Okay, so this has been my second attempt at simply baking cupcakes and they have ruined..!! With the exception of the time before, this has NEVER happened to me. I haven't changed any of my ingredients, I haven't changed ovens, I haven't changed baking temperatures....I'm at a loss. The bottoms of my cupcakes are burning whereas the rest of the cupcake isn't fully baked. This is leading me to believe that the temperature is too high, right? I've always baked my cakes and cupcakes at 325. I just find it so weird that "all of a sudden" it's not working. I just baked cakes this wknd and they didn't burn...
Also, once I take the cupcakes out of the oven, they look round and fluffy and perfect (minus the burned bottoms)....I let them cool and when I turn back to them, they have this shrively (spl?), ugly top and they have shrunk a full size. Could this have something to do w/ the temperature as well? Any help is greatly appreciated! The last time this happened, I googled "shrinking cupcakes" and there was a lot of feedback regarding the fact that the cupcakes could have been "shaken" during the baking process, or the humidity, or the oven door opened too soon...none of these things have ever applied to my cupcake baking experience in the past. I'm in TX and humidity is always a factor, but it's actually been cooler here lately, so I don't think humidity is the cause.. HELP, HELP, HELP.

When the bottom of a product burns but the rest of the product is not fully baked, that is probably a temperature issue. There are several scenarios, for instance, if you have an electric oven, your top coil may not be working and your bottom coil is working twice as hard, so the bottoms are burning. With a gas oven, the thermostat may be on the fritz. If the gasket on your oven door is not tight, heat leaks and the oven stays on longer. And when your products shrink after they begin cooling, they are most likely under-baked.

I actually had this same issue a couple of years ago. Turned out the new oven we bought was slightly smaller than my old one. I could no longer cook two pans of cuppies at the same time.
Now I cook them at 325 and one pan at a time. Perfect.

mommachris

MimiFix - Thank you for confirming my assumptions regarding the temperature issue. I will try and lower to 325 and try that.

Mommachris - Nice to hear I'm not the only one that has had this problem. I did bake 2 trays of cupcakes at the same time this past time and I think the time before when I had bad luck...so, next time I will just do one tray and see how that works, and also lower my temperature time. Wish me luck!

Thanks again to you both!!

If you recently cleaned your oven, you may have displaced the loose wire that measures the actual temperature.

Or your heating element may be coughing up blood and it's time to buy a new one...don't assume that just changing the setting will be the end of the problem.