Are cupcakes called that because they were baked in cups?

The evidence points both ways. The earliest printed cup cake recipe located here measures everything in teacupfuls but bakes in small tins, while the 1796 recipe that is baked in cups was never called a cup cake.

Is it October 18 or November 9?

October 18, which is the date on the earliest listing located. The second date comes from Foodimentary, which also ran the day on November 9 in 2011.

Are there other cupcake days?

Yes, and they are separate observances. National Cupcake Day is commonly listed as December 15 and National Vanilla Cupcake Day as November 10.

National Chocolate Cupcake Day

Next celebratedSunday, October 18, 2026

National Chocolate Cupcake Day is an excuse to have the small cake that comes with its own frosting. Pick one up from a bakery or bake a tray at home, and keep the chocolate one for yourself.

See how to celebrate

Countdown to the day

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Last updated September 7, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?

YEARLY DATEOctober 18

OBSERVED INUnited States

CATEGORYFood

SUBCATEGORYDesserts

ORIGIN

Community Origin

FOUNDING ENTITY

Not documented

FIRST OBSERVED

Not documented

HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

HathiTrust's full-text index finds its name once, in 2008.

No founder, organisation or establishing record for National Chocolate Cupcake Day was located in the indexes searched here. The earliest dated listing located is a food-blog calendar page for October 18, archived on 21 October 2010, and that dates the evidence rather than the day.

+ Know the story? Submit a founder Help us complete this holiday

INTRO

Zero chocolate in the cookbook that carries the cup cake

Chocolate does not appear once in the cookbook that carries the earliest printed cup cake recipe located in the sources checked here. Not in the recipe, and not anywhere else in the 1828 book. National Chocolate Cupcake Day rests on a pairing that book never made.

That is a count, not an impression. A whitespace-folded search of the full scan returns zero occurrences of choc. The book's six hits for cocoa are all cocoa-nut, which is coconut.

The cake has a paper trail. The day does not.

ORIGINS

Chocolate Cupcake Day history

INTRODUCTION

In 1796 a recipe called "A light Cake to bake in small cups" appeared in Amelia Simmons' American Cookery, printed at Hartford by Hudson & Goodwin for the author. It is baked in cups. It is never called a cup cake.

The two halves of the name arrive separately, and neither arrives with chocolate. The earliest printed use of the phrase located here turns up in Boston thirty-two years later, on a cake that tastes nothing like the one this day is named for.

CHAPTER 01

Molasses, ginger, and a Lady of Philadelphia

Eliza Leslie's Seventy-Five Receipts, for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats appeared in Boston in 1828, published anonymously as by a Lady of Philadelphia. Its cup cake is measured entirely in cups: two large tea-cups full of molasses, the same of brown sugar, five cups of flour.

Nothing about it is baked in a cup. The instruction reads "Butter small tins, nearly fill them with the mixture, and bake the cakes in a moderate oven." The flavour is half a cup of ginger, and a second scan of the 1830 printing reproduces the recipe word for word.

CHAPTER 02

Sixty-five years without the phrase

The California Digital Newspaper Collection covers 1846 onward. Ask it for chocolate cup cake or chocolate cup cakes across 1846 to 1911 and neither turns up; the singular draws the archive's No results page. Cup cakes alone returns 320 hits in that window.

The first hit of either form is an advertisement in the San Diego Union and Daily Bee of 5 January 1912. The scarcity held: across 1890 to 1929 the archive returns 3,508 hits for chocolate cake or cakes. It returns 28 for the chocolate cup cake forms.

One of those 28 is a price list. On 17 June 1921 the Los Angeles Herald carried I. D. Bakery's line, "Chocolate Cup Cakes, 25c Dozen."

CHAPTER 03

The day arrives last, and arrives twice

Foodimentary, the food-holiday blog John-Bryan Hopkins started, carried the day on October 18 in 2011. Later that year it ran the same day again, on November 9, with that date written into the post's own address.

Nobody has claimed the day. The calendar it sits on was assembled by hand, and Hopkins has said how much of it he wrote.

TIMELINE

Timeline

A light cake baked in cups

Amelia Simmons' American Cookery prints a recipe baked in small cups that is never called a cup cake.

A cup cake measured in teacupfuls

Eliza Leslie's Seventy-Five Receipts carries a CUP CAKE of molasses and ginger, measured in cups and baked in small tins.

Chocolate cup cakes reach the archive

A San Diego Union and Daily Bee advertisement of 5 January carries the earliest example of the phrase in California's newspaper collection.

One volume, one mention

The day's name appears once in HathiTrust's full-text index, in Creative Forecasting v.20, a magazine for activity programmers.

The day turns up in a web capture

A Foodimentary calendar page for October 18, archived on 21 October, is the earliest dated listing located here.

A cupcake chain stops trading

The board of Crumbs Bake Shop determined on 7 July to cease operations, months after reporting 70 open stores.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Chocolate Cupcake Day by the Numbers

1: HathiTrust volumes naming the holiday
17: HathiTrust volumes naming National Pretzel Day
0: Federal Register documents naming the holiday
36: Federal Register documents naming Loyalty Day

They're just like my little children. I might wake up a little groggy one morning and decide that I don't like what's being celebrated that day. So I make it a new one.

John-Bryan HopkinsFounder of Foodimentary

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love National Chocolate Cupcake Day

STOREFRONTS

I thought Sprinkles would keep growing and be around forever.

Sprinkles closed every location on 31 December 2025, twenty years after Candace Nelson and her husband opened the first store in Beverly Hills. Nelson, who sold the brand to the private equity firm KarpReilly in 2012, said "this isn't how I thought the story would go."

CALENDAR

The food calendar was filled in by hand

When Foodimentary went live in 2006 there were around 175 food holidays already on the calendars, and its founder told Money "I filled in the rest." He also described how an invented one sets: the news believes it by year two because it was around the year before, and "when year three comes, it's like it was written in the Bible."

PRICE

Some registries sell the days they publish

Money reported in 2014 that a US day registry charged reportedly upwards of $800 for a package that included creating a holiday, and $19.99 for a one-time virtual national day. Hopkins calls selling holidays "offensive" and says charging for their creation "will eventually degrade its importance."

GOOD TO KNOW

National Chocolate Cupcake Day Around the World

Canada

Cupcake Day for the Ontario SPCA is a separate observance, a shelter fundraiser the charity dates to Monday, February 23, 2026

Australia

RSPCA Cupcake Day is its own campaign, held on Thursday 17 September under the line 'Bake to fight animal cruelty!' Both days abroad have a named organiser and a stated purpose; neither was located for this one

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate National Chocolate Cupcake Day

Bake the 1828 cup cake for comparison

Follow Eliza Leslie's recipe straight from the scan, molasses and ginger and all, and butter small tins rather than cups. Put one beside a chocolate cupcake and taste two centuries apart.

READ

Read the recipe that came before the name

Amelia Simmons' American Cookery is free to read in full. Find the light cake baked in small cups and see how little it resembles what you are about to frost.

Search a newspaper archive for old cupcake ads

The California Digital Newspaper Collection is free to search and covers papers from 1846 onward. Try a bakery name or a street you know and see what turns up.

ORDER

Order a dozen from a neighborhood bakery

Buy them from the counter instead of the supermarket aisle. Ask whether the recipe is the bakery's own and how long it has been on the board.

SET

Set out a frosting bar for guests

Bake the cakes plain, then put out two or three frostings and a row of toppings. Everyone finishes their own, which also settles the argument about how much is too much.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Chocolate Cupcake Day?

1 / 8

The cup cake recipe in Eliza Leslie's 1828 collection is flavoured with what?

Answer

No. It is an unofficial observance with no legal recognition located in the two US federal indexes checked, the Federal Register and a GovTrack bill search, so it is an ordinary working day.

COLOPHON

Sources

How we know what’s on this page. References, not endorsements.

19sources

17primary records

10independently dated

Primary records

Internet Archive1828

Seventy-Five Receipts, for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats, by a Lady of Philadelphia

Full text of the 1828 Boston edition, including the CUP CAKE recipe.