Hi All,

I just bought an ice cream scooper but have not used it yet. It's been a while since I made any cupcakes.

I got a size 12 (the number means that that is how many scoops it would take to fill a quart, I believe). Anyway, I went by the advice of the Cupcake Doctor where she says in her book that if you want a good size cupcake, to fill the pan about 3/4 of the way full which is around 1/3 of a cup of batter.

The number 12 scoop does hold exactly 1/3 cup or 2.66 fluid ounces. That's using water as a medium for measure. This is about 5 tablespoons.

I've read other posts here where the person says that use scoops much smaller than the # 12 - like ones that hold 2 or 3 tablespoons of batter. I'm thinking my scoop might be too big. Actually I've never scooped cupcake batter before with a scoop so I don't have the experience. I was thinking that as I scoop from out of the bowl and drop it into each cup, not all of it would make it to the cup. Wouldn't there be some left sticking on the ice cream scoop? I mean, it would not all run off like water would, right?
If that's the case, then I wouldn't get a full scoop of batter anyway.
I guess I should just try it.
What do you think? Number 12 too big?
Thanks:--D

My ice cream scoop holds 5 tbsp so it would be a #12. Would you believe I gave up my ice cream scoop the other day for my 1/4 cup dry ingredients measuring cup! That size ice cream scoop was too big for my cupcake pans and I was eye-balling how much to scoop up. The cupcake baking shells I use are 2" at the bottom and 4 1/2" disc which looks like a standard size cupcake. This is the size that fits with my cupcake pans. As for the batter staying behind in the scoop - this happened with all my scratch thicker type batters. There will always be batter that just couldn't come out from my scoop but with my sour cream WASC and oil-based recipes they were pretty much a run-off. Those are very runny recipes. Yes there is like a 1/4 tsp batter that remains from wasc and oil recipes that I use in my 1/4 dry ingredients measuring cup but I find it to be negligible. I still get all my cupcakes the same size in the end which is what you will want.

I use a Vollrath #16 disher, 2oz, or 1/4 cup (blue handle) for cupcakes. For most recipes it is the perfect size for me, fills the cup with enough batter to make a dome. The cupcakes completely fill the papers and then some, without spilling over on the pan.

I didn't measure my pans, but the 12 was too big for cupcakes, better for my muffins that had a lot of additions(nuts, berries, etc.) For good rising cupcakes I had to go down to the 20.

Personally, two clicks of a good disher scoop beat the hell out of scraping a measuring cup. If you scrape it level each time, perfect consistency.

Cupcake/muffin trays vary from manufacturer to manufacturer - there is not standard size.

Scoops/dishers/portioners also vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. Theoretically, there is a general guideline of volumes: but they follow them loosely

If you are interested:
http://bowlofplenty.blogspot.com.au/2009/08/dishers-aka-ice-cream-scoops.html