How to Bake Cupcakes from Scratch: 10 Things They DON’T Tell You in the Recipe

Desserts, Feature, Learning, Tips — By alicia

Those who bake well and often will tell you that making cupcakes is easy.  And it is, if you were raised by June Cleaver or born with the Julia Child gene.  I was lucky enough to learn from my mom, the daughter of a truly fantastic baker who wasn’t too June to let me “experiment” in the kitchen.  But even without training from the womb or possessing a natural gift, it’s still eminently possible—and a good time—to learn how to bake cake from scratch.  Here’s my advice for newbie cupcake makers.

1. Measure carefully - It’s not difficult to do, it’s just that you might not know how.  Do you want a heaping cupful of flour?  Or do you want to pack it in there?  As a general rule, you want a level measure of whatever it is you’re measuring.  Cookbooks will tell you to scoop the measuring cup overfull of flour/sugar/dry ingredient of choice and then use a knife to level it off.  I usually use the bottom of the spoon or a smaller cup measure—whatever I’m using to scoop, simply because it’s more convenient to me.  Baking powder and baking soda have a lip built into their containers that you can use to scrape off the top of a heaping spoonful.

2. Whisk the dry ingredients -  It helps break up the baking powder or baking soda and salt and makes for fluffier cakes.  Chewy is not what you aim for in cake making.

3.  Beat the wet and dry ingredients separately -  The recipe actually says this, but it bears mentioning again.  Cake mixes were invented to avoid the use of more than one bowl.  In cake making, you need two.  Bite that bullet.  This is part of a larger theme, which is…

4.  Follow the recipe -  Restrain your inner improvisational actor this round.  Eventually you’ll be able to make a cake healthier/more exciting/look like confetti cake mix, but on your first recipe, stick to the rules.  Kitchen chemistry doesn’t require petri dishes but it’s no stir fry.

5.  Mix well –  “Mix well” is recipe-ese for beat like you’re a Kitchen Aid.  Lumpy batter leads to more nasty bites of baking powder—don’t let that face happen at dessert.  Use a spatula at this stage (or a big spoon) to beat the batter until it’s smooth, and scrape down the sides and the bottom often.

6.  Preheat the oven -  Another chewy cake prevention tactic.  Baking cookies doesn’t require you to preheat the oven (necessarily) but cakes are finicky.  Preheating the oven means turning it on as soon as you get out the butter and eggs.  The heat will shoot through the batter and make it rise quickly and cook thoroughly.

7.  Fill the cupcake tins…half to two-thirds of the way.  Too high will make it hard to frost because they’ll have a muffin top.  That’s unattractive.

8.  Let the cupcakes cool IN the tins…

9.  …and completely  – Keeping the cupcakes in the tins helps them keep shape, and if you don’t let them cool completely, you’ll get cupcake scramble when you go to frost (don’t worry, it still tastes good!).

10.  Sprinkle  - The key to good décor is fake it ‘til you make it.  I’ve been frosting for a decade now and I’m no Martha Stewart, but I’ve found that a shaker of sprinkles can save anything.  To get the most coverage, pour a good half cup or so of the sprinkles (or colored sugar) into a bowl and dunk the cupcakes in as soon as you frost them, before the frosting gets hard.

The most important thing to remember is that the very fact that you are using a recipe instead of Duncan Hines gets you (har har) brownie points.  Even if your cupcakes are lopsided and gooey, your friend/coworker/potential mate will be more than happy to see you with a plateful of homemade stuff.  So don’t quibble–put down the mix and go for it!

Tags: cupcakes, recipes