I made some cupcakes a couple days ago for a friend's husband's surprise party. I made three different flavors and used fancy (at least by my standards) cupcake papers that were grease proof. Two of the three flavors turned out just fine. The third flavor, however, ended up with peeling cupcake papers. I have had papers peel away from the cupcake a little bit but this was ridiculous! They seemed fine when I took them out of the oven but as time passed it was as if the cupcake was repelling the paper. After several hours, the papers were almost lying flat on my counter! I could not take them to the party in that condition so I removed those papers and just sat the cupcakes down in new wrappers. And damned if the cupcakes didn't start repelling those papers too! It really was strange. The cupcakes were guinness chocolate, moscato, and tequila lime. It was the tequila lime flavor that repelled the papers. They all had alcohol in them so I cant imagine it was the tequila. Does anyone have any thoughts about this?

I recently had that happen to me and it was so frustrating! I made the same recipe the next day to see if it would happen again, and everything was fine. I researched this a lot by google searching "cupcake liners peeling away from cupcakes".

I tried to make sure the batter in each liner was even (I read something about air bubbles if they're not even). I also laid a towel on the countertop and lightly "banged" the cupcake pan down on the countertop to get rid of any air bubbles.

I read that this can happen more often with grease-proof liners if air gets trapped in the batter. I'm not sure if my cupcakes turned out better the next day because of what I did, but they have been fine since.

I had the same thing happen a couple of weeks ago with 21 dozen cupcakes for a wedding. I made four different flavors and used more expensive grease proof liners. It happened to all four flavors. Needless to say I had to re-bake all 21 doz. I used the standard white liners the second time and they turned out fine. Very, very strange.

[/quote]This conversation has come up over and over again. In the past when it came up I swore it was from underbaking. BUT funny thing is I never can recall asking what the flavor of the cake was or if it was mix or scratch. Because I used to never get cupcake liners peeling. That is until last week when I open a cake shop and need them to look pristine and what happens is I get papers peeling off the cupcakes!

And which ones were peeling? The one with citrus juice in them - lemon, orange, lime. Which one of yours peeled? Tequilia LIME. I am starting to believe that the peeling is having to do with the juice in the cupcake. Is it acidity from the juice? The Ph level? Or is it the sugar level of added juice? I don't know. I only know for me it is an issue with citrus based recipes.

I will continue to explore and figure this out. I think it is the Ph level, but I can't seem to figure out how to fix it. More BS to neutralize the acid might be the answer.[/quote]

I had four flavors. Chocolate, strawberry, pink lemonade & pineapple. This happened with all four flavors. I really think it was the liners

I don't think it's necessarily the citrus. I have had this happen to me (seemingly at random). But it has only ever happened with white cake. It has happened about 50% of the time with the same vanilla white cake recipe and once with Martha Stewart's brown sugar pound cake cupcakes (I also made the MS BSPC one other time without the problem). Last time it happened to me, I was trying to bake multiple batches quickly and I took the cupcakes out of the pans after just a few minutes while they were still pretty warm. I noticed that the liners were perfectly fine until I touched them and then they would immediately separate right where I had touched them. So I suspected that it happened because I handled them too soon. However, I am currently baking my white cupcakes to do a comparison between different pans. I made one big batch and then baked several tests. The first batch baked were all perfect. Batch #2 I used two different kinds of liners in the same pan (both white liners from online cake vendors, but two different cake vendors). One set of liners were greaseproof, one weren't (it was obvious after checking the bottoms after baking). In batch 2, I had some separation. 2-3 of the non-greaseproof separated pretty badly. One of the greaseproof separated just a tiny bit. Both batches were left in the pan to cool completely. I'm not entirely sure what to make of this but I desperately want to get to the bottom of this. I'm using this recipe for a wedding in a few weeks, and I don't want any trouble.

I was also comparing different pans, and I'll be posting a full comparison (with photos and more details) soon. I'd love to hear any other ideas. I did find this and I may try the suggestions here next time for another comparison - http://fromscratchsf.wordpress.com/2010/07/10/kapow-take-that-white-cupcakes/.

One more note - the second batch may have been baked slightly less. The edges of the first batch were just barely browned but the second batch wasn't. So maybe underbaking contributes to the peeling?

I have said allcalong unserbsking will contribute to peeling liners. I still believe in my care it is something with the citrus in the recipe. These are the only ones where it happens for me.

It seems like enough people have problems with this and no one has a good answer, so it could be the citrus or different reasons contributing to the problem for different people. I will definitely bake an extra minute or two next time. A cake tester came out clean but there was no brown around the edges, so maybe they do need a little extra time.

Wow, my last post was so riddled with typos, I can't even understand it!

I had it happen again today. And only on my citrus cupcakes. Not all of them, but just a few. I keep my cupcakes as airtight as possible. And it wasn't until they were under the cake domes that they started to peel. I'm going to start paying attention to where they are in the cake stand to see if it is the ones near the outer edge or inner edge. I'll figure this out sooner or later. But I think it is the acidity level in the cupcake that contributes to this. And you can have an acidity issue in a vanilla cupcake too.

I think keeping them in an airtight container can contribute to this. I put all the cupcakes I made last night in an airtight container and this morning almost all of them had started to peel, even the ones from the first batch which were perfect even a few hours after baking. I've read a few other comments about airtight containers contributing to the problem, and now I believe it. I always keep all my cupcakes in the same containers but I still only ever have problems with my white cake. So from now on, I'm not putting white cupcakes in airtight containers. I'm going to do another test this weekend or next week.

This is so interesting! Thanks everyone for your responses. Next time I make cupcakes I am going to pay special attention to the ingredients in my batter and the type of cupcake liners I use.