Party Kiosk News

Cupcakes, Fairy Cakes and Muffins

What is the difference between cupcakes, fairy cakes and muffins I hear you ask?  Well to keep it simple, cupcakes is an American term and fairy cakes is British.  Muffins also derive from America that is why there is an English muffin which is completely different. 

Firstly fairy cakes.  They are the smallest of the 3 and very British.  They are made from a light sponge recipe and are usually very simply decorated on the top.  You may remember making them as a child with the centre cut out and used as wings with buttercream topping.  The baking cases for these are generally sold as bun or fairy cake cases measuring 5cm across base but only 2.5cm in height coming in a huge variety of colours and patterns.  Perfect at parties for small children who might find eating a cupcake rather filling!

Cupcakes are larger.  They are mini versions of any kind of cake.  The cases are 5cm across the base but are 3.5cm or more in height.  Cupcakes have fantastic toppings, usually consisting of fancy icing and decorations.  Definitely for special occasions and birthday parties.

Muffins are the same size as cupcakes or larger but are not iced.  The same baking cases are used as cupcakes.  Muffins are usually not as sweet, eaten for breakfast in the United States that is why they frequently have fruit in them.  In the UK we like to put chocolate in them to sweeten them up.  They are more of an everyday food. Muffins tend to spill out over the side of cases like cupcakes. 

We do recommend placing all baking cases inside a baking tin.  So cupcakes and muffins can use the same larger size tins.  You can create your own shapes and sizes depending on the tin size using a standard baking case foil within the tins.  But don't lose sleep over all this.  If you have a cupcake recipe and use smaller cases, put less mixture in each one.  A tip for mothers, kids do love to help decorate them so once you have done the hard work, pass them over to younger members of the family to create the toppings.

At Party Kiosk we have a vast selection of baking cases to fit all kinds of cupcakes, muffins and fairy cakes.  We also stock a huge range of cake decorations and cake stands. 

What Disposable Party Plate is Best?

There is a huge variety of disposable plastic and paper party plates available it is easy to get confused.

Traditional paper plates are known to be floppy when you put large amounts of food on them.  Party Kiosk don't stock the very cheap variety, all ours are more substantial than those but you can't put hot food on paper plates.  These plates are made for nibbles, sandwiches, salads - all kinds of traditional buffet bites but not a 3 course meal.  Our coloured paper plates are perfect for sitting down and eating, that is why they are so popular for children's parties.

We also stock a strong paper plate.  These are more refined than the standard varieties, are thicker and will hold more weight.  They are not suitable for hot food.  Definitely the grown up version of normal coloured paper plates. The stronger paper plates also come with matching cocktail bowls.

If you are serving up hot food at your party such as a curry which is also oily, we highly recommend our Bagasse range as they are made for such foods.  They only come in white as they are made out of sugarcane and are biodegradeable.  We stock in catering packs of 125 and smaller packs of 25 with matching bowls too.  No floppy plate syndrome here!

Plastic plates come in a huge range of colours.  They are better than the standard coloured paper plates and have matching plastic bowls available.  We do not recommend hot food on them unless you are sitting down as the heat will transfer quickly through to the bottom of the plate. Ideal for birthdays and weddings where a colour scheme is important.

Premium qualilty plastic plates are the best disposable plates but are limited to a few colours.  You can put hot food on them although they may require a napkin underneath still.  These plates are not floppy but obviously they are not suited to all budgets.  If you are serving lighter food on them then they may be handwashed and reused.  It all depends on the numbers as people choose disposable plates so there is no washing up to be done after your party or event.