Last update on 2024-12-08 at 15:17 / // Source: Amazon
Find the Best Mini Cupcake Maker: Cupcake or cupcake is also referred to as a fairy cake, patty cake a quarter cake. It is a small round mini cake made of four ingredients : 3 cups of flour, 4 eggs, 1 cup butter, and 2 cups sugar. You add nuts, chocolate chips, raisins and or berries to the mixture to make it more appealing to the eater. Once cooked, you can eat it plain or add frosting and decorations.
In the 19th century, these small cakes ingredients were measured in cups and their cake mixture baked on individual pottery cups which leads to the name cupcakes. Nowadays, you can weigh ingredient on a scale and bake the mixture on a cupcake or muffin tin.
Best Mini Cupcake Maker UK
How to Make Cupcakes
- To make cupcakes, you need eggs, sugar, flour, and butter. Make sure all these ingredients are at room temperature before mixing them with a hand, stand mixer to help them incorporate butter easily
- You bake it for 15 to 20 minutes time. Its volume increase when you are baking them and decreases when cooling them down. This is because when you are baking they produce carbon dioxide gas that makes them rise and when cooled they release it out and so reduce in their volume.
- When baking, you can use liners also called paper cases or party cases to help the easy removal of cakes from the tins. They make the tins easy to wash while keeping the cake more moist and easy to serve by hand
- In case you do not have the liners or party cases, use non-stick vegetable spray or rub some butter into each cavity
- Do not over mix or overcook your cakes. Lightly mixing will help them gain enough air to help your cakes expands in the oven otherwise, your cake will not be fluffy and moist
- For consuming them on the same day, leave them at room temperature but for future use, freeze them in an airtight container. Before putting them in a storage container make sure they are cool completely to avoid them absorbing steam and being sticky. If you have to store them in a fridge for short time, make sure to bring them to room temperature before serving them . Otherwise, they will be dense.
- You can also store them on the counter in airtight container for up to 4 days
- Check the recipes here https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/vanilla-cupcakes.html
- Make sure to have all ingredients in place before starting making cupcakes as it will help you save time
- After finishing baking them in your Best Mini Cupcake Maker, put them in a wire rack to cool otherwise they will absorb moisture on the bottom and turn gummy
- Always follow the recipe accordingly when you are a beginner. You can alternate ingredients later when you master the basic process. This will help to stop wasting time and money
- For plain cupcakes fill cavities two-third but for cakes with other inclusions such as chocolate chips, fill halfway as overfilling will cause them to overflow and sink or remain undercooked in the center.
- After cooling them in a wire rack then you can add frosting, sprinkles or insert fillings (pastry cream, jam, icing, and more) on ready-made cupcakes. You can use a syringe or pastry bag to insert filling in the middle of the fairy cake.
- You can buy a decorating kit such as this one WisFox 85 pcs Icing Tips, Decorating Supplies Kits Include 50 Nozzles, 22 Piping Bags, 5 Cupcake Mold, 6 Mouth Adapters, 2 Flower Nails, Silicone, Silver/Multi, Normal to help you create a themed party fairy cakes
Why Do Cupcakes Sink?
- Letting cold air in the oven: This happens when you keep opening the oven door to check the progress of your cakes. Cold air causes them to collapse. If you want to check, do it after 12 minutes and do it quick.
- Using an expired raising agent that as a result causes your cakes not to raise to a required degree. If you are not sure if your baking powder is fresh, take half a teaspoon of it and mix in a quarter cup of warm water. If bubbles occur then it is good to use.
- Overbeating the sugar and butter mixture leads to incorporating too much air than needed. This makes your cupcakes rise quickly while baking and then collapse
- Overbeating the eggs and the final mixture also has the same impact of incorporating more air than needed and developing gluten which causes the cakes to be dense and collapse. Add one egg after another and mix a little bit and after adding dry ingredient just mix until it combines and not more
- Hot oven: When the oven is too hot will cause your cakes to rise quickly, bake on the outside, and uncooked in the middle leads them to collapse. The low temperature will also cause them to undercook. The solution is to follow your recipe guide carefully An oven thermometer can also help you to control the temperature
- Letting the butter sit at room temperature instead of putting it straight to the oven after finishing mixing causes the raising agent to lose its power
- overfilling the cavities – You need to fill the pans two-third or half depending on the recipe. More than that will make to overflow and sink in the middle
- Type of cocoa powder used vs raising agent. When you want to add cocoa powder use the natural unsweetened one unless your recipe call for another type. This is because cocoa powder such as Dutch-process cocoa do not mix well with baking soda
Cupcakes vs Muffin : Which is Better?
The difference between cupcakes and muffins lies on the ingredients used to make them. They both use flour, eggs, butter and milk. However, while cupcakes use self raising flour and butter, the muffin use all purpose flour and vegetable oil.
- You can mix all muffin ingredients at once to create a dense mixture while with cup cakes you mix wet ingredients separately from the dry ones before mixing them together to create a smooth mixture.
- Muffins can be savory or sweet. You can add fruits, bacon, and vegetables. But cup cakes are not savory but always sweet with frosting sometimes added on top.
How to Freeze Cupcakes
If you want to store your unfrosted cupcakes for a party or future use make sure to freeze them rather than putting them in a fridge. Fridge tend to dry them out but keeping them in a freezer helps maintain freshness and softness
- Cool them completely first – This will help prevent them from absorbing moisture and becoming soggy
- Wrap individual cupcakes in plastic wrap to prevent them from absorbing other food smell
- Store them in an airtight container with enough space to help them maintain their shape for up to three months time
- When it is time to use them, take them out of the freezer, remove the plastic wrap and keep them on the counter for up to 2 hours to come to room temperature. Then frost them and serve.
- Incase of frosted cupcakes to store them nicely, put them in the freeze uncovered first in a plate or container until the frost is frozen for about an hour. Then wrap them individually with a plastic wrap, put in airtight container and freeze them
Frosting or Icing Your Cupcakes – What is the Difference
Frosting and icing tend to used interchangeably but there is a difference between them.
- The frosting such as meringue, buttercream, and cheese cream is thick and fluffy while the icing, which is a mixture of sugar and liquid, is thin and glossier.
- You can use frosting for coating both the outer and inner layers using piping bags and cake decorating tools while you can use icing for glazing or detailed cupcakes decorating
Which is your Best Mini Cupcake Maker so far?
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Tina Peters has ten years of testing and reviewing kitchen gadgets. I am a home-trained chef. I like to make cakes, pastries, biscuits, icing, and all kinds of home baking/cooking. As someone who likes trying out new kitchen gadgets to up my cooking skills. Over the past ten years, I often find myself buying gadgets like stand mixers, food processors, mini choppers, air fryers, blenders, and all kinds of kitchen appliances. Getting value for your money whenever you purchase an item requires adequate research and testing. So I decided to collate most of the information I have gathered over ten years of using and researching different kitchen gadgets into coxonskitchen.co.uk.