Hi! My cousin asked me to make some lemon cupcakes for her husband's birthday party. I did a test batch this morning and they came out super dense! I got the recipe from the repressed pastry cheft's website. It's a lemon buttermilk cupcake and it looked so nice and fluffy in the pictures. What did I do wrong? I followed the recipe to a tee. The only thing I could think of is my baking soda not being fresh. It's been couple of months since I opened it. The taste was good, but I was going for a light and fluffy cupcake. Help please!! TIA!!

I always have trouble with lemon cake, I think it is because of the acid to baking soda/powder ratio. I've found that baking zest into the cake plus brushing the tops of the cupcakes with a simple syrup/lemon juice mixture gives it the flavor without a change in texture.

How did you measure the flour? My sister said her cakes came too dense. I told her not to dip the measurement cup into the flour, and the cakes improved. Then I sent her a scale as a present, and she started weighing the flour. Her cakes are light and fluffy now. Same recipe. Maybe it's something like that?

Oh, I just bought a scale! How much does a cup of flour usually weigh? Thanks for responses! I let my cousin try one of the dense cc and she wants more of a lemon flavor. I guess I should fill them with lemon curd? She too wants them more fluffy. I found a martha stewart's fluffy buttermilk lemon recipe and it was almost the same as the one I used except hers called for 1 tbsp of baking powder. The one I used called for 1/2 tsp of baking soda. I think that's where I went wrong. Nit if you can let me know the weight of a cup of flour that would be awesome! I can start weighing the flour instead. Thanks again!

just type it into google, it will depend on how the recipe puts it - a cup of sieved flour weights less than a cup of straight out the packet flour.
but as im from the uk, id agree - scales are the way to go for better baking!
xx

Usually one cup of all purpose flour is 125 grams.

Thanks! I googled it and got even more confused! So many different answers. Thanks again for all the replies!

ah you may need to specify american cup - autralian size cup is different! but i always use the theory that as long as you use the same source for your conversions, it will work out!
xx