Cupcake Baking 101: Cupcake Pans

Do you love baking? I do.

Are you scared to try it? At the start, I was.

Wish there is someone to guide you as you go along? I can totally hear my twenty-six year old self scream "Yeah!!!"

A few days ago I asked you what you'd like to see on Bake Happy. Wandergirl suggested I do a tutorial on how to frost nicely so I decided to pull out all the stops and thought of putting up a series of posts about making cupcakes. Don't worry Wandergirl, we'll get to your topic soon :)

Without further dilly dallying...

Welcome to the Cupcake Tutorials!

First topic: Cupcake Pans

Here are some cupcake pans hints and tips -

(1) Color matters

It does, trust me. Why? Similar to why we avoid wearing dark colored clothes during summer - dark colors absorb heat. The same principle applies to baking, if you choose to use dark colored pans, the quicker your cupcakes will bake. 

If you choose to bake with dark pans like I do, you have two choices - 

• lower the temperature by 25 degrees. If your recipe calls for a 350 degree temp, load your cupcakes into the oven as soon as your oven thermometer hits 325 degrees.
• take out your cupcakes 5-7 minutes earlier than indicated in the recipe. Start testing your cupcakes for doneness at that time. I prefer this technique. It gives my cupcakes the beautiful dome.

(2) How many pans do you need? At least two.

It is important to read the recipe first. How many cupcakes will the recipe make? On the average, a cupcake recipe can make about 12 - 24 cupcakes. So it is ideal to have two 12-cup cupcake pans. This is so you wouldn't have to wait for the first batch to cool before you load the second batch of cupcakes into the oven. Saves gas and time, too.

If you're feeling fancy, go get a 6-cup cupcake pan in case a recipe can only make 18 cupcakes. That way, you'd have less cups to clean at the end of your baking.

(3) To grease or not to grease, that is the question

Does the recipe call for you to line your pan with cupcake liners? 

• If so, lightly grease the edges of the pan's cups. 
• Lining the pan with cupcake liners not indicated in the recipe? Make sure to grease your cups. I don't want this happening to you.

Here's another set of pans you might love to have - 

If you'd like to try your hands on baking mini-cupcakes, there are little cupcake pans available just for that. These are the little soldiers that held these little monsters while baking.

I'd like to think of my pans as my little soldiers. They silently enjoy, I mean endure to be on the  line of fire, willing to take the heat to provide the best tasting cupcakes my taste buds have ever encountered.

Happy Cupcaking, 

Aikko

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