary especially in these economic times.

But to me a bun just has a thin layer of ordinary icing whereas a cupcake has that kind of buttercream icing? Maybe that's just where I live but we never had buns / fairy cakes with buttercream icing.

I love cupcakes.

Although I still call them fairy cakes.

YABU

But my best friend makes and sells cupcakes so I have to say that

But hers are yummy

I'm just not up on my cakes am I?

I know my baps, cobs and rolls though

YABU

Surely the disproportionate amount of icing is the point

Yanbu about the price btw but if your beef is with the cupcake as a baked good in general then as far as I'm concerned you can shove it in your cakehole yabu

Cupcakes are just fancified fairy cakes - another American import. We used to be able to buy cupcakes (six in a box) in the supermarket. They were just a small amount of fairy cake mixture in a paper case and icing to fill it until it was level with the top of the paper case.

They're a thicker, richer sponge aren't they? Can't believe I'm actually posting about cupcakes.

YADNBU

Why do some mad women think that making them is some kind of achievement or that it makes them domestic goddesses? It ruins their dress sense and taste in home furnishings too. Cath bloody Kidson has a lot to answer for!

Making fairy cakes is an achievement when you are 9. Not 39.

I'm waiting for the day when I can buy a bun case with three inches of buttercream in it and no cake. I never did like cake much - the mixture is always yummy, but cooking just spoils them completely.

A cupcake is merely a fairy cake with delusions of grandeur.

You're all eating from the wrong cupcake makers. There is a big difference between a fairy cake and a cupcake.

*Fairy cakes are made with butter and sugar blended then flour and beaten egg added in increments, technically that makes it a Madiera mixture. They are generally topped with glace icing, fondant or cream and should be topped sparingly. The resulting cake mix is golden brown on top.

Cupcakes are made by beating the egg and sugar together until the mix doubles or triples in size, then carefully folding in the flour. You can add butter to help preserve it but only a little and they keep pretty well anyway. The buttercream icing should be only made with pure butter and icing sugar blended, unless you're making swiss meringue buttercream which has egg white. To save money some places (coughTescocough*) use vegetable oil or butter subsitutes but it's not a good idea. The mix bakes very quickly and falls if you don't get to it bang on time and it's white or pale yellow when it comes out.

Knowledge is power!

They aren't cakes, they're buns.

Amazed and impressed by Princess's explanation.

Your knowledge of cakes is awesome :)

If the frosting doesn't account for at least 50% of the total height, it's just not trying hard enough. The best bit of making cupcakes is eating the cream cheese frosting out of the bowl with a spatula.

And what's all this 'buying' nonsense?

They are twee shite aren't they? They are fucking fairy cakes ffs.

There is a woman round our way with a car emblazoned with "The Cupcake Bakery" by way of business advertisement. I can imagine she makes anything out of that. It is not a business, it is a tweeness.

Every time I see the offending car go by, it makes me

can't, not "can"

Too much icing....bad.
Too little icing.....also bad.

So you are both U and NU !

Cupcakes/fairy cakes/angel cakes....all good.

Frontpaw - I think that's the best description of a cupcake I've seen .

I make fairycakes, they really are so much nicer.