I need a crash coarse in cupcakes tonight I have a bride coming in the morning to try cupcakes for her wedding. I use box mix, and have been making cakes for years but my cupcakes suck, I tried some yellow ones the other day and they seemed to rise nice, but where a little dry, and my mom said that they werent dense enough, and then I tried a batch of cherry chip and added an extra egg and a box of pudding, they tasted so good but the tops spred out instead of up and they sunk in the middle. Help Help Help, I need everyones best kept secrets for great cupcakes in a hurry.
I think it may have a little something to do with the type of pan you are using also. My mom has some older "cheaper" cupcake pans that I used from time to time when in a pinch and my cupcakes were "nasty" looking lol... I have a slightly more expencive nicer heavier duty pan made by Baker's Secret company/brand and my cupcakes turn out pretty decent everytime. If you look at my photos I have a picture of some cupcakes I did for a recent party back in January, the rose up very nicely and didn't crack. Although I did find if I filled them a little too much they would spread out a bit more then I liked them to. I always use box mix for cupcakes and don't really have problems.
Also remember if making only a portion worth of your pan, say you have a 12 cup pan but only make 10 cupcakes make sure you fill those other two holes up with some water while it's baking. That way 1 it will bake evenly, and 2 you won't burn your pan because of the empty spot 
I did use silicon cupcake "pans" before and they burnt up BAD!!! in like 8 minutes my hole house was full of smoke and the cupcakes were burnt BAD. That may have been because the cookie sheet I had them sitting on had some residue on it that I wasn't aware of or it may have been the pans were a cheaper silicon I don't know but I won't use them for client orders or important orders and I haven't tried the new set out yet lol
Good luck!!!
Oh yeah I also use an ice cream scooper to put the batter in the liners, that way it's ALWAYS the same amount in each cupcake liner. Cupcakes that are all the same size look better then some that are fuller and some that are a little emptier then others
I ALWAYS USE THE 1/4CUP AND IF U HAVE THE CUPCAKE DOCTOR TRY THE BEST BIRTHAY CAKE..i ALWAYS GET GOOD RESULTS.....
ooooooo Trent spelled Birthday wrong lol good thing you weren't writing on a cake 
Trent would you be willing to share that recipe for those of us who don't have the cupcake doctor book?
Just curious, what is the diameter of an average American cupcake? (I think they are bigger than UK ones, but just want to check!)
Kelly
Standard size American cupcakes are what we Brits would call muffin size (baked in a muffin tin rather than in a shallower fairy cake tin). Hope that helps!
Well the standard cupcake liner is 2" and the Jumbo ones AKA Texas Sized Muffins the liners for them are 4"....
Just curious, what is the diameter of an average American cupcake? (I think they are bigger than UK ones, but just want to check!)
Kelly
Standard size American cupcakes are what we Brits would call muffin size (baked in a muffin tin rather than in a shallower fairy cake tin). Hope that helps!
Thought so! Thanks for clearing that up for me!
Kelly
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