Ultimate Guide To Making The Perfect Cupcake for Beginner's

Qasim Jaweria

Hi and welcome back to my kitchen. Cupcakes are so much fun to make but if you're new to making cupcakes it can be hard to know where to start. I get asked so many questions about my cupcakes so in this week's video I go through tips and techniques for making and piping the perfect cupcake from start to finish.   Find out about working with your cake mixture, what cases to use, how to stop cupcake cases from going greasy, and how to stop your cupcake cases from peeling away. The best piping nozzle to use if you're a beginner and how to pipe a classic buttercream swirl and rosette on the top of your cupcakes.   I hope you enjoy the tutorial. Thank you so much for watching and don't forget to follow for more cake decorating tutorials!  ★ Vanilla Cupcake Recipe:  This will make 12 vanilla cupcakes:  7oz/ 200g – Self-Raising Flour  7oz/ 200g – Butter  7oz/ 200g – Caster Sugar  2 eggs  1tbsp – Vanilla Essence / Flavouring  2tbsp – Milk   Combine these for around 30 seconds or until all the ingredients are mixed through. Divide it between your cakes and bake these at 180 degrees Celsius on a normal oven setting for 23 - 25 minutes, until they are golden brown.  To make my American buttercream you will need:  12oz / 340g - Icing Sugar  6oz/ 170g  - Room Temperature Salted Butter  1.5 tbsp - Milk  1 tbsp - Vanilla Favouring (or favoring of your choice)

Transcript

00:00creating cupcakes. This is great if you're a beginner and you're just starting out making

00:04cupcakes or you're looking for some hints and tips. I really hope you'll enjoy this.

00:09So if you're totally new to making cupcakes, the first things that you're going to need

00:14is a cupcake tray or they're also called a muffin tray. And you'll also need some cupcake cases.

00:22Now these ones are made of paper and all the tray is going to do is just hold your cases

00:28so that they keep their shape. Now I always get a lot of questions about the cupcake cases

00:33that I use. They measure around five centimeters on the bottom, around four centimeters in height.

00:40And this is going to give you a cupcake of around seven centimeters across the top.

00:45Now you can also get foil lined ones, but I tend to just make sure that my cupcake cases

00:50are made of quite a thick paper. This means that you're going to keep the color on the outside.

00:56What I mean by this is if you've got some thinner ones, as you can see, these are more like

01:01greaseproof paper and are a bit more see-through. What will happen when you bake in these ones

01:07is you'll see the color of your cupcakes through it. So you just want to decide the type of look

01:13that you're going for. Now, as well as full-size cupcakes, you can also get mini cupcakes,

01:19which are great alongside full-size cupcakes. If you're making these, you want to do exactly

01:25the same. So just make sure you get a mini cupcake tray, which can hold your paper cases.

01:32So I'm going to start just by adding my cupcake cases into my tray. Now I'm going to be making

01:37these cupcakes as vanilla cupcakes and using my vanilla cupcake recipe. Now I will put the

01:43full recipe in the description below the video, along with some links to some other of my favorite

01:49cupcake recipes. Now, before I add my mixture into my cases, one thing that I wanted to mention

01:55is sometimes you can get quite oily bottoms to your cupcakes. This happens with some recipes

02:02and also if you're using quite thin cupcake cases. So if you are finding that this is happening to

02:08you, one thing that you can do to solve this is to use a little bit of uncooked rice. Just by

02:15sprinkling a few grains of rice at the bottom and placing your cupcake cases over the top.

02:21When your cupcakes are in the oven, the rice is going to soak up any excess oil.

02:26You then want to divide your mixture between all of your cases. Now your cupcake mixture will rise

02:32when you bake it. So you want to fill your cupcake cases around a third of the way up.

02:37So this is a heap tablespoon, or if you want to do them exactly, it's around 56 to 59 grams of

02:44mixture per case. Now, once all of your cupcake cases have been filled, you then want to bake

02:50these in your oven. Now, I will use just a normal oven setting at 180 degrees Celsius for around

02:5723 to 25 minutes until they're cooked all the way through. And with the vanilla ones, we have a nice

03:03golden color on the top. I get a lot of questions about using a fan oven. I tend to use a normal

03:10oven setting just because with a fan oven, it tends to bake the outside of your cakes or your

03:16cupcakes a lot quicker than the inside. So you can end up with a bit of a harder shell on the

03:23top of your cupcake, or what can happen is it can start to bake the outer edge. And as your cupcake

03:29rises, it can burst through the top, giving you kind of like a volcano looking top to your cupcake.

03:36Now, if you only have a fan oven setting, all you want to do is just reduce the temperature to stop

03:42that outer shell baking so quickly. And you may need to bake your cupcakes for a few minutes longer.

03:47Once your cupcakes are baked, I've just taken them out of the oven and just placed my tray

03:52on my wire rack. To check that my cupcakes are baked all the way through, I'm going to use a

03:57cocktail stick and just push that into the center. If that comes out clean, then you know that they're

04:02baked all the way through. So I'm just going to leave my cupcakes in my cupcake tray just until

04:08they've cooled down enough that I can lift them out. I'm then going to leave them on my cooling

04:13rack until they have completely cooled. Now, in baking cupcakes, one thing that some people do

04:19have a problem with is their cupcake cases peeling away from the sides of their cupcakes. Now, there

04:27are a few reasons why this would happen. The first one is your cupcakes may be slightly underbaked.

04:34Another reason may just be the cupcake cases themselves. So if you're finding this happening

04:39a lot, maybe try a different brand of cupcake case. Now, one of the most common reasons for

04:44this to happen is actually the way that you store the cupcakes. So maybe you're using a metal cake

04:51tin or a plastic tub with a plastic lid. Firstly, if you place the cupcakes into the cake tin before

04:58they have completely cooled, you may see condensation appear on the lid of your tub or

05:04your cake tin. Now, even if your cupcakes have been left to completely cool before you've added

05:10them into your tin, because you've added the lid on and you're stopping any air circulating,

05:15it can warm up inside your tin and create moisture. And it's this moisture that allows

05:21those paper cases just to peel away from your cupcakes. So if you're not quite ready to decorate

05:27your cakes straight away, once they have cooled down, just pop them into a cardboard cake box and

05:32make sure you've pulled the lid all the way down. This will allow air to circulate around and stop

05:37those cupcake cases peeling off. Now, obviously this cupcake box only holds four cupcakes,

05:43but you can get larger ones to hold. For this, you're going to need some piping bags. These

05:47ones are just disposable piping bags, but you can also get reusable ones. And I've also got

05:53some piping tips. Now, piping tips come in so many different sizes and shapes, it can be hard to know

06:00which piping tips you need for cupcakes. If we have a look at these closely, the really smaller

06:06ones are not going to give you much buttercream out of that end nozzle. So for cupcakes, you want

06:12to be using larger piping tips. So these ones measure around a centimeter and a half to two

06:18centimeters on the end. Now, probably the question that I get asked the most often is which piping

06:25tips should you get if you're starting to pipe cupcakes? And my answer to this is the 1M and

06:33the 2D. Now, when you look at piping tips, they tend to have a number and a letter or just numbers

06:39on the front. And this is a universal reference to the shape of the piping tip. So this one,

06:46for example, is a Wilton 1M. But if I was to get a 1M from a different brand, it would usually be

06:52exactly the same size and shape. So here I've got the 1M, and this is an open star tip. So the

06:59points come straight up. I've then got a 2D, and this is a closed star tip. So it's the same kind

07:06of shape, but the points at the top are just folded over. One thing to mention with the 2D piping tip

07:13is where all the points come over, you want to have a small gap in the center. Now, sometimes

07:19when you wash this piping tip, it can get a bit squished and you lose that gap, which means when

07:25you go to pipe the cupcakes, you'll see a gap in your swirl. So all you want to do if they have

07:31is just go in with a knife and just tease those back. Now, the reason I love these two piping tips

07:37if you are starting out piping cupcakes is there is so many different options to what you can do

07:43with these piping tips. You can create a classic buttercream swirl or a classic rosette swirl.

07:50You can then change it up and create so many different effects. Now, I do have another video

07:55tutorial where I compare these two piping tips and show you eight different effects you can create

08:01just with these. So I will put a link to this in the description below. Once you've perfected

08:07the buttercream swirl and the rosette swirl, you can then start using some other piping nozzles.

08:13One bit of advice that I would say is don't go out and buy hundreds of piping tips. Just start

08:17with a few and just have a look around and work out the different styles you like and build up

08:24your collection that way. So the next thing to do is add our piping tip into our piping bag.

08:30So you just want to take a look at the piping tip, hold it on the end. Coming up around halfway,

08:36cut into my piping bag, slot your piping nozzle in, pulling it right to the end and making sure

08:41that it's nice and secure on the end of your bag. That's then ready for you to add your buttercream.

08:48Now, one thing that I did want to mention are couplers. Now, these are great if you're using

08:53one color buttercream, but you want to use multiple piping tips. This really saves you using loads of

08:59different piping bags. And these are just two different style ones. You want to get different

09:03size ones of a different size piping tips. So this one is a larger one. If I unscrew that,

09:09it comes in two halves and this one just fits larger piping tips. And the Wilton one, you can

09:17add on slightly smaller ones. So in order to fit these into a piping bag, you want to do the same

09:24thing. Snip off the end. You want to make sure that your bag is coming over the section with

09:30the grooves on there. You can then add your piping tip to the outside of your bag while

09:36screwing on the second part. That's then nice and secure for you to add your buttercream into the

09:42end. When you want to replace the piping nozzle, all you then do is just twist off the end,

09:47remove the piping tip you no longer want to use and just replace another one. So these are really

09:53great if you are using the same color buttercream and you want to save the amount of piping bags

09:58that you're using. I've then got some American buttercream, which I've colored in this pink

10:04color to match my cupcake cases. And I will put a link in the description below to my buttercream

10:11recipe. Now, I always use just a tall glass to hold my piping bag. And this just allows me to

10:18fill the piping bag without having to try and hold it with one hand. You then want to take that off

10:24and just hold in the end. I'm going to twist that round whilst pushing that buttercream

10:30to the end of my piping bag. Now, I'm right-handed, but you can do this in your left hand.

10:36You want to twist the end of the bag just to make sure it's nice and secure. And I hold this between

10:40my first finger and my thumb. This is where I'm going to apply pressure to the end of my bag.

10:46You can then either use this hand to guide it round or just lightly hold it with the other hand,

10:51just bringing it round the top of your cupcake. Now, I'm going to go through how to do a normal

10:56swirl and also how to do a rosette swirl. For the normal swirl, using the 1M piping tip,

11:02hold the piping bag just slightly above your cupcake, applying pressure and just working it

11:07round the outside of that cupcake case. Once we've done one rotation, bring your piping bag

11:13in slightly and do another rotation around just on the edge of the previous layer. I'm going to

11:19come to the end and do exactly the same, just bring it up. So we're creating this pyramid of

11:24buttercream. Once I've got that nice buttercream swirl, I'm going to stop applying pressure before

11:29I pull the piping bag away to give me a lovely point on the top. Now, one thing to think about

11:34is the speed that you pipe your cupcakes will actually affect the outcome of how they'll look.

11:39If you do your buttercream swirl quite fast, you'll get quite smooth, straight lines. But the slower

11:44you go, the more buttercream comes out of your piping bag, which gives you a slightly ruffled

11:50effect. You can see examples of this in the video where I show you the comparisons between the 1M

11:57and the 2D. Now, in comparison to the classic buttercream swirl, we've got the rosette swirl.

12:04Now, instead of starting on the outside of your cupcake, we're actually going to start in the

12:10center. So we're going to apply pressure to allow some of that buttercream to come out and connect

12:14with the top of our cupcake. I'm then going to wrap my piping bag around, just creating a little

12:19circle in the middle before continuing to wrap it around the outside of the previous curve until I

12:24get all the way to the edge. Once I reach the edge, I'm going to stop applying pressure and

12:29just pull my piping bag off to the side just to finish off that rosette. Now, where I use the 1M

12:35piping tip for the classic buttercream swirl, I've popped my 2D piping tip into my piping bag

12:41for the rosette. Now, if you find that your buttercream gets quite soft quite quickly where

12:46you're holding your piping bag, my advice is to put a smaller amount of buttercream in your piping

12:51bag and just refill it as and when you need. This is going to stop the heat of your hand warming up

12:57that buttercream as you pipe your cupcakes. You can then finish off your cupcakes with some

13:02sprinkles or some decoration of your choice. Once I've piped my cupcakes, if they're not going to

13:07be eaten straight away or I need to transport them, then I do like to pop them back into the

13:12cardboard cupcake boxes. If it's quite cool where you are, you can then either leave them out,

13:16or if it's quite hot, you can pop the cupcakes into the fridge. If you do have any fondant

13:21decorations on your cupcakes, the change in temperature can make the fondant go slightly

13:26shiny once you take them out due to the change of the fridge temperature to the room temperature.

13:32So just leave these to one side and this will dry up. Another thing you want to remember is to always

13:38take them out of the fridge around half an hour before you want to eat them so that that sponge

13:42can get back to room temperature so it will be nice and soft and fluffy. So here we have the

13:48finished piped cupcakes. I really hope you've enjoyed this video tutorial.

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