In this week's Sporkful episode on muffins, guest Julia Turner and I bemoan the cake-ification of muffindom, and discuss where on the spectrum from scone to decadent cake the muffin should fall. Eater Matt from Chicago calls in with a response. Listen above or read below:

Whenever I order a chocolate muffin, I just have to call myself out. I turn to the purveyor of muffins, I always have to say to that person with kind of a shy smile, "I'm ordering a chocolate muffin and it is totally not a cupcake." I'm just acknowledging the elephant in the room, that I'm basically ordering an unfrosted cupcake and calling it a muffin. Cause somehow that adds a veneer of respectability, because I'm 42 and ordering a cupcake from a teenager at the cash register.

I appreciate Matt's acknowledgement that a chocolate muffin is really a cupcake without frosting, and I suspect he shares my concern about the Eatscape's blurring of the line between the two. But I don't know that he, or anyone of any age, should feel the need to apologize when ordering a cupcake.

Those who should apologize are the members of society that can't tell the two apart, or even worse, that have encouraged the confusion. As long as we Eaters maintain our muffin awareness, however, I don't see any need for shame. What are your thoughts?

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Photo: Flickr CC / emmadiscovery