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JustToEatCake
Junior Member
Joined: Oct 26, 2009
Posts: 53
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 Posted:
Sun Nov 01, 2009 8:17 pm |
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CLICK THUMBNAILS TO ENLARGE
I decided to do a sorta scientific cupcake study (in my tiny apartment kitchen) in anticipation of a cupcake situation I'll be having in the near future (December) and share my results with you all. I took lots of pictures so it make take a second to load. For the record I am NOT a professional (I'm sure you can tell). I aspire to the hobby not the profession.
First I used kakeladi's WASC recipe. I made it exactly by the recipe except I used milk instead of water and no almond flavor, just butter and vanilla (we don't like almond). Store bought paper and foil cups, ice cream scook (the bomb) to put batter into cups.
*Just a hint, I have one of those Command removable clips stuck to the inside of my upper cabinet door that I just leave open when cooking and I can see the recipe at eye level.(Click on thumbnails for larger pictures)
In the same pans I put 2/3 cups full paper and foil cups, 3/4 cups full paper and foil cups. I want to see if there IS a difference.
I was testing:
Pan type: aluminum, non stick, silicone, size of cups in the CC pans
 [/img]
Cup cake liners: Paper or foil
Batter Fill: 2/3 vs 3/4
Cook time
All this in trying to acquire a nice dome on a nice cupcake.
First the aluminum pan is a old well loved"Sears Best Bridesmaid" cupcake pan. It's pretty heavy. The second is just a simple non stick, garden variety cupcake pan. You can see the CC liners stand up above the aluminum pan but not the non stick one and the slicone one is very deep. The aluminum CC pans are the exact same size cup as Wiltons. The bottom on the aluminum pan measures 2 inches on the nose but the non stick is about 2 1/8.
 
Aluminum Measures approx 7/8th of an inch non stick approx 1 1/8th
 
The silicone one was way big, so I am going to skip that other than to say the cupcakes baked well.If you want a cupcake that has straight sides because it is way taller than the CC liner then that is the size for you.
CC liners filled with batter. See how far the liners stick up on the aluminum pan compared to the non stick? Does it matter? We shall see!
 
Started out at 400 degrees for 5 mins (then back down to 350 until done approx 25 mins) and here is what we have, notice some cracks coming. I was scared at this point..
Here they are a few minutes later (above), do you see some with cracks? Do you notice a pattern? The smoothest ones, up front, are 2/3 full and paper cups. All the foils ones have some cracks, though not all bad cracks. Just something I thought I'd mention. I also noticed that there isn't toooooo terribly much difference in height per pan so far.
The ones on the left row were 2/3 and paper cups. The second from the left row were 2/3 full foil cups, the next two rows were 3/4 full paper and foil.  
The non stick pan, Left row 2/3 full, other two 3/4 (one each paper and foil)  
Just a note I overcooked the CC just a little bit. I was thinking like breadmaking that to hold the "oven spring" (dome) I needed it to be a bit more cooked but that's only for bread I guess.
A little bit on the silicone. The "oven spring" on the silicone took a bit longer than 5 mins at 400, more like 7.
 Here at 5 mins.  Here at 7 mins.  Cooked.
Front 4 rows are from aluminum pan in order, back 6 (1 missing) on left from non stick, on right from silicone.
Very straight up shape from silicone cups being so deep for the "standard" cups I had. 
All the 3/4 filled foil ones tended to spread as much as they domed. They ended up only as tall as the 2/3 filled cups but spread and hung over the cups. The paper ones didn't do this.
OK that's my experiment and from my test, to my dismay and my pocketbook the best overall cupcakes came from my non stick pans (someone has them on sale this week gotta remember who). They were domed well and a tad bigger than the aluminum ones. And paper cups don't make the dome any bigger than foil but they tend not to crack which could lead to deflation. If I needed the foil cups for decorative purposes I'd use them but I'd be SURE to only go 2/3 full unless you want that overhang.
They taste GREAT! The store bought paper liners worked great, they weren't the grease proof ones but I think because this recipe doesn't call for ANY oil it worked out perfectly. No greasy papers even on the cheapo white liners. Not decorative unless you need white but definitely no issues in using them. |
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rosiecast
Frequent Member
Joined: Jul 14, 2009
Posts: 229
Location: Hastings, NY
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Sun Nov 01, 2009 10:17 pm |
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Thanks for the review. I got confused there, could you tell me which ones worked the best: the paper ones filled 2/3? or the ones filled 3/4 full? Thanks. |
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JustToEatCake
Junior Member
Joined: Oct 26, 2009
Posts: 53
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Sun Nov 01, 2009 10:33 pm |
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| rosiecast wrote: | | Thanks for the review. I got confused there, could you tell me which ones worked the best: the paper ones filled 2/3? or the ones filled 3/4 full? Thanks. |
Hi, sorry for the confusion, I'm a newbie  . I like the ones filled 3/4 full in paper and baked in the non stick pan best and somewhere this week they have the 12 cup pans on sale for 4.50! I have to find where it was! |
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MichelleM77
Forum SuperStar!
Joined: Jul 06, 2005
Posts: 3438
Location: near Akron, Ohio
Birthday: Jun 01
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Mon Nov 02, 2009 4:31 pm |
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I'm trying to follow too. : ) Thank you for doing all of this work though, goodness you were busy. I'm working on the best filling size for my cupcake pans. 3/4 full overflows the pan and I get that awful overhang of browned and crispiness like your last picture.
I wonder if you could copy this to a Word document with the captions right with the pictures for easier reading. Would it let you attach a Word document here? Oh, just realized you have the pictures on Photo Bucket. Can you add captions for the pictures there? |
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JustToEatCake
Junior Member
Joined: Oct 26, 2009
Posts: 53
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Mon Nov 02, 2009 6:43 pm |
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Honestly, not sure how to do that but I will try to clean it up here. I was so scared that it was going to disappear before I got it posted! I've had that happen before. Type and type then have a burp and it's all gone! Let me see what I can do. I'm sorry it's confusing.
Just a note I didn't get the brown overhang, even with 3/4 full when using paper liners, only with foil.
| MichelleM77 wrote: | I'm trying to follow too. : ) Thank you for doing all of this work though, goodness you were busy. I'm working on the best filling size for my cupcake pans. 3/4 full overflows the pan and I get that awful overhang of browned and crispiness like your last picture.
I wonder if you could copy this to a Word document with the captions right with the pictures for easier reading. Would it let you attach a Word document here? Oh, just realized you have the pictures on Photo Bucket. Can you add captions for the pictures there? |
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enchantedcreations
Junior Member
Joined: Jun 12, 2009
Posts: 25
Location: St. Petersburg, FL
Birthday: Nov 21
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Mon Nov 02, 2009 7:10 pm |
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Thank you for all your hard work. This is very interesting. I hate to throw a monkey wrench in this, but I have to say, when I make CC's, I set the oven at 350 then once it's heated up; turn it back to 325. I fill the jumbo cups 2/3 full, and I use both the paper and the foil cups at the same time. I do not have any cracking and they always dome up. I also throw in a tablespoon of meringue powder into the cake mixture for added rising. This is in addition to the eggs that are called for in the recipe. I've tried the silicon and did not like them. |
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icer101
Forum Fanatic
Joined: Mar 23, 2006
Posts: 1574
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Mon Nov 02, 2009 7:23 pm |
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thank you justtoeatcake... for all that hard work.. i am sure it will help a lot of people that want to make c/c..... thanks again |
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rosiecast
Frequent Member
Joined: Jul 14, 2009
Posts: 229
Location: Hastings, NY
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Thu Nov 05, 2009 11:28 am |
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Thanks again Justtoeatcake!!
Enchanted- do you use a particular brand of meringue or is the Wilton's fine to use?. I have some left from my classes. lol |
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becky27
Forum Addict
Joined: Jan 30, 2007
Posts: 636
Location: california
Birthday: Mar 27
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Thu Nov 05, 2009 11:44 am |
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awesome...thanks for this!!! |
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sugalips
Junior Member
Joined: Oct 15, 2006
Posts: 57
Location: Durango, Colorado
Birthday: Jun 23
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Thu Nov 05, 2009 11:57 am |
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Thank you for this information! I really appreciate the time you put into this w/ pictures, directions, etc.  |
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MichelleM77
Forum SuperStar!
Joined: Jul 06, 2005
Posts: 3438
Location: near Akron, Ohio
Birthday: Jun 01
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Thu Nov 05, 2009 12:33 pm |
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Every time I read an update on this thread it makes me want to bake cupcakes. Knock it off, I'm on a diet! LOL! |
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JustToEatCake
Junior Member
Joined: Oct 26, 2009
Posts: 53
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Fri Nov 06, 2009 11:06 am |
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| MichelleM77 wrote: | | Every time I read an update on this thread it makes me want to bake cupcakes. Knock it off, I'm on a diet! LOL! |
I'm on a diet too, lol.what you didn't see was that I made myself 6 of the tiny little mini muffins...lol.and ate one a day. I sent the others on their way (gifts from my test).
I tried and tried to edit the original posting and I can't. I put titles on the pics on photobucket but I can't see them on the posting. I am sorry I will try to do better next time. |
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MichelleM77
Forum SuperStar!
Joined: Jul 06, 2005
Posts: 3438
Location: near Akron, Ohio
Birthday: Jun 01
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Fri Nov 06, 2009 9:00 pm |
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No silly, you did great! It's just the way it posted on the website here that it got confusing! |
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mom2twogrlz
Junior Member
Joined: Sep 16, 2009
Posts: 36
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Sun Nov 08, 2009 8:06 am |
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| enchantedcreations wrote: | | Thank you for all your hard work. This is very interesting. I hate to throw a monkey wrench in this, but I have to say, when I make CC's, I set the oven at 350 then once it's heated up; turn it back to 325. I fill the jumbo cups 2/3 full, and I use both the paper and the foil cups at the same time. I do not have any cracking and they always dome up. I also throw in a tablespoon of meringue powder into the cake mixture for added rising. This is in addition to the eggs that are called for in the recipe. I've tried the silicon and did not like them. |
Do you leave the foil ones on for delivery or is this just for the baking process. Is the white just inside the foil which is inside the pan?? I love cupcakes but have been very disappointed in my results so far. This thread is great! |
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enchantedcreations
Junior Member
Joined: Jun 12, 2009
Posts: 25
Location: St. Petersburg, FL
Birthday: Nov 21
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Thu Nov 12, 2009 8:08 pm |
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| mom2twogrlz wrote: | | enchantedcreations wrote: | | Thank you for all your hard work. This is very interesting. I hate to throw a monkey wrench in this, but I have to say, when I make CC's, I set the oven at 350 then once it's heated up; turn it back to 325. I fill the jumbo cups 2/3 full, and I use both the paper and the foil cups at the same time. I do not have any cracking and they always dome up. I also throw in a tablespoon of meringue powder into the cake mixture for added rising. This is in addition to the eggs that are called for in the recipe. I've tried the silicon and did not like them. |
Do you leave the foil ones on for delivery or is this just for the baking process. Is the white just inside the foil which is inside the pan?? I love cupcakes but have been very disappointed in my results so far. This thread is great! |
I leave the foil on.... when they are baked, both are on. It's the white or sometimes they are colored and the foils are outside. I like the look of the foil on the outsite. They are kinda loose after baking. There are alot of cupcake blogs out there to checkout. I just googled "cupcakes" one day and hit on a slew of them. Check them out if you haven't done so. Cupcakes can be so much fun!!! |
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