Hello everyone,

When I am on vacation in the US, I love all the cupcakes everywhere. Unfortunately, it's not something that is "standard" where I live, so if I want them, I have to make them myself, and it's not like everyone else makes them, so it's hard to get help.

I found some recipes online that I used. However:
1. Is it normal that when baked, they look like a muffin? They don't have a flat top, kwim?
2. How much batter should I do in each cupcake liner? (I use a muffin baking tin for 12 muffins, and put those paper things in it)

Oh, and another one: so I do need specific cupcake recipes, and not use regular cake batter, right?

Can you stand one more question? What is the difference between a muffin and a cupcake?

A cupcake usually has a smaller crumb and more sugar than a muffin.

I just use regular cake recipes for cupcakes. Never had a problem with them

It might take you a little experimentation to figure out how much to fill your cupcake tins. I fill mine a little more than halfway. Too much and they'll spill over the edges.

For me - it normally depends on the recipe I'm using. Some batters are airier than others and seem to rise higher. If you have a very high dome, it could be 1) overfilled or 2) temperature variance. You may need to toggle your oven temp as it may be too hot.

An ice cream scoop seems to work very well for me. You can find them in varying sizes - and gives you a perfect amount every time.

Hope that helps!

I use reagular cake batter/recipes when I make my cupcakes. It depends on the look that I'm trying to go with. Last weekend I made 40 cupcakes. Normally I just "eye-it", but this time I ws trying to be exact. I used a mesuring cup--1/3 for each cupcake and they all came out the same. They were flat on the top...which I really dont like that look. I would reccomend filling the liners a little more than half full so you have that nice "muffin" dome top.

I usually do the non traditional thing and buy a cake mix from the supermarket, mix it up and put two tsp in each patty cake (paper thingy)tray.

Where I'm from: Cupcakes are always smaller and usually arnt a extravigant recipes, its very standard!!. Its the Icing that has the flavours, colours and decorations.
Though, people these days have started making Bigger cupcakes using muffin trays. But still a basic vanilla or chocolate recipe with all the icing for the flavouring and colour (But not limited to)

Muffins are larger and Dont usually need icing as they have fruit/choc chips/yoghurt or whatever added to the mix for there flavour. Also muffins are usually moist, where as cupcakes and dry (like a sponge cake)

SEE PICTURES BELOW.... I got a Picture of the Larger version of a cupcake

I agree... have fun experimenting!! People can give all the advice, but nothing beats working it out to suit you!!

No one really makes theirs the same way!!

What a great timing on a thread! Just this morning I was mixing up batter for a large cuppie order for this weekend. The picture below shows three of the batters....notice the difference in rise? All three are doctored cake mixes: the one on the left is Triple Butterscotch from Cake Dr., the middle is Strawberry from my own recipe, and the left is an Orange Chiffon from my own recipe. Strange thing, I thought the orange ones would rise the most since I beat the egg whites and folded them into the batter (which made me think they would be lighter!)

They were all measured exactly the same with a scoop and baked at the exact same time and temp. So, as the PP have said, they're all different, you just have to experiment.

Have fun!!!

Thank you for all the replies!
I know I have to experiment, I do experiment, and I'm carrying all my experiments around my hips, lol! That's why I thought it might be a good idea to learn a bit from others' experiments

I have received a cookbook only about muffins adn noticed many times yoghurt is used in the recipes, as well as adding cream cheese etc when you fill the paper thingies.
We're not really a cupcake/ muffin country (heck, we don't even have the fabulous tiered cakes!) so I really depend on sites like this one to get my information