A muffin is not a cupcake. I repeat. A muffin is not a cupcake.

Drunk with success from my first stint at Baking School, I went back for more. This time it was Muffins and Scones. The course was shorter, just 3 days long plus 1/2 a day for assessment.

My teacher for 3 days, Chef Tan was someone new to me. But I have previously seen him before, lurking in the kitchens. Chef Tan is pretty new to the school but has been in the baking industry for many, many years.

Our class was quite big, 11 of us and to be honest, sometimes it just got a bit too rowdy. As usual, we had people who didn't lift a finger to help out in the cleaning of common areas. After 2 courses, I've come to expect this kind of behaviour.

The first thing we baked was muffins. When I say muffins, I don't mean the English muffin. I am referring to the American muffin. We all know muffins, rite? Rite? Wrong. I thought I knew muffins. I've eaten muffins. I've bought muffins. During the course, we were told, muffins and cupcakes have the same "body", as in the batter is the same. The method in which the batter is made is exactly the same.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
You're kidding me.
The world has turned upside down.
Pigs are flying.

So what's the difference between a muffin and a cupcake then?
According to the school...

If a muffin has topping such as icing, cream, chocolate, it becomes a cupcake! Muffins usually has ingredient fillings instead.

So, using that explanation, if I were to bake a plain muffin and a plain cupcake, all I have to do is make ONE batch of batter and pour some into a muffin tray labelled "muffins" and they will be plain muffins. Pour some of the same batter into another muffin tray labelled "cupcakes" and they will be plain cupcakes.

Am I wrong or is this total bullshit? Please help me out here. I find it impossible to accept that muffins and cupcakes have the same "body".

So what's my idea of cupcakes and muffins? And this is not something I pull out of the sky but based on my years of eating cupcakes and muffins. A cupcake is a mini light cake. A muffin has a heavier, denser texture. You guys watch Seinfeld before? You must surely know Jerry Seinfeld's "You know a muffin can be very filling." It's true. My son, he eats 5 cupcakes in a row. Nothing. Give him one muffin and he's done. If you try to get him to eat more, he'll tell you, "You know a muffin can be very filling."

Ingredients for my fake-muffin.

The batter was made unsurprisingly as if I was making a cake.

I've seen this exact same batter before in my cake course.

Muffins are baked. Or cupcakes. Whatever.

The fake-muffins cupcakes were surprisingly good. My son ate them. My daughter ate them. My daughter's friends ate them. Hubs' colleagues ate them. I made them 3 times during the course.

When it came to scones, I was a little more open minded since I'm not a scone person and have probably eaten scones once or twice in my entire life. Still I was a little surprised the first batch of scones came out very bread-like. The first time I ate it, I thought it tasted pretty good. Well maybe anything straight out of the oven tastes good. The next day I tried eating another one and I could. Not. Swallow. It. The scones weren't popular with hubs' colleagues either and we ended up throwing them away.

It became clear pretty soon that many of the students in my class were questioning the scones recipe. Like why does it taste like bread. Why?

On Day 3, I decide to be a rebel and not wear my white shirt which is part of our "uniform". I wore my Metellica Uniqlo raglan sleeve and when I opened the classroom, I was shocked to see a total stranger addressing the class. It turned out to be the principal and I was wondering if he had come to talk about our attire. Nope, he had come to explain why the scones tasted like bread. I forgot what the explanation was but what came out of the principal's presence was we got to modify the scones recipe. And no, he didn't say anything about me not wearing my white shirt.

These scones had more fats and tasted slightly better than the previous batch.

These scones were baked on assessment day and the recipe was different again. Firstly, the size of the cutter was changed and the amount of fats was lower than the 2nd batch. The taste was quite good. However on the following day, I put one in the microwave oven and the inside turned hard as a rock. I think I should have microwaved it with a saucer of water. Anyway I ate one without warming it and it didn't taste bad at all.

I found the method of making scones quite new and exciting. First, the dough is mixed for a very short period of time until it pulls away from the mixer. This sticky dough is rested for 20 min. Later it is floured and folded. The ingredients goes into the dough and folded again. (I really struggled with manipulating the dough. After a lot of practice, I think I finally got it.) The dough needs another 20 min rest and the scone cutter is used to cut out the shapes. A final rest of 20 min. Lastly, apply egg wash and the dough goes into the oven. Whew!

The assessment wasn't as bad as Cake. We only had to bake muffins and scones. The theory (oral) which I detest wasn't too bad either. I really, really hate studying for it though. Like super hate, hate. It's impossible for me to memorize all the keywords! I struggled with one question, as always. The tester kept saying: more, more. I had nothing more but managed to cough up the answer, somehow. And so I passed Muffins and Scones.