A Cupcaketastrophie- The Dry Cupcake

I recently had a conversation with a co-worker about the differences between cupcakes from scratch and box cupcakes. We both agreed that after baking for so long and eating cupcakes from scratch, scratch is definitely the better way to go. So why is it more people don't bake from scratch? Well, one reason I've been told is moisture. Some have told me that they prefer box over scratch not because of taste but solely because there scratch has come out too dry. So I've done some research and wanted to list some reasons as to why your scratch cupcakes may be too dry and hopefully convert you!

1. Over mixing- Now this is probably the most common reason as to why you may have a dry cupcake. Remember, you don't want to try and get every single lump out of the batter. Lumps are our friends! You just want to make sure all ingredients are incorporated and once they are mixed, STOP.

2. Too much baking powder or baking soda- This will cause your cupcakes to rise to fast and dry out.

3. Uneven ratio- Having too many dry ingredients or not enough liquid  can cause your cake to be dry. If you are a beginner, look for recipes that call more for milk and oil as opposed to butter. Also having too many egg whites, which can dry out your cake.

4. Oven temp.- If your oven temperature is too high, this will almost always dry out your cake. Try baking at a lower temp.

I hope that this will help and make some of you more comfortable with baking from scratch. So, get started and be creative! :)

Need some milk?

Pumpkin Bacon Redone!

          The first cupcake I experimented with was the Pumpkin Bacon cupcake with Maple Butter cream. It was a play on the salty and sweet, and who doesn't love bacon?! Well that was a couple of of years ago, and since then I've done many cupcakes of all different combinations. I decided though to go back to the one that started it all. It was a really good cupcake, but I wanted to make it better. I added more pumpkin flavor, more maple flavor, and of course more BACON! It came out just right! So boys and girls, here is a rough draft of the recipe.

Yes, that's bacon on top!!!!!!

Pumpkin bacon cupcakes with Maple butter cream

Cupcake:
2 1/2 C Flour
3/4 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1 Stick Salted Butter
1 1/4 C Sugar
3 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla
1 C Milk
3/4 Canned Pumpkin
2 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Cloves
1 tsp Nutmeg
1 Package Thick cut bacon

Maple Butter Cream

2 Sticks Salted Butter
2 Cups Powdered Sugar
1/4 C Maple Syrup
1 tsp Vanilla