I’ve been on a muffin kick lately. I’ve been eating one almost every day. Yum! Muffins are tasty, they come in many flavors in convenient individual size servings, and eating a muffin feels healthy. Really, how many of us would admit to having eaten a cupcake for breakfast without any guilt? Not many, I’m guessing. But if you ate a muffin, for some reason you’re okay. Is that really true? Is there really no guilt involved in eating a muffin, or are muffins just cupcakes posing as “health food?”

It was time to be completely honest with myself. I turned to Google to help me answer a very pressing question: What is the difference between muffins and cupcakes?  I thought I’d look up the answer to quickly satisfy my own curiosity. Who would have thought this could turn into a blog entry? Would you believe I found pages of results? It turns out that the difference between cupcakes and muffins is a long-time topic of debate, and as a new expert on the subject I can now help to clear up the mystery for all of you who might be wondering  as well.

It turns out the answer is not so simple. One chef says there is no difference at all and that muffins are just an excuse to eat cake for breakfast. Someone clever wrote that we might as well call them “muffcakes” or “cupfins.” But most are of the opinion that cupcakes and muffins are definitely different and the only thing they have in common is their shape. According to a lot of professional and home bakers the basic difference is that cupcakes have frosting and muffins don’t. Some writers get technical and talk about ingredients and methods: cupcakes have more fat, eggs, and sugar, muffins have more flour and can have fruit, nuts, or chocolate chips mixed in. Muffins are made with oil, cupcakes with butter. Cupcake batter is beaten well until smooth; muffin ingredients are quickly mixed together till just combined. These differences result in different textures. Cupcakes, true to their name, are more caky- actual mini cakes- while muffins are drier and denser- more like small quick breads. Cupcakes are always sweet but muffins can be savory too. So far, so good- I’ve been eating healthy muffins, right? Cupcakes, they say, are baked in paper cups and muffins are baked straight in muffin tins, but I don’t know how strict everyone is about that rule because I have had muffins with paper holders. Omg! Did I unknowingly eat a cupcake?!?

And of course, as in most debates, there are strong opinions. A muffin fan describes cupcakes as cloying, smarmy, sweet muffins that try too hard to please. Muffins, on the other hand, are cupcakes with attitude, with enough confidence that they don’t need to hide under frosting.  And from the cupcake fans: “If you throw a cupcake against a wall it will make a ‘pouf’ sound. If you throw a muffin it makes a ‘thud’ sound.” I can’t even attribute this quote to any specific source because I saw it all over the place!

So, does this newfound knowledge help me at all? Will I feel better about eating muffins instead of cupcakes? A little, I guess. I know muffins are not cake, but the term “muffin top” doesn’t come from nowhere!