Why Do My Cupcakes Look Like This??

Baking By FairyCakeLuv Updated 6 Jul 2011 , 4:03pm by platinumlady

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FairyCakeLuv Posted 5 Jul 2011 , 7:57pm
post #1 of 11

OK - here is the recipe I used. I highlighted what I added. What went wrong??? Take a look at my pic. The cupcakes were mushy inside.
I did not use buttermilk. I mixed the lemon juice with the milk instead.
I also used fine sugar instead of regular sugar as it was all I had on hand.

2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 cup buttermilk, or 1 cup milk plus 2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
~4 oz (cooled) melted white chocolate

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease your muffin tins or line with cupcake liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a large bowl, beat the butter until light and fluffy. Add the sugar and beat for several minutes, until the mixture is pale and fluffy. Ad in the eggs one at a time. Add the buttermilk, and then the vanilla. Finally, with mixer on low, add the flour gradually, being careful not to over mix.

Spoon the batter into the muffin tins. Bake for 20 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a few crumbs. Allow the cupcakes to cool completely before frosting.

10 replies
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FairyCakeLuv Posted 5 Jul 2011 , 8:02pm
post #2 of 11

Sorry - I could not get the pic to attach!!! If you want to see it, I uploaded it to my photos. Thanks for your help.

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FairyCakeLuv Posted 5 Jul 2011 , 8:37pm
post #3 of 11

Never mind. You won't be seeing a picture. Apparantly you cannot post pics of undecorate cupcakes on this site...I did not know this. They took down my picture icon_sad.gif
Anyway, the cupcakes pretty much got huge, pretty much covered the whole pan. I took them out, they sunk. Were all mushy in the middle. Hope that helps....anyone, anyone???

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zespri Posted 5 Jul 2011 , 8:54pm
post #4 of 11

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I read that if they sink afterwards it's because you had the temperature too hot, so they rose quickly, but the rest of the mixture didn't have a chance to set up before you took them out. So no support in the middle. Try cooking them at a lower temp.

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lorieleann Posted 6 Jul 2011 , 12:05am
post #5 of 11

I'm not an expert on the science of baking, but i think that too much sugar in a recipe will cause problems with the construction of the cake. If you read the prefaces to recipes in the Cake Bible, then you can get a handle on how Rose deducts sugar from one area when it is added in a different area. It may be worth the investigation to check out that book and see what it says. Not sure, just throwing it out there.

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FairyCakeLuv Posted 6 Jul 2011 , 1:37pm
post #6 of 11
Quote:
Originally Posted by lorieleann

I'm not an expert on the science of baking, but i think that too much sugar in a recipe will cause problems with the construction of the cake. If you read the prefaces to recipes in the Cake Bible, then you can get a handle on how Rose deducts sugar from one area when it is added in a different area. It may be worth the investigation to check out that book and see what it says. Not sure, just throwing it out there.




Maybe I will check into that. I am not used to using fine sugar in my recipes. I didn't use more than the recipe called for, so I don't know if I should have used regular sugar instead? It was such a mess!

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bakingpw Posted 6 Jul 2011 , 1:58pm
post #7 of 11

Instead of adding 2 Tabl. lemon juice after measuring your 1 cup milk, add the lemon juice to the empty cup measure and then fill with milk. That way, you get just the 1 cup called for - not an extra 2 Tabl of liquid.

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FairyCakeLuv Posted 6 Jul 2011 , 2:03pm
post #8 of 11
Quote:
Originally Posted by bakingpw

Instead of adding 2 Tabl. lemon juice after measuring your 1 cup milk, add the lemon juice to the empty cup measure and then fill with milk. That way, you get just the 1 cup called for - not an extra 2 Tabl of liquid.




I measured the 1 cup of milk and added the lemon juice to the milk.
This seems like a science experiment! icon_biggrin.gif

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rozben Posted 6 Jul 2011 , 2:37pm
post #9 of 11

Thankyou icon_wink.gif I will try the lemon juice next time I make a mud cake,
as I use a slurp of vinegar to 220 mls of milk, and that's for a 12"round
this recipe is nearly a mud one, and anything made with the white chocolate is hard to cook,
it always sinks for me, icon_sad.gif
and I cook my mud cakes at a low temp, so give that a try..

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Narie Posted 6 Jul 2011 , 2:59pm
post #10 of 11

These trouble shooting tips come from the Hershey site.

If a homemade cake fell (the center of the cake sinks), the following problems may have occurred:

The cake was under-baked - the oven temperature was too low and/or the baking time was too short.
The liquid was over or under measured. (The 2 Tablespoons extra liquid could be the problem.)
The pan was too small - the batter was too deep.
The cake was moved or jarred before it
was sufficiently baked.
Old or expired baking powder was used.
A wooden pick or cake tester was inserted into the cake before it was sufficiently set.

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platinumlady Posted 6 Jul 2011 , 4:03pm
post #11 of 11
Quote:
Originally Posted by FairyCakeLuv

Sorry - I could not get the pic to attach!!! If you want to see it, I uploaded it to my photos. Thanks for your help.




For future reference if you upload your pick to Photobucket & then post the link we can see the pic then. Or post to cake disasters.

I'm only addressing this part because the others pretty much covered the issue on the cupcake falling

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