I am fairly new, ok really new, to baking cupcakes. I am having a lot of problems with them. First ones I made shrank and pulled from the sides. The other problem I have is that when I am filling them, inevitably the paper liner wants to push in and then I can't get it to go straight again. Is there any trick to a perfect cupcake?

Thanks,

shrinking and pulling away from the sides usually means overbaking. sorry can't help with them caving in.

I use a cookie scoop to distribute the batter evenly. That definitely helps. As far as the shrinking on the sides, I think it depends on the batter that I'm using. I tend to bake from scratch (as opposed to the cake box extender type recipes) for cupcakes. I found some great recipes in Little Cakes by Whimsical Bakehouse is really good.