Cupcakes.....

[ALTAF]

Hello,

Cupcakes have always been kids and grown ups favourite. I would like to know how to get the perfect high look of them, like the ones sold at bakeries . Do they add more baking powder ?or do they fill the cupcake case almost to the top? do they use a special soon?

What atre the tricks??

[miladyinsanity]

Adding more baking powder can give your cake a coarse texture and a very metallic taste that's yucky--as proven by my mistake when I halved a recipe but forgot to halve the baking powder.

[CanadianBakin']

I would grease the top of your muffin pan and fill them right to the top. I think this will only work with a thick batter-like dough such as Yellow Cupcakes by Cooks Illustrated. A runny cake dough will just make a huge mess.

[Beanie]

Altaf,

There have been alot of discussions about cupcakes. For starters, here is a good thread.

I'm not sure what you're looking for. Do you want to make cupcakes that look like this? These are only slightly domed, but you could then add swirls of icing like this.

A few weeks ago I made chocolate cupcakes using a recipe in the best chocolate cake thread. I think it was this recipe. I used papers in the muffin tin and filled each about two-thirds full. They came out slightly domed above the papers like the chocolate cupcakes in the above photo. When they cooled, I dipped the tops in caramel ganache. They were awesome.

I'm not sure how they would have turned out if I had filled the cups to the top. When I make jumbo muffins with high tops, I use a very different batter, a thicker muffin batter that is not mixed very much, and fill to the top. But those are muffins, not cupcakes.

Maybe you an describe what you want in more detail and one of the more experienced bakers can add to this.

Ilene

[ComeUndone]

I personally prefer pound cake or quartre-quarts recipes when I want a nice round dome for cupcakes. Butter cake (e.g. layer cake) recipes that I tried consistently give a flatter and less predictable top that I can't cover up even with the nicest swirl of frosting.

[ALTAF]

Interesting.....

Candy: cool blog

[etalanian]

Sometimes increasing the heat will cause the tops to "pop" so there is a pretty large dome.

Usually overfilling the cups just results in the cupcakes overflowing, which has the opposite effect of what you want - when they overflow they often fall.

Eileen

[MarieinLA]

I own a cupcake shop and can tell you that each cupcake we bake gets a different "oven treatment". Some, like the more liquidy devils food batter are baked without the convection fan (it just blows the batter over and creates what we call "a tongue"). Others, mostly the butter cake batters, we bake with the convection on for a few minutes until the batter has set and then turn the convection off to avoid the volcano dome and achieve the nice dome. Others, mostly the heavier oil based batters (carrot, pumpkin) can handle most everything and get the fan on the whole time.

You can also experiment with filling levels. Make some test cupcakes where you fill cups either half way, three quarters, and somewhere in between and then you'll figure out the best filling.

Hope this was more helpful than confusing :-)

Happy New Year.

[Wendy DeBord]

I own a cupcake shop and can tell you that each cupcake we bake gets a different "oven treatment".  Some, like the more liquidy devils food batter are baked without the convection fan (it just blows the batter over and creates what we call "a tongue").  Others, mostly the butter cake batters, we bake with the convection on for a few minutes until the batter has set and then turn the convection off to avoid the volcano dome and achieve the nice dome.  Others, mostly the heavier oil based batters (carrot, pumpkin) can handle most everything and get the fan on the whole time. 

You can also experiment with filling levels.  Make some test cupcakes where you fill cups either half way, three quarters, and somewhere in between and then you'll figure out the best filling.

Hope this was more helpful than confusing :-)

Happy New Year.

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Actually I was glad to read your post. I was going to be all bummed out if someone had one solution....cause I have to play with every batter. Muffins too, they don't all rise the same.

[joaquin]

I would not fill your cupcake batter all the way to the top of your tins. That can result in overflow that will make the cupcakes hard to remove from their pan and give them a flat look. I think the standard advice, which works well for me, is to fill about 2/3 of the way to the top...maybe you could go to 3/4. But that will give you what you are looking for...the high rounded top effect.

[digigirl]

I own a cupcake shop and can tell you that each cupcake we bake gets a different "oven treatment".  Some, like the more liquidy devils food batter are baked without the convection fan (it just blows the batter over and creates what we call "a tongue").  Others, mostly the butter cake batters, we bake with the convection on for a few minutes until the batter has set and then turn the convection off to avoid the volcano dome and achieve the nice dome.  Others, mostly the heavier oil based batters (carrot, pumpkin) can handle most everything and get the fan on the whole time. 

You can also experiment with filling levels.  Make some test cupcakes where you fill cups either half way, three quarters, and somewhere in between and then you'll figure out the best filling.

Hope this was more helpful than confusing :-)

Happy New Year.

←

What about those of us with regular, old standard home ovens without convection fans? Are we just out of luck, or are there still other tricks to help with domes?

I've been very disappointed with all of my muffins and cupcakes, as they all come out much flatter topped than I would like. The only time I got a good muffin dome, it was with a recipe that wasn't nearly as tasty as my standard - and taste wins over looks at my house, every time. But, me being me, I want it all - taste AND looks! Back to the drawing board!

Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[MarieinLA]

Hmmm...not sure, haven't played with no convection at all on any of the cupcakes besides the devil's food. The only thing I could suggest is test baking them at different temperatures and see what happens... let us know if you do...

[shaloop]

Any tried and true recipes for cupcakes? Basic vanilla or yellow or white cupcakes would be great to start. Something light and fluffy with a nice round top. Anything like that out there?