Cupcakes
Sumptuous Cupcakes
The earliest extant description of what is now often called a
cupcake was in 1796, when a recipe for "a light cake to bake in
small cups" was written in American Cookery by Amelia Simmons.
The earliest extant documentation of the term cupcake itself was
in "Seventy-five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats" in
1828 in Eliza Leslie's Receipts cookbook.
In the early 19th century, there were two different uses for the
term cup cake or cupcake. In previous centuries, before muffin
tins were widely available, the cakes were often baked in
individual pottery cups, ramekins, or molds and took their name
from the cups they were baked in.