I finally saw this tonight and i have a few quesitons i hope to get answered.

The woman said that using vegetable oil instead of butter will make the cupcakes more moist. Is this just for RV cakes or for ANY cake? how would that work with, say a white cake? and is it true? Cause if it is, I'm regretting the 6 blocks of butter I have in my fridge that I bought a couple of days ago. (I regret it because if I'm not gonna use them for cakes, I will gladly smother every piece of toast with it and I would end up wearing them on my thighs!)

Also, I noticed that she used a LOT of frosting on her cupcakes. I think she used the same scooper for the batter and the frosting. Do you guys use as much frosting? I loved the way she iced the cupcakes though. they looked really good.

so anyone who'd answer my questions, i would appreciate it so much. i love this show!

I have also heard/read thar using vegetable oil vs butter makes the cupcakes moist. It probably has something to with the oil being liquid instead of solid. I have made cucpakes using my regular recipe (butter) and they are good, but then I usually soak them with flavored syrup. If I dont add syrup, they are a bit dry.

I wanted to make cucpales that didn't need syrup, so I tried an alternate recipe that uses half veg oil & half butter and what do you know, they were moister.

I added strawberry filling or lemon curd, which might have made the difference, but I later made some with regular recipe and cherry filling and they though still moist w/o syrup they were drier than the half oil versions.

Regarding the frosting, I also tought that she was using too much. The frosting mound was harpacked as tall as the actual cupcake. I don't use a lot, but I am not a fan on frosting. I do love SMBC on cupcakes, but I have a lot of humidy and heat that do not agree with the SMBC or IMBC therefoe I only use it for home or family.

thanks for the in depth reply.

i love SMBC too and i think i wanna add more frosting to my cuppies LOL

The recipes I've been using lately from the Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World book all use canola oil. They have all been very moist. But I don't normally have an issue with my regular recipes (that use butter) being dry.

I think the oil does help and I'm sure there's some scientific explanation. Maybe because it's liquid and coats the other ingredients better...?


p.s. Hi!

I always use oil instead of butter in cupcakes since I notice they seem to dry out faster. If I really want the taste of butter, I add some butter emulsion or dryvan to the batter.

I soooo wanted to try the RV recipe but after reading it, I can't believe it's the one she uses. (not that I blame her, of course) It had an unGodly amount of oil in it and some people who tried it said they were like big grease balls, lol. Not terrible appetizing.

I love icing so I thought the monster scoops of it were fantastic but I can see how it would be totally overboard it you are not an icing person. I actually think cupcakes should taste so good they don't need icing, and then when I pile them with it, it makes them all the better!

If you are really anti-icing, I have made them super moist and then either squirted in filling (usually a pastry cream or pudding) or left them unfilled and then dip the tops in melted chocolate. You can still pipe detail or sprinkle them with jimmies, etc. for color and then you don't have any icing overload.

If it wasn't 106 out right now, I would be whipping up a batch!

ironbaker, Hi! canola oil, huh? this is really interesting... I haven't noticed it too since I only use what the recipe asks for, if it's oil or if it's butter. I just noticed that majority of chocolate cake recipes use oil.

cakediva, the dipped in chocolate sounds like a divine idea! and you're right, there are people who don't really care much for frosting. i don't know why. I think the frosting and cake SHOULD go together well, like Bobby Flay said in the throwdown. and btw, what's an UNGODLY amount of oil? how much?

Oil, oil, oil! The fat will continue to react in your cake the same way it does on the shelf and in the fridge. Observe butter, oil, and crisco. Butter will be firmer on the shelf and downright hard in the fridge, oil is lovely all the time, and crisco is greasy all the time (doesn't even melt at body temp - yum). And yes, you can basically sub it right out in a recipe.

oh that's good to know KoryAK! I guess the butter will indeed end up on me because i'm gonna try using oil for my cupcakes

anyone has any idea how Terri did the design on her cupcakes? she just used a spatula. i thought they looked really nice.

I think cupcakes are a great excuse to have a high ratio of frosting-to-cupcake

HerBoudoir, you know what? as I was watching that episode, your siggy came to mind i'm not kidding LOL it just shows how much I've been on this site LOL

Is the exchange for butter to oil exact, or would you need a little less of the oil or more of the oil?

I will need cupcakes for my DD bday at school and might give this a try.

TIA
Nikki

According to KoryAK, you can use the exact amount

Oil and shortening/crisco contains 100% fat (no water) and butter contains 80% fat and 20% water. So if you sub the butter for the oil reduce the water/milk accordingly.

Also using butter will make the cupcake dryer and tougher (because you are reducing the fat). The oil also does not contribute to leavening (and butter does), so if you sub the butter for the oil the cupcakes will puff up more. But if there is not enough structure builders (flour and or eggs) in the batter to compensate for the added leavening (from the butter), the cupcakes may deflate after they are removed from the oven.

Baking is more complicated than college chemistry!

I always use canola oil. The ones with butter do dry out faster. Just use your butter for the buttercream frosting!

^^ youhave read my mind grandmaG! that's the plan now