Can I use my favorite cake mix or recipe to make cupcakes or is there a difference? I am making my first cupcakes this weekend for a neices birthday party they are going to look like individual balloons. i think I want them to be flat but think they would be cute with the rounded top too. I do plan to fill them but have never done this before either. ANY help, advice, recipes , or ideas in general would be greatly appreciated!!!
hi cassi!
first thing you need to do is hop over to the recipe section of this site and look up the word "extender"...this is things that you add to a regular cake mix that will extend the recipe and "densen" it up. follow those directions, not the ones on the back of the cake box, and you're set!
i personally like round tops on cupcakes, especially if using standard size cups. it does hinder some designs, like flowers and such, though. to fill a cupcake, take a bag of icing and a tip that has a hole about the size of a pencil or a little smaller (can't think of the number right off the top of my head), insert your tip about half way into the top of the cupcake, slowly squeeze your bag while making small circles with your wrist. this will make a nice center full of filling. you will know when you have enough because you'll literally see the cupcake puff up, and then it starts to come up around your tip. once you ice the top, the hole is invisible!
most any cake recipe can be made into a cupcake. just watch your times really closely to find that happy place of being perfectly done, not over or under cooked.
especially for children, it's fun to also add extra things in the bottom of the cupcake liner, before putting in the batter. half of an oreo works great with chocolate, a vanilla wafer works great with banana, m and m's are also popular. cupcake doctor, anne byrn, made this popular, so you can check out her book for other ideas.
hope this helps!
starla
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