What causes cupcakes that comes out of the oven looking perfect to sink in the center? I tested several and stick came out clean on all. When I went back to look at them (30 minutes) every one of them sunk in the center. I live in Houston could it be the humidity?

sorry, don't know, but here's a bump-

I was just coming to ask the same thing. I just tried a new recipe and both my 8" cakes sunk in the center. They actually sunk while in the oven. I live in Michigan. And, my sticks came out clean and they smelled done - you know that smell. Could it be something in our recipes? Waht is your recipe?

Here is the recipe that I used. It's gotten GREAT reviews and the photos looked really good!

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
1 (3 1/2 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding
6 tablespoons butter, softened
6 tablespoons butter flavor shortening
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup sour cream
3 egg

Do you see anything in it that might cause deflation?

I just had this same problem. I found an answer from food network that says it could be 3 different things. 1, overbeating. 2, too much baking powder or baking soda and 3, overfilling the cups. I know I didn't overfill mine and I use DH mix so I guess I overbeat it even though I timed it for the 2 minutes it says on the box. If anyone has a foolproof way to prevent this please post.

I am wondering the same thing. It's so disappointing to waste your time and money on ingredients only to have this happen. Although I tasted one, and it was fine, so I filled it up with extra BC to fill in the sunken middle.

This tends to happen to my white cupcakes and rarely the chocolate ones. Maybe I'm overbeating. I set the timer every time and beat it according to the recipe.

I'm not sure! Is everything going to crap here in MI - even the cupcakes? LOL

I'm going to raise my oven temp to 340 instead of 325 and see if it helps!

Amber

Sometimes it is just that the temp isn't high enough.. I've raised my temp for some recipes and haven't had any problems

Christi, your avatar cake caught my eye. It's so cute! I put it into my faves!

Amber

I posted this yesterday in Cake Disasters.....I would love some help on this....it's not cupcakes..but maybe the answer is the same for cupcakes and cakes?

I made a 9x12x3 cake..used Duncan Hines boxed mix..made cake with the Cake Doctor recipe adding buttermilk and cocoa powder, eggs, oil etc.
Baked cake at 325..used a flower nail in the middle and used baking strips....cake baked fine until almost done..started cracking in the middle...when done and starting to cool..cake developed a huge sink hole in the middle! I decorated the cake and took it to the customer and didn't charge her...I didn't have time to make a new cake. Does anyone have any idea what might have caused the sink hole? Oven temp has been checked fine....

I have no idea. I've never doctored cake mixes. Hope someone has an answer for you

Oh no, I'm in Michigan too LOL. Seriously what is the deal. I made some 4.5 inch cakes last week not cupcakes, and they deflated too. I heated the oven to 400 then turned down to 350 like someone on CC recommended in the super long cupcake post and I still get deflated cakes. Normal cakes are fine just the cupcakes and the little smash cakes I made.

Ok, I've never had this problem until recently. I use cake mixes and this time I added lemon extract. It's the only thing I did differently. I haven't made any recently to see if that was the mystery but I'm hoping it was.