Essential Cupcake Ingredients

Making your own cupcakes is easy. Just like the ingredients for this basic cupcake recipe are: room-warm, soft butter (alternatively margarine), sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder. In addition, liquid in the form of milk, cream or juice, and extras such as cocoa powder, nuts or spices.

For the cupcakes-cream you need, for example, cream cheese and powdered sugar, depending on which frosting it should be.

The Right Preparation

As for any cake mix, you first need to beat the soft butter with the sugar until very fluffy. Then add the eggs one at a time, mixing each one in well. Mix the flour with the baking powder and a pinch of salt. Add to the egg mixture alternately with the milk, mixing no longer too long.

Possible Cupcake Variations

You can refine the basic cupcake recipe with baking cocoa or melted couverture, cocoa nibs or chocolate chips. You can use berries and apple pieces, lemon juice, or finely chopped dried fruit for fruity cupcakes. Add nuts or almond pieces for a crunchy center.

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For more special doughs, it is best to choose a specific recipe from our cupcake section.

In addition to the right recipe, the right accessories are important. There are also a few points to keep in mind when decorating cupcakes, storing them and freezing them.

The Right Cups

Basically, any muffin tin is also suitable for cupcakes, whether the normal-sized one for 12 pieces or a mini version. I always use muffin tins in combination with paper molds or silicone molds.

The cupcakes often look nicer with paper molds, but sometimes the batter sticks to them a bit. From silicone molds, on the other hand, you can release cupcakes much easier, for example, if you want to serve them plain without a mold.

Especially for cupcakes, there are also wrappers for decorating. And, immensely practical, non-greasy paper cups in various sizes.

Decorating Cupcakes

A lush cupcake frosting is a must, be it buttercream, cream cheese topping or ganache. In addition to single-color creams, colorful as well as multi-colored toppings are also possible. For decorating, I usually use additional sugar decor, chocolate shavings, chopped nuts or fruit. Important: The cupcakes must be cooled down before the topping is applied.

Storing and Freezing Cupcakes

If you want to freeze cupcakes, it is best to do so without the cream. Then prepare the frosting fresh and squirt it on the defrosted cupcakes.

In principle, however, you can store cupcakes with topping if they are kept in a cool place. One to two days is usually no problem, depending on the type of frosting. The more sugar and/or butter in the cream, the more stable and durable it will be.

Typical Problems and Tips

If you follow the basic cupcakes recipe exactly, nothing should go wrong. Nevertheless, unfortunately, problems occur from time to time during baking. Therefore, to the most common mistakes in cupcake baking, here are some tips.

The cupcakes rise or bulge too much

With muffins, it's intentional that they rise really nicely in the middle and maybe even "pop" slightly. Cupcakes, on the other hand, should be rather flat, mainly because of the frosting. That cupcakes rise too much can be due to too much baking powder or a wrong oven-setting. If it has already happened: cut off the hood a little and decorate the cupcakes with frosting 😉 If you use a lot of batter per ramekin, you risk that the cupcakes overflow.

The cupcakes collapse

At least as disappointing: the cupcakes collapse after baking. This can happen if the batter has been stirred too long after adding the flour, is too moist due to many eggs or fat, or simply hasn't baked through. Are the cupcakes too dry? Then the batter may have been too dry - or too long in the oven.

The cupcakes come off the ramekins

While cupcakes with too little fat often stick to paper cups, cupcakes with a lot of fat or moisture tend to loosen too much - which also doesn't look nice. Sometimes it also depends on the quality or material of the paper cups. Some are grease-resistant, others are not. Two tips: To cool, you should remove the cupcakes from the muffin tin immediately after baking. And please don't put them in an airtight container while they're still lukewarm - even then, the paper cups often come off quickly.

The frosting is too runny or soft

The cupcake cream is too runny if you stir it too long. Or maybe the ingredients weren't at the same temperature. For some types of frosting, it's also a good idea to refrigerate it again for a short time before piping or spreading.

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