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There might be some technical differencesthat a cook could tell us about, but from the consumer's point ofview, the difference seems to be that a cupcake really is like aminiature cake: light in weight, sweet, and often covered withicing and decorations.职业糕点师可能会从技术角度告诉我们这两者的区别，但是从一个消费者的角度来看，cupcake更象一个迷你蛋糕，它比较轻巧，口味也偏甜，蛋糕顶部通常浇有一层奶油或者会放置一些装饰品（蜡烛、彩色小糖屑等）。It tends to be not too tall because it'stexture isn't strong enough to allow for a very tall structure.It's always made with white flour as far as Iknow.cupcake通常使用白面粉为主要制作材料，它的内部组织比较松软，所以无法做出顶部高高的造型。A muffin is significantly heavier in textureand also in weight; with its cohesiveness, it can contain fruit,nuts or chocolate chips, which are not common incupcakes.与 cupcake 不同，Muffin 的内部组织比较紧，糕体相对厚实，所以它比cupcake重。我们在制作的过程中，在原材料中会加入一些水果（蓝莓、草莓、香蕉）、坚果，或巧克力碎等。但在制作 cupcake的过程中，我们通常什么都不放。It is never iced and need not beparticularly sweet. It can be made with ingredients as heavy asbran, and can be rather tall and have a large overhanging rim thatdoesn't threaten to fall off. (The cupcake also has a rim, but itis rather delicate and not too large.)Muffin的顶部不会被浇上奶油，口味也不是很甜。制作 Muffin的原材料中会用到一些粗粮，比方说：麦麸。它的顶部比较高，而且会有一圈明显突出的蘑菇边。（cupcake也有一圈边，但不明显）If you threw a cupcake against the wall, youwould hear something of a "poof!" If you threw a muffin, you wouldhear a "thud!""——这句话比较幽默。"如果你把 cupcake 扔向墙壁，会听到“扑”的一声。但当你把 muffin同样扔向墙壁，你会听到“砰”的重击声。A muffin goes with coffee, a cupcake withtea. (That's a rather controversial statement, so perhaps thisdiscussion should be moved to the controversial topicszone.)吃 muffin 的时候，我们通常会喝咖啡。而 吃 cupcake的时候，我们会选择喝茶。Fast food joints deal in muffins, especiallyin North America, but I have never seen one that sold acupcake.在北美的快餐店，我经常能看到有 muffin 卖，但却从没看见有 cupcake卖。Sociologically, a muffin is everyday living,whereas a cupcake is "we're getting fancy."从社会学的角度说，muffin 是面向大众，而 cupcake则是“小资”。Theoretically, a man could say, "hey honey"to his waitress while he was chewing on a muffin, but with cupcakein his mouth he could only say, "my dear."从理论上来说，男人在嚼 muffin 的同时，可以直呼女招待“甜心”。但如果是在品尝cupcake ，他则要文雅地称呼女招待“亲爱的”。If you were writing a novel, it would be agross literary error to substitute a cupcake for amuffin.如果你在写一部小说，在文中混淆了两者的概念，把 muffin 称为 cupcake，那可是犯了个很严重的文学错误
