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10 Cupcake Tips and Tricks to Impress Your Friends and Family

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10 Cupcake Tips and Tricks to Impress Your Friends and Family

Check out our top 10 cupcake tips and tricks to help you make and master delicious cupcakes that are too good to resist!

Cupcakes, who doesn’t love them? No one we know! These versatile little treats have been a firm favourite for generations, often stirring happy memories for anyone who enjoys them. Their handy size makes cupcakes great for any occasion, whether that’s a family gathering, party, picnic or just to go in your lunchbox. Their smaller size also means they have built-in portion control, so you can enjoy the cake(s) without the guilt! In this article, uncover the very best cupcake baking tips and delicious cupcake recipes to satisfy your sweet tooth.

10 Cupcake Baking Tips

We have written up our 10 best cupcake tips and tricks to help you make delicious cupcakes that are sure to impress your friends and family!

1

Use Room Temperature Ingredients

Ingredients straight from the fridge are very hard to combine, in fact, it’s nearly impossible. Mixing cold ingredients can lead to a lumpy, curdled mixture that will affect the texture of the cupcakes. Nobody wants cake batter that looks like scrambled eggs, right? The best way to combine ingredients is to make sure they are at room temperature, this helps the ingredients to emulsify when you mix them together, which leads to air pockets that help the cupcakes to rise.

2

Don’t Overwork the Mixture!

If you’re a fan of The Great British Bake Off, the last thing you want running through your mind is a scouse voice telling you your cupcakes are ‘overworked’. If you mix the cupcake batter too much, it can lead to your cupcake having a tough and dense texture – and nobody wants that! To avoid this, mix the dry and wet ingredients together until they are combined, then stop mixing.

3

Sift the Flour

Although this can be a messy process and give your kitchen a festive white dusting, sifting the flour into your batter helps to break up all the lumps and makes it easier to combine in the mixture. It also helps to add air into the cupcake batter, which helps the cakes to rise.

4

Use Cupcake Liners

Make your life as easy as possible by using cupcake liners when making your cupcakes; you don’t have to worry about the mixture sticking to your pan and you can lift them out without a problem.

5

Don’t Overfill the Cupcake Liners

You might presume that it’s better if you put more mixture in your cupcake liners, who wouldn’t want more cake? Unfortunately, this isn’t the case. Overfilling your cupcake liners can cause your cupcakes to overspill as they don’t have anywhere to rise to, which can make your cupcakes sink in the middle. The last thing you want is to open your oven door and see a deformed cupcake disaster! The best way to fill cupcakes is to fill about ¾ of the liners with batter. Top tip – you could use an ice cream scoop to fill your cupcake liners. This not only helps to put the correct amount of mixture in the cupcakes, but it also helps them bake evenly because they all contain the same amount of mixture.

6

Use the Middle of The Oven

Let’s face it, nobody wants a burnt cupcake, so cooking the cupcakes is an important and delicate part of the process. Bake your cupcakes in the middle of your oven. This is where the airflow and heat are even, which means you can bake your cupcakes without the worry of one side cooking too quickly!

7

Do They Bounce Back?

If you overbake your cupcakes, they become dry and nasty, but if you underbake them you end up with a mouthful of raw cake batter! The best way to make sure your cupcakes are cooked is to lightly press them on the top, if the cupcake bounces back, it means they are done.

8

Let Your Cupcakes Cool Completely

Once your cupcakes have finished baking, make sure you take them out of the pan and place them on a cooling rack. If you leave them in the pan to cool down, the heat of the pan will continue to bake the cupcakes – meaning you risk overbaking them.

9

Decorate Your Cupcakes When They Are Cool

Make sure your cupcakes have fully cooled down before you decorate them. If you try and decorate a hot cupcake, your icing will melt and you will end up with a sticky mess.

10

Make Them Last, If You Can!

This may be easier said than done – it is hard to resist a cupcake, after all – but there are some things you can do to make your yummy batch of cupcakes last longer. Storing your cupcakes in an air-tight container can keep them from going stale (you don’t want a crunchy cupcake!), and making sure the icing covers the top of the cupcake entirely can help to keep them moist.

Cupcake recipes to try…

Put these cupcake tips and tricks into practice by trying out some of these scrumptious cupcake recipes, all featuring our famously delicious Lyle’s Golden Syrup.

Golden Syrup Cupcakes

These gorgeous cupcakes feature our famous Lyle’s Golden Syrup as the star of the show, making them too good to resist!

Chocolatey Fudge Cupcakes

With velvet-like frosting and a moist chocolate sponge, these chocolate cupcakes are a chocoholic’s dream dessert.

Lemony cupcakes

These lemon cupcakes are perfect to give you that fresh citrus kick, they also go brilliantly with a cup of tea!

Make Your Cupcakes Even Better with Lyle’s Golden Syrup!

Add Lyle’s Golden Syrup to your cupcakes and make them even more irresistible. The addition of our Golden Syrup gives the cupcakes a gorgeous, caramelised flavour, which means you won’t be able to eat just one!

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