obsession

*
Those who know me well enough will be well aware of my slight propensity for OCD. Those who know me well enough will also be polite enough to stop laughing at that potentially mild understatement. Well right now my obsessive gaze has turned to that which I had previously scorned- the cupcake.

I can't seem to help myself, I mean they're amazing- it's a mini cake and there is SO much potential for art and beauty and you don't have to commit to the size of a whole cake and can have so many variations in one batch. I'm hooked. So in my spare time, instead of updating my portfolio (must crack on with that, I have started, really I have), I'm scouting the web for cupcake images to get inspiration. The contents of the cupcake are pretty much 2nd priority for me, my obsession is the decoration. And it seems I am not the only one out there. For that matter I'm not the biggest cupcake freak by any stretch of the imagination. There are some total and utter cupcake fruitloops out there. I was looking into the difference between cupcakes and muffins and came across this blog. There is a full blown debate in the comments here about what makes a cupcake or a muffin. I was nearly crying from laughter at one point. Among the more impassioned comments were:

Fuck you. If you put frosting on a muffin it becomes a cupcake. Why is that so fucking difficult. No matter what a frosted muffin is a cupcake. But an unfrosted cupcake, becomes cake.

HILARIOUS! I did however find the answer to please me and put my mind at rest:

Muffins are regularly frosted in Australia, and can be either sweet or savoury, however, they are still muffins.

Generally muffins are larger than cupcakes and will always have a more bread like texture.

The difference is in the making process.

As muffins are not beaten, but rather, ingredients are gently 'folded' during the making, the gluten strand of the flour does not break down and they have a more bread like texture.

Cupcakes are made with a cake mix, beaten until smooth and the gluten strand is ripped to pieces, so you get a smoother crumblier texture.

Either can be dry or moist, frosted or not, big or small.

But generally cupcakes are sweeter, frosted and a great quick bite size treat, making them very popular with children.

And if you want to see a tonne of cupcake pics, check this out.

And on a non-cupcake note, just as I seem to have a knack for finding random pictures of things and weird websites, my father seems to have a knack for weird news stories. His latest post is a mine field of things from interesting to downright surreal. Check it out.

*Again, not cupcakes made by moi.