Tips to great cupcakes

(pictures credited to: www.eddybles.com)

A few months back, I was in this small group of little daughters and moms in a baking class. It was a fun get-together. We baked 2 kinds of cupcakes: lemon and vanilla, and the most moist "food for the gods".

The baking stint with the little ones was, as expected, messy! You know, after these little hands measure the dry ingredients, you will find them running around and playing hide and seek. Then, they come back and gather again in the kitchen to do some more measuring. I felt for a time I was in for a merry-go-round ride. The cupcakes turned out fine... but some were just flat due to over beating. Nevertheless, it was quite a wonderful experience for both mother and daughter activity.

The only thing I need to emphasize about cupcakes is how to bake them the right way. If there’s one thing I am known for, it’s the "excellence" in me. Call me a perfectionist or a spoiled little snot: either is an apt description. When something doesn’t go right or looks like it needed mastery, I would try again until I get excellent results. That is why, baking more cupcakes and learning from my mistakes made me take note of some points to remember to bake the almost-to-perfect ones.

Here are some tips:

1. Fill your cupcake wells 1/2 to 2/3 full. Any more and you will get a gooey mess instead of a beautiful cupcake. If you use less than 1/2 a well of batter, then you will get wimpy cupcakes and will have to use extra frosting to make them look larger. The picture below is an image of a simple batter mixture.

2. Choose the right cupcake pan. Good cupcake pans are shiny and on the heavy side. They will cook 6 to 12 cupcakes at a time. Large muffin pans don't work well for baking precious little cupcakes. Make sure you have 2 pans available because then you won't have to cool a pan before you finish baking your cupcakes. Two 12 well cupcake pans should be enough for one batch of cupcakes.

3. Make it easy o remove the cupcakes from your pan. Either use paper or foil wrappers or spray the individual wells with a nonstick spray. If you are using the new silicone pans, wrappers or nonstick spray work fine in these also.

4. Don't overmix or overbeat your batter. I will emphasize this again.... Never overbeat your batter!!!! Trust me, this has been my dilemma. This will cause your cupcakes to end up like flat shoes or to be rather chewy instead of perfectly moist. How do you do this? It's safe to mix your dry and liquid ingredients manually rather than with a mixer. You want to see some flour in your batter... this means it's not over mixed/beaten. Or follow the directions in your cupcake recipe. If your recipe calls for a hand mixer and you are using a stand mixer, you will need to reduce your mixing time. Stand mixers mix batters faster than regular hand mixers. Consult your owners manual for mixing time adjustments.

5. Bring all ingredients to room temperature before mixing your cupcake batter. The items will mix evenly, and the result will be a wonderful cupcake batter. By mixing cold items into your batter, you risk having a lumpy batter which might cause you to overmix your batter. GASP! What a No No!

6. Bake your cupcakes at the proper temperature. Preheat your oven to the correct temperature BEFORE you put your cupcakes in the oven. An oven thermometer would also be a great idea to make sure your oven is set to the right temperature. If your oven cooks food faster at the rear of the oven, then make sure you rotate your cupcake pan halfway through the baking time.

7. Use your favorite cake batter to make cupcakes. Batter for an 8 inch layer cake usually makes 20-24 cupcakes. Just make sure you have mixed the batter well, and only fill the cupcake liners 1/2 to 2/3 full. Bake approximately 20 minutes, and check for doneness using a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center of the cupcakes.

8. Test for doneness after the minimum cooking time. If the cupcakes aren't finished cooking after the minimum time, then place them back in the oven for some additional cooking time. Cupcakes are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

9. Cook only one pan of cupcakes at a time. Place your cupcake pan in the very center of your oven. If your oven tends to cook items more that are towards the back, then rotate your cupcake pan halfway through the cooking time. If you absolutely have to bake 2 pans of cupcakes at one time, make sure you switch cupcake pans halfway through the cooking time. By this I mean put the bottom pan on the top and move the top pan to the bottom.

10. Cupcakes are best eaten the same day they are made. Undecorated cupcakes can be frozen up to 3 months.

Why don't you bake your favorite cupcakes now? Enjoy one as soon as it's ready and then either share the rest with friends or freeze them for your future enjoyment!