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Writer's pictureAvery Houghton

How to Make Cupcakes

Updated: May 9, 2023


These are cupcakes decorated with pink, blue, and purple buttercream frosting. Photo credit: Avery Houghton

Cupcakes are a delicious and easy treat for anyone to make. There are so many different types of cupcakes and so many ways to make them. One can use a family recipe, or search for a recipe elsewhere. There are many other good recipes online. One of my favorites is Hershey's chocolate cake recipe. Before starting cooking or baking anything, there are a few things that should be done. First, find a recipe. Reading a recipe before starting is very crucial. Reading the recipe will avoid getting halfway through and realizing an essential ingredient is missing. Secondly, cleaning up the workspace; having a clean workspace will make baking go a lot more smoothly. After that, the baker should prepare themselves: washing hands, pulling back hair and putting on an apron or wearing clothes that can get a little dirty help to keep baking sanitary and are important to do before starting.


First preheat the oven before preparing the cupcakes. For this recipe, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Most baked goods will be baked at 350. However, there are instances where the baking temperature should be set at 320 or 400.


Following a recipe exactly when baking is crucial. When baking, one must be precise with everything added because, for example, too much baking soda could ruin cupcakes. There are many factors to be considered when baking. Certain types of desserts can only be made at certain times of the year due to the humidity. One example is macaroons; they need less humidity to form tops.


To mix the batter a stand mixer or a bowl and a whisk can be used. Whisk together


2 cups sugar

1 ¾ cup flour

¾ cup cocoa powder

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1 ½ teaspoons baking soda

Pinch of salt


In a lot of recipes, dry ingredients and wet ingredients will initially be combined separately. Also, in some recipes, sugar is considered a wet ingredient. However, this is not in all recipes. After all the dry ingredients are combined, move on to the wet ingredients. Add the wet ingredients directly into the dry ingredients. First, add


2 eggs

1 cup milk

½ cup of vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup boiling water.


Whenever baking a chocolate dessert, adding espresso powder will give a deep, rich, chocolatey taste. Even though the recipe does not call for espresso powder, one can add 1 teaspoon espresso powder to the 1 cup boiling water. Whenever baking, always use room temperature eggs and room temperature butter. Occasionally using cold eggs can throw off baking. Also using room temperature butter for buttercream allows buttercream to aerate and become fluffy.


Once all ingredients are combined, lay out the cupcake pan. Use cupcake liners, or oil and flour the tins. When filling cupcake tins, never fill over 2/3, this is because if cupcake tins are too full, they are going to spill out all over. However, never fill under ½; then the cupcakes will not reach the top of the liners. If one wants flatter tops for decorating filling cupcakes to 1/2 is an effective way to do that.


Now place full cupcake tins on the middle rack of the oven. Also make sure that the tins are centered on the rack. This is important to make sure the cupcakes cook evenly. Bake the cupcakes for 23-25 minutes. Baking time depends on the oven. Sometimes ovens will be on the hotter side or the cooler side. Adjusting the cooking time to one's oven is the best way to keep the cupcakes from overcooking or undercooking.


When the cupcakes are finished baking, letting them cool is especially important for decorating. If one wants to decorate a cake or cupcakes, or really any baked good, they must let them cool completely. This will keep frosting from melting and melted frosting is no fun to work with.


If one is thinking about decorating cupcakes, cakes or any baked goods, they must think about what type of frosting they are going to use. There are many types of frosting. For cookies there's royal icing, and for most cakes and cupcakes there's buttercream. There are so many different recipes for buttercream. There's French buttercream, Italian buttercream, Swiss buttercream, and many others. Many people think that butter cream is one of the easiest frostings to make. However, buttercream can be very fickle to work with. Butter has to be at the perfect temperature and so does the surrounding room or it will end up being a separate mess. If the butter warms up or cools down too much it will separate away from the milk and powdered sugar creating a chunky liquid. When this happens, it can be very hard to fix.


For the butter cream, use:


1 stick of unsalted butter

2 cups powdered sugar

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

2 tablespoons milk


This recipe works because it has all the ingredients. First make sure the butter is at room temperature and soft. Then put the butter in a mixer and beat it until it is fluffy and light. When the butter is ready then gradually add the powdered sugar, each time beating until completely combined. Then add the milk to make the butter cream soft and ready to use for decorating.


When decorating the cupcakes, there are many ways one can do it. Using a piping bag and piping tips or spreading the frosting on top of the cupcake if one way to decorate them. When the cupcakes are finished, they can be shared with friends and family to enjoy.




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