Baking Tips

Firstly I must share the most important thing I have learned over the last year – while this doesn’t matter too much on a smaller scale, with cupcakes, when you start branching out into the cakes, pastries and other recipes on here, this tip is essential.

• Bring all your ingredients to the same temperature, room temperature (20-25C)
  

You usually soften butter before baking because you can’t work with it any other way, so you should do the same for eggs and milk. Eggs especially, as they act like a “glue” for your cake work. Temperature discrepancies can alter the output of your work. Get your eggs out a little earlier if you keep them in the fridge and measure your milk – it won’t be long before you can get to work.

There’s a few ways you can bake your cupcakes:

• With paper/foil cases in a metal pan

This is what I’d recommend in all cases unless you’re going to eat them all in a really short space of time and they’re not for decorative purposes. You can use the pan to keep the shape of the cupcakes. Manufacturers have started making dedicated cupcake pans instead of having to use muffin ones. The holes are deeper and not as wide so the cupcake case stands upright (like the Oreo cupcake picture).

• Without cases in a metal pan

This is how I used to bake cakes, but I really hate it sticking to the side of the pan. Even if it says it’s non-stick, you need to prepare it before baking by brushing it with a little bit of non-stick vegetable oil or lightly spraying them with oil.

• Silicone Cups

In the last two years this has become the biggest craze. I must admit in the beginning I was a bit hesitant, but they are great. For cupcakes however, if you are baking 12 or more it makes a lot of cleaning work. The cake tins are fantastic because it avoids having to line them with baking paper or trying to peel the cake away from the edge without ruining it.

Even though they replace the tins altogether, they don’t hold the high shape as well as the paper cases in a metal pan. They are still great as they are reusable and don’t use as much paper. Like the metal pans, you have to prepare them before baking and arrange them on a flat sheet pan for easy removal from the oven (and level baking!)

• Using any recipe for cupcakes

Most cake recipes will work for cupcakes! Adjusting the baking time works for most conversions, as well as be mindful to not overmix the ingredients as you’ll end up with a dense cake instead of a light fluffy cupcake. Having everything measured correctly is also essential, so level out all the dry ingredients and use a glass measuring cup (I have a Pyrex jug) for wet ingredients, and pick up some digital scales from Kmart/Big W – they are under $30. Also check your cupcakes are done with a metal skewer, toothpick or dry piece of spaghetti!

• They didn’t rise properly!

Get an oven thermometer. If you’re serious about trying to get the cupcakes perfect, this is one of the cheapest investments you can make to reaching that goal. I bought mine from the General Trader at Tea Tree Plaza (Adelaide) for less than $10. Also, every single time you open the oven door it will drop the temperature and they will take a little longer to cook. My advice is to leave the cupcakes for 10 minutes after you’ve put them in before trying to see if they’re nearly ready. On average, they’ll take between 15-18 minutes.

Another reason they might not have risen properly – were they all filled evenly? This is a problem I come across often, it’s hard to tell if I’ve done them all about the same. You can use a decorating bag! Spoon the mix in and cut the corner off, and pipe into the cases. It is especially useful for mini cupcakes so you don’t accidentally get it all over the tray. Another way to fill them is with an icecream scoop, or a measuring cup (and pour it in).