This has an air of preciousness that is, uh, I don't know.

Big question: What's the difference between a muffin and a cupcake? I think a bacon and cheese cupcake is really a muffin or even something else.

The rest of the modern food world has been done with cupcakes for a long time, why are we still thinking they're hip?

turkeybone, maybe they're just awesome. I can't imagine living in a world done with cupcakes!

OMG is right on both counts. I just don't see alcohol and cupcakes as a combo (unless it is a birthday party and the alcohol is champagne). Alcohol & muffins works better for me.

I'm just not a cupcake lover. Now a slice of good wedding cake and a glass of champagne? Bliss!

IMO, a cupcake is a muffin with icing and a different attitude. Muffins try to disguise themselves as breakfast items. . Cupcakes fully admit to their full-on-dessert-status.

I wonder what a Pazo cupcake costs?

Caution: these cupcakes can lead to muffin tops:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyO-z_7Ip9c

I've filed the cupcake revival under Comfort Food Meets Dining Trend.

Like other items in this category (the mac n' cheese explosion a few years back springs readily to mind), just because the arbiters of food fashion have moved on, doesn't mean the rest of us can't enjoy 'em.

It seems to me that revived comfort foods just have a longer shelf-life in public dining habits than truly precious dining trends - foie, sunchokes, edamame.

Muffin is to cupcake as dumpling is to matzoh ball.

OMG, since you asked, cupcakes generally have a higher ratio of fat, sugar, and egg to the dry ingredients. Cupcake batter usually begins with sugar and butter being creamed together to create a light-textured cake, whereas the ingredients in muffins are pretty much thrown together, creating a denser product.

Thank you DJBS.

A cupcake is like pornography' I know it when I see it.

DBJS & OMG ... Isn't Alton Brown forever going on about the creaming method vs. the muffin method?
Getting bacon and cheese to distribute in a muffin doesn't sound hard. Getting them to do the same in the airy texture of a cupcake sounds much tougher. Oh to be downtown again to try one!

DJBS is right. Muffins are usually denser. As a matter of fact, so are most of my favorite cakes, which probably explains why I'm not a huge muffin fan.

El Gen, I loved that you used the word "arbiters". Although I've read it I don't think I've ever found a place to work it in to a conversation. And, although I'm not a fan of the cupcake, your hypothosis is probably right on.

that should be "cupcake fan" not muffin fan!

Desperately in need of coffee!

What no picture? I really wanted to see a photo of a cupcake and martini together - it would really start my day off right!

Shew, thanks for clarifying, Joyce. I was beginning to think I had drank decaf by mistake.

Sorry - but something small and baked with bacon and cheese is NOT a cupcake. It's a muffin. Calling it a cupcake is pretentious.

Oh, you'd like a "bacon & Manchego cupcake, made with miticrema nousse . . . paired with a warm apple cider made with Grey Goose La Poire, St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram and Velvet Falernum," would ya, wuss? Do you also wear a tutu to work, girly-man? And is your first name Mary?

Well, if not, if you want a cupcake that can put hair on your smoother-than-a-baby's-butt chest, one that will bring your voice outta soprano range, one that will finally make those reluctant testicles drop, well, son,Butch Bakery is here to help.

Yup. Manly cupcakes. For manly men.

Sure, "the modern food world" may have "been done with cupcakes for a long time," but apparently GI Joe just discovered them.

¿ǝsǝɥʇ ɹǝqɯǝɯǝɹ ˙oɥʍ ǝǝquʎoʇ :ǝʇɐıɹdoɹddɐ ǝɹoɯıʇןɐq ʎɹǝʌ - ɐɥɔʇdɐɔ

˙uʍo ʎɯ ɟo ןıɐɟ ןɯʇɥ pןıɯ ɐ sı „ʎןɹɐǝןɔ„ ʇsɐן ǝɥʇ os 'ǝɹǝɥ uo ƃɐʇ ǝuıןɹǝpun uɐ op ʇ,uɐɔ noʎ ʇɐɥʇ ʇoƃɹoɟ ı 'ʎןǝʇɐunʇɹoɟun ¡sʞuɐɥʇ

Oops, that went to the wrong post... LV, please feel free to delete..