Cupcake Corner

So I think you’ve probably gathered that I’ve caught the baking bug and become slightly obsessed by cupcakes. Having already shared quite a few different cupcake recipes with you (and plenty more that I want to share!) I thought I would dedicate a page to these beautifully delicious treats!

I’ll start by sharing some of my cupcake top tips! Hopefully they will help you recreate perfect cupcakes of your own.

1. Use foil cases as opposed to paper cases. Foil cases help to keep your cakes moist for longer and paper cases do not. They will also stop butter from seeping out whereas paper cases will become very greasy.

2. Use unrefined golden caster sugar instead of white caster sugar wherever possible. This will give a better overall flavour to your cakes.

3. Use all ingredients at room temperature. If you add cold, wet ingredients to room temperature ingredients, it can cause the butter to curdle. (This will create holes in your sponge)

4. Find the hot spots in your oven. These can be the death of 2 or 3 cupcakes per batch if you don’t figure out where you will get the most “even bake” in your oven. After a few batches, it should be fairly obvious where they are in your oven.

5. Use food colouring gels as opposed to liquid food colours. Liquid colouring can easily alter the consistency of your frostings or sponge mixes, gel colours won’t. You will also get deeper colours from the gels as they are more concentrated.

6. If your butter & sugar mixtures split, add a little flour. When you have creamed butter and sugar together, the next step is usually to add eggs. I find if you beat each egg into a bowl/glass and add it to the batter in halves, beating well after each addition, it seems to help. But if your mix does decide to split, add a tablespoon of flour and it should sort it out.

7. Use proper measuring spoons. Despite what you may think, the teaspoon that you make a cup of tea with is not actually the same as a teaspoon measurement in baking. Invest in some measuring spoons, they are only a few pounds and will be an invaluable piece of kit to ensure accuracy.