06 Muffins are code name for cake

I wonder how many people actually realise this: that muffins are just code name for cake?




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Have you ever realised that to make muffins and cake, you use the same ingredients? You basically pour cake batter into a muffin mould, change the name and voila! We believe by some twisted logic, that muffins are in fact, better for us than cake. Even more astonishing is that it has become quite the trend to have a cup of coffee and a muffin as a substitute for a healthy breakfast. Yet, would you really eat a piece of cake for breakfast??

For my experiment to see exactly what the difference is (if any), I googled: "Chocolate cake recipe", and "Chocolate muffin recipe",. I randomly selected 2 recipes each.

Then, I added all the ingredients into a calorie analyser. After putting in all the ingredients, the software calculates the total calorie content, and then you select how many servings this makes. So, if it makes 12, it divides the total calorie number by 12, including all the other parameters like carbohydrates, protein, fat, saturated fat, sugar, and fibre. I then standardized this so that each serving size is per 100g.

The results are amazing!

Common ingredients for cake and muffins:

Sugar

Butter/Oil

Flour

Raising agent

Egg

The ratios vary slightly, but not much. The only difference is you may make 12 muffins or 1 cake that gives 8-12 slices. In fact I often use cake recipes for muffins. But here are the results anyway:

The first recipe used chocolate chips as opposed to cocoa. If you compare the means (the average) we get:

Assuming no icing on either:

Average chocolate muffin: 393 calories

Average chocolate cake: 334 calories

I wonder if it is psychological that we do not associate the same meaning of "muffin" with "cake"? I know I don't. If everytime you had to order a muffin, and call it "cake", do you think you would think twice before eating it? I think yes. I know I would. Wikipedia (yes we know especially in science is not the most reliable source), but nonetheless, defines "muffins" as an American-English term that are "somewhat like small cakes or cupcakes in shape". Aha. Cupcake. Cake. Mmm. Even still, I don't think we make the same association of "cupcake" with "cake". 

The term "muffin-top" refers to the "spilling over" jeans syndrome that seems to be spreading world wide:

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Besides the fact that muffins look totally desirable and topple over the sides of the case does not mean that we should replicate this or consider this desirable. As the saying goes, you are what you eat - too many muffins and you may start looking like one!

Personally I don't think anyone should ever be eating muffins for breakfast - not even so called health muffins. Yes, they may substitute all purpose flour for wholewheat flour and contain some nuts and fruit, but the chances are, they still aren't very healthy for you and full of sugar. If you wouldn't eat cake as a snack, don't eat muffins as a snack.

I think our society has lost touch on what a "treat" is and reward ourselves for things that really aren't "reward-worthy". Just because you went to gym does not mean that should be considered "reward-worthy". That should be considered "part of daily life". I truly believe when you really appreciate things as "reward/special", you will really treasure eating that delicacy. I remember growing up, my mother never ever kept sweets, chocolate, crisps or biscuits in the house - that was a real treat. One vivid memory I have is being 4 years old and receiving 2 squares of chocolate and thinking it was like Christmas! Such a treat, and remember being told to "Enjoy it, and eat it slowly." Nowadays, we could eat 2 squares of chocolate and not even remember putting it in our mouths! Mindless eating is a global pandemic that needs to be stopped. 

The art, pleasure and beauty of eating needs to be rekindled and rediscovered. Culture needs to be reignited and celebrated. Has greed really grown to the point where we can eat 2 muffins as a "by-the-by" part of our day and not think of it as a pure bliss? 

Personally, I think we need to all throw out the sweets, biscuits, chocolate, chips, fizzy drinks, breakfast bars, chocolatey cereals etc. from our cupboards. If we placed more emphasis on baking sweet goods:

a) The effort involved would likely reduce the amount of times desired to make them.

b) It is always so much more pleasing to eat something self created. Appreciation to eating is KEY.

Bottom line:

More than changing our eating habits, we need to change our state of mind...

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