A cupcake can be either a chiffon cake or a sponge cake (it's called a cupcake because it's loaded with the body of the cake in the container of a cup, and it has nothing to do with the type of body). Chiffon cake is a type of sponge cake, which is very light in texture and uses salad oil, eggs, sugar, flour and baking powder as the basic ingredients. It needs to rely on beating the egg whites into a foamy cocktail shape to provide enough air to support the volume of the cake. Chiffon cake contains sufficient amount of salad oil and eggs, so the texture is very moist and does not tend to harden like traditional butter cake. Chiffon cakes also contain less saturated fat. However, because they lack the rich flavor of buttercream, chiffon cakes usually require a richly flavored sauce or toppings such as chocolate or fruit.

Cupcakes can be whipped with whole eggs or split eggs (which means they can be made into sponge cakes or chiffon cakes); chiffon cakes

are generally whipped (the so-called split egg whipping refers to the method of whipping the egg whites and yolks separately and then mixing them).