The Science in Making a Cupcake

Today's Tuesday tip will be on a science of making cupcakes.

One day while on the internet I came across an image explaining how to fill cupcakes properly. As a home baker, it can be difficult because you don't want to overfill the cupcake liner so the cake tops off and you have a mushroom looking cupcake. Another difficulty is the attempt to make them all look uniform. The picture that I came across explained that if you were to fill a cupcake liner about half to 3/4 full, the cake will come out perfect peak or a flat surface to frost. Lately, as I have been baking I've been putting this idea into practice. I like to fill the cupcake liner about 3/4 of the way. This helps it too you have a nice peak in the center, without having a mushroom top.

I'm a perfectionist and I like a clean finish so if you don't really care about your finished product, then disregard this information I just presented. However, I believe that it's important to you share with you the tips that I've learned on how to make the product look professional.

As for baking time I usually bake the cupcakes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 to 20 minutes it. It really depends on your oven temperature on how long you want to bake your cupcakes.

I now turn to how to frost a cupcake. First, I will direct you to an early Tuesday Tip of mine where I discussed the consistency of frosting. Now, I will explain what type of tip you use frost your cupcakes. The different tips one can use is a M1 open star tip, the extra large closest star tip, the extra large French tip, or the extra large round tip. You can usually find these tips at Michaels, Joann, Target, or Walmart. There is also a tip for filling, but I won't go into that today.

You may decide to go the old school route with frosting it with a nice for spatula and get to make it look beautiful, but again I am a perfectionist and I really like the swirling technique on the tops of my cupcakes. 

To create that classic swirl, all you have to do is hold your piping bag at a 45 degree angle from the top of your cupcake and use your wrist to create that swirl. Sometimes I hold the cupcake in my hand, or is start the swirl in the middle, instead of the sides. If you mess up, the beauty of frosting is that you can usually just swipe it off the cupcake and try again. You can also practice on just parchment paper. 

Kirsten