Cupcake Surgery Topic 2: Rising, sinking and bursting

This week’s surgery offers tips on making the perfect cupcake sponge. The aim is to produce a cupcake that rises to the top of the case without bursting at the top and sinking when they are cooled. Please feel free to email your questions and comments at: yum@rachaelskitchen.co.uk

Complaint 1: “My cupcakes rise up in the oven but quickly deflate at the end of baking or when I get them out of the oven”

Diagnosis: There are several possible reasons for this... 1 – it could be that the cupcakes aren’t cooked quite long enough, try leaving them in the oven a few moments longer to ensure the baking powder has done it’s job and all cakes are ‘set’. 2 – The oven is too hot, cakes can appear cooked if they have risen up and started to brown on top but underneath the crust the mixture isn’t quite set. They can appear cooked – and certainly no longer raw but the baking process isn’t quite complete. Depending on your oven I would start at a temperature of 170 degrees C and see how they react. The best way to check if your cupcakes are cooked is to lightly press your index finger on the top of the cakes – if the sponge springs back once the pressure of your finger is released they should be cooked 3. Too much baking powder. The baking powder helps the cakes rise up and makes them light and airy. By creating bubbles (a chemical reaction caused by heat and liquid) the cake mixture sets around them as it cooks. If too much baking powder is added the cakes can have large bubble holes and not sustain their structure – resulting in a kind of popped balloon, and caved-in cupcakes. 4. Opening the oven door – this problem is more obvious when baking large cakes. Maintaining an even oven temperature when baking is important, if you open the oven door to check on how your cakes are doing too frequently the sudden change of temperature (i.e. a flood of cold air from the kitchen) can cause your cakes to shrink. When making large cakes it can result in a sunken crater in the middle. If you can’t resist a sneaky peak make sure you are quick about it and shut the oven door gently – banging the door shut upsets them!  

Complaint 2: “My cupcakes are dry and biscuity”

Diagnosis: This is most likely to be a lack of egg in your recipe. The size of eggs can vary hugely even within classes. If you are finding your cakes a little biscuity and you are using medium eggs, upgrade to large. The following recipe should give you the right proportions for a vanilla cupcake:

115gms Self Raising Flour (sifted)

1tsp Baking Powder (sifted in to the Flour)

115gms Caster Sugar (sifted)

115gms Soft Margarine at room temperature

2 Large eggs at room temperature

1tsp Vanilla Flavouring or a few drops of Vanilla Essence

Method:

Put all the ingredients into a standing mixer or mixing bowl. Mix until thoroughly combined. Spoon a good dessert spoonful into cupcake cases and bake at 170 degrees C for 12-15 mins. Easy!

Complaint 3: “My cupcakes don’t rise”

Diagnosis: This could be for several reasons: 1. Not enough baking agent (i.e. usually baking powder). If you are using a soft margarine recipe you need 1 tsp baking powder for every 115gms of self raising flour. 2. Oven temperature. It could be that the oven isn’t quite hot enough. 3. Quantity of cake mixture. For cupcakes you need a good dessert spoon full of mixture – rather than a teaspoon that is traditional for fairy cakes. If you use 2 dessert spoons, spoon up the mixture with one and use the other to scrape it off the spoon into the cases – this should give a consistency in portioning out the mixture.  

Tip: Baking powder is a leavener which means it helps your mixture is rise. If you have cream of tartar and bicarbonate soda you can make baking powder by combining 1 part bicarbonate soda with 2 parts cream of tartar.

Complaint 4: “My cupcakes look like an erupted volcano”

Diagnosis: The most likely reason for this is that the oven is too hot. If you are baking cupcakes across 2 shelves in the oven and the cakes on the top shelf burst at the top but those on the next shelf down don’t – this is the most likely cause (this does depend on how you oven is heated and whether it is fan assisted). There is also a school of thought that says not to add milk to certain cake recipes for this reason. Not to bore you with the science but basically baking agents react with acidity – milk is an acidifying food and can react with the baking powder. If you are wondering why you would add milk – it’s usually if the cake mixture is a little firm. This is unlikely with the recipe above but if you do find it stiff use a spoonful of hot water to loosen it up instead.

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