Is There A Trick Or Am I Just Nuts??!!!!
Decorating By Jenn01844 Updated 26 Jun 2007 , 5:49pm by miriel
OK.....Made some cupcake tonight. Wanted them to be nice and flat like I see on all the cupcake boquet posts and the beautiful cupcake tier posts I see.....
Why can't I bake flat cupcakes????? Someone please help! I only filled the cups 1/2 full and they are up and over!
Any tricks? Do I just cut them flat?
For cupcake cakes, I use a heavy baking stone and place on top of them after they come out of the oven. Makes them all nice and flat.
a tip I learned right here at CC was remove the cupcakes from the oven and immediately put a piece of wax paper over them and lay a cookie sheet on top of the pan. Flattens the bumps and makes them all the same height at the same time. I do this for cup cake cake too.
mommachris
Just a thought:
you are baking at 325 degrees, right?
350 makes cakes look preggers ( a bump in the middle 
)
Also, I know what i do for my cakes.....to get them flat, as soon as i take them out of the oven i cover them with a clean tea towel and press down. that always makes them flat and more dense. i know that i saw a thread where someone put a large cutting board on top of the cupcakes when they came out of the oven to get them flat.
sounds like the same theory..... you can try at least huh!?!?!?
I smoosh as well (lay a clean hand towel over pan and use a heavy cutting board or the like on top and weigh it down and let it sit for a few minutes but no more then 5 minutes)...
Make sure you smoosh while they are still in the PAN!!! Also don't let it smoosh for more then 5 minutes as the cooler the cake gets the easier it breaks with smooshing... been there done that ruined an entire 12x18 sheet cake doing it too late lol....
I always get flat even cupcakes by using my Large pampered chef cookie scoop. It holds 3T of batter. I had to measure it out one time when I was at someone elses house and it worked to.
So I think if you fill them with 3T of batter you will have nice even cupcakes. I just did 4 dozen tonight with leftover batter from a cake i'm making and they all came out within about 1/8" of eachother.
Does smooshing affect the texture and flavor?
Also don't let it smoosh for more then 5 minutes as the cooler the cake gets the easier it breaks with smooshing... been there done that ruined an entire 12x18 sheet cake doing it too late lol....[/quote]
Thanks Becky! You helped me realize what I did wrong a few weeks ago, I left a cookie sheet on top of the cake for about 20 minutes. YIKES, it was not pretty.
Thanks for all the tips, I never thought about trying to use this method with cupcakes.
wow i've been having the same problem with cupcakes and man am i glad i read this post i think i'll have to try this.
Yep the cutting board works every time
Does smooshing affect the texture and flavor?
Not so much the flavor as anything to affect flavor mainly needs to occur before baking but texture sure it does 
Just like when smooshing a sheet cake or a round or a heart or a character etc.... it makes it a little more dense and compacked. I believe what is happening, although I can't be 100% sure because I'm not inside watching it happen lol, but I believe it smooshes all the air out that is in there making it puffy and takes the crown off cakes which makes it so much easier for me so I don't have to trim the crown off but pi$$es hubby and daughter off because they don't get scraps anymore lol. But I've found it makes my cakes a little more dense and a little more moist. I did have a 2 layer cake I got to smoosh one layer but fell asleep (3 am) and hubby took the other one out and didn't know to smoosh so I had to trim it... they were the same exact cake, same cake batter, same everything, same pan same temp same ingredients.... the one I smooshed was more dense, heavy, and solid, and I think it tasted a little more moist then the other.
So now I smoosh with EVERY cake and cupcakes and if I still need to level them I will but only need to do a little bit instead of losing a whole lotta cake like before lol
I was baking at 350 and *laugh* they definitley look pregnant! About 8 months to be exact.
Anyways, I made sure I used a nice small amount, exactly one ice cream scoop worth. I'm not sure how many tablesppoons,maybe 3-4.
I will try 325 next time, and the cutting board method.....
Thanks everyone!
I always get flat even cupcakes by using my Large pampered chef cookie scoop. It holds 3T of batter. I had to measure it out one time when I was at someone elses house and it worked to.
So I think if you fill them with 3T of batter you will have nice even cupcakes. I just did 4 dozen tonight with leftover batter from a cake i'm making and they all came out within about 1/8" of eachother.
I just got that pampered chef scoop - I got all three in fact. I love the large one for cupcakes. They all came out the same level, and best of all, I didn't have batter dripped all over the pan like i have in the past. LOVE THAT SCOOP!
I don't make cupcakes, but I read that you should fill one of the cupcake slots in the tin with water. This makes them moist and more level.
I never heard of that. Has anybody done it?
I love the word "smoosh"! lol
Thanks for posting the question and all the tips. Now I know before doing it (which is always nice!)
Smoosh. (Sorry, I'm a dork!) 
I've been playing around with cupcakes the past week, experimenting how much batter I need for different size paper cups. I use souffle/fruit nut cups for my cupcakes.
Ice cream scoops have different sizes so I bought several from www.instawares.com. I got the following sizes: #10, #20, #30, #40, #50, #70 and #100. The numbers denote how many scoops are needed for a quart of ice cream.
I found a post by a cupcake maker that she uses #20 for a 3.25oz cup. That did not work for me as I had batter overflow when I used it. What worked for the 3.25oz cup for me is the #30 scoop. I had a very nice flat top cupcake right out of the oven, no smooshing required.
For the 4oz paper cup, the #20 scoop worked well, for 2oz, #40 and for the 1oz cup, #70. I level the batter in the scoop each time.
This week, I'm going to experiment how to get slight domes on the cupcakes
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