Chef Shane Smith joins us every week to give some tips on baking for our Little Baker's preparing for The Great Irish Bake with The Children's Health Foundation
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Top tips when Making Cupcakes
- Weight your ingredients.
- Use the best quality ingredients for the best results
- Ingredients should be at room temperature - The main reason you want your ingredients at room temperature is so that they combine and emulsify well. This could lead to poor texture in your cupcakes.
- Do not overmix the batter - It is very important to not overmix the cupcake batter. When the batter is overmixed, it leads to the development of gluten, which will make the cupcakes have a tough and chewy texture.
- Scrape down the bowl to ensure you are mixing all the butter into the batter
- Use an ice-cream scoop for evenly baked cupcakes, you will have the same amount of batter in the tins, leaving them to bake more evenly
- Do not overfill cupcake liners. Cupcake recipes will usually indicate how far to fill the . Half full, two-thirds full, three-quarters full are usually the most common amounts. This is important to note and follow.
- Bake cupcakes in the centre rack of the oven and do not open the oven during baking.
- Use a toothpick to test if your cupcakes are baked. Insert one into the centre and if it comes out clean, then its baked!
- Remove cupcakes from the pan and place on a wire rack to cool. As the tin is so hot, if you leave them in the tin, they will continue to bake and as they do start to cool they can sweat in the tin.
- Cool cupcakes completely before decorating - This one is self-explanatory
- Pipe the buttercream using a piping bag and tip
- Store in an airtight container. If you’re not serving straight away, keep the decorated cupcakes in an airtight container to keep them fresh.
Vanilla Cupcakes
Makes: 12
Prep: 30 mins
Bake: 20 mins
Cupcakes
- 155g butter
- 155g caster sugar
- 3 medium eggs
- 155g self-raising flour
- ½ tsp vanilla essence
Vanilla Buttercream
- 200g butter
- 400g icing sugar
- 2 tbsp milk
- ½ tsp vanilla essence
Method
- Preheat your oven to 180C/160C fan and line the cupcake tin with paper cases.
- Into your mixing bowl, add the butter, sugar & vanilla and mix for a few minutes until soft.
- Gradually add each egg, mixing between each addition.
- To this, add the sieved flour and mix well to combine.
- Divide the batter between the 12 cases and bake in the preheated oven for 18-20 minutes or until cooked through.
- Once baked, remove and allow to cool on a wire rack.
- To make the buttercream, into a mixing bowl add the soft butter and mix for a few minutes until smooth.
- To this add the icing sugar, 1/3 at a time. Mixing well between each addition.
- Finally add the vanilla & milk, scrape the bowl and mix well.
- Spoon the buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle and decorate all 12 cupcakes.
- To finish, scatter more sprinkles over the buttercream & enjoy.
