Cupcakes!

[matgb]

Jennie and I are having our first argument. I think it's a northern thing, but we will solve it with skience:
[Poll #1069303]
Because, seriously, although we're giggling, this is the first time we've seriously disagreed.
ETA: Despite quite blatantly losing this vote, she's now making excuses—the votes of Americans and Southerners don't, apparently, count. OK, currently still winnning anyway :-D

Comments

[cosmolinguist]

seriously, although we're giggling, this is the first time we've seriously disagreed.

I'm pretty sure the first time Andrew and I seriously disagreed was about spelling (and then pronunciation).

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

You neglect to recall your liberal principles, darling. Just because a majority agree des not make them right. I will take you to the bakery tomorrow and see how far it gets you asking for a bloody cupcake.

[andrewducker]

Depends on whether your definitions are descriptive or prescriptive...

My "Something else" vote

[strangefrontier.livejournal.com]

To me, cupcakes and buns are generally interchangeable words. Sometimes bun tends to describe plain, un-iced varieties and cupcakes are decorated, but I use the word bun more often and I consider both buns and cupcakes to be cakes.

[nadriel.livejournal.com]

I'm a Northerner- therefore my well-thought out reply counts?

[matgb]

On spelling, you're right, it's arbitrary. But Webster's version of arbitrary is weird, at least ours is just common practice. Personally I theoretically care not as long as comprehension is there, but in practice bad spelling gets to me in a visceral manner.

I can deal with American, as long as it's acknowledged it's not English, it's a dialect...

On pronunciation? You're just wrong. I actually avoid listening to my US friends phone-posts at times, for some reason it always gests to me :-(

[rho]

To my mind, a bun is either an alternative word for a bap or barm, or is something along the lines of a hot cross bun. A cupcake, on the other hand, is more akin to a muffin. If I had to put my finger on the difference, I'd probably say something about the internal texture, and the shape of air bubbles, and what have you.

And I am, of course, a born and bred northerner, though I don't doubt she'll argue I'm from the wrong side of the Penines.

[tiredstars.livejournal.com]

[matgb]

I prefer the descriptive option m'self—as long as we know what's being discussed we're good.

[matgb]

But Mike, you voted for Guido. This is, I admit, a valid vote, and it means she's in last place on the voting score, but, y'know...

[matgb]

Cake!

[matgb]

Your definition is fairly close to mine. I'm waiting for the other Yorksher folk on the friends list to vote, so far we're one-all on that score.

[innerbrat]

*confused*

But buns are made of bread, and cupcakes are made of cake.

...what is Jennie thinking of?

Re: My "Something else" vote

[matgb]

There's always one. To be honest, up until now I'd not really tried to define what a 'bun' is, I've always known what cake is, but not buns...

[tiredstars.livejournal.com]

And icing I like the look of, too...
(Let a girl use your computer for five minutes to wiki/google cupcakes and buns and you get her hijacking your account to post cupcake pictures. Typical.)

[burkesworks.livejournal.com]

Cupcakes are by definition cakes; but an eccles cake is a bun, and a teacake or a barm cake is neither.

[missdiane.livejournal.com]

Oxford and other dictionaries define it as a small cake baked in a cup *shrug*

Although I guess it's my American perception that a "bun" would would be a different texture than a cake/cupcake - as in bread or pastry-like in texture and more often using yeast?

[eldar.livejournal.com]

Oh my. I voted "Other" because I reckoned the best way to do this is to say what I know of as a cupcake. And being a southerner married to an American... well.

A cupcake is a small cake/bun, usually quite light in texture, that is presented in a dainty little paper holder called a "cup".

Oh dear, but I've used both "cake" and "bun". Well, it's a cake because, well, it uses cake mixture. But it's a bun because it's bun-sized. But my Nan's buns never came in little paper holders. So they're not really buns. They're cakes. But they're bun-sized. And so goes the circle of semi-inebriated logic.

[yuxonomei.livejournal.com]

I always thought that a cupcake was American for fairy cake.

Nigella says they are cakes, as does Delia. I'm going with them for they know cake.

[tinuvielberen.livejournal.com]

...unless the question is linguistic, in which case, the way the majority of native speakers use a word is what it means.

[waka-laka.livejournal.com]

I MEANT CAKE. sdfhsdf

[foxfirefey]

You can change your vote!

[eccles.livejournal.com]

I hope you kept the receipt for that ring!

[caseytalk.livejournal.com]

The only difference between a cup cake and a regular cake is the size. The photo posted above illustrates that. It is a cup cake.

A bun is more bread-like.

Matb -- those of us who have known jennie for many years know she will never admit a mistake tied to language. I've found the solution to be to nod and smile and say, "yes, of course you're right" and go on using the word correctly as before.

[pink-weasel.livejournal.com]

What if your bakery does not sell cupcakes? Greggs don't.

Not knowing the difference between a cupcake and a bun is like not knowing the difference between a lion and a rabbit - unlikely and daft.

Would a picture of an evil cupcake help?
http://tn3-2.deviantart.com/fs14/300W/i/2007/065/8/4/Evil_Cupcake_by_sonkem.jpg

What you should be looking at in that picture is the fact that The Cake is in a cup or little paper cup. Hence cupcake.

Mr Weasel and I had our first great disagreementabout Star Trek.