Cupcake sticking to paper

sillysocks

I made cupcakes for the first time yesterday and was impressed with myself cause they tasted lovely and didn't look too bad either.

The only issue I had was that the cakes stuck to the cupcake cases a bit and I'm wondering if there's anything I can do to stop that? I was just using basic paper muffin cases. Are some cases better than others, or might it have something to do with the receipe? This is the one I used....

Ingredients
240g plain flour
280g caster sugar
3 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
80g unsalted butter at room temperature
240ml milk
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Petite Treats

Hi Sillysocks- I suggest buying a different brand next time- I had the same problem when I used cupcake liners from a different company so I now stick to the ones that work!

Faith

Some cases are better than others, yeah.

faceache

That recipe might be the problem as well, there is a serious amount of sugar in it, more even than flour and very little fat. Peculiar proportions considering there is nothing in it like cocoa that would require extra sweetness. How did you find the taste?

Try another one with more equal quantities of ingredients and see if that sticks the same way.

sillysocks

Thanks all....
Thought they tasted quite nice - I did put in an extra bit of vanilla though. Do you have other receipes you'd recommend? As I say it was my first try so open to other suggestions!

faceache

Try the bog standard recipe and see how that goes-

5oz sugar
5oz soft butter or marg
3 eggs
8oz self raising flour
splash of milk

cream butter and sugar, add eggs one by one, fold in flour and enough milk for softish consistency. Bake at about 190

Sorry, working in old measurements, I'm a bit of an oldie and always remember the recipe as 5.5.3.8. in ounces

Goodne

I too think that the small amount of butter is the problem. "Bog standard" recipe that I use and have never had a problem with sticking:

8oz self raising flour
80z sugar
8oz marg
4 eggs

Sigma Force

I found the more expensive fancy cup cake liners not as good as the plain regular white ones but I also found that one of my cup cake tins doesn't work that great even with the same recipe if I use my old tin it works fine but if I use the newer tin the cupcakes stick a lot more the butter seems to melt too much could be the newer tin produces for heat.

Acoshla

That's a lot of sugar in that, sugar makes the mix very sticky which could explain it.

SBWife

Those recipes are for Queen Cakes not cupcakes. There's no way the result can have the moistness and large crumb structure one would expect from a cupcake using that mix.

No wonder I'm always so disappointed when I have what people call "cupcakes" here.

Acoshla

SBWife wrote: »

Those recipes are for Queen Cakes not cupcakes. There's no way the result can have the moistness and large crumb structure one would expect from a cupcake using that mix.

No wonder I'm always so disappointed when I have what people call "cupcakes" here.

People here seem to think that any bun/queen cake/muffin etc that is has decorative icing is a cupcake.

sillysocks

Maybe the tin could be part of the issue then. I did like the cupcakes themselves - texture and flavour, but just wasn't sure why they stuck or if they should have come out of the paper with no sticking.
I don't really want just 'plain' queencakes (like my mum used to make!). Trying more to replicate some of the cupcakes I've had from "cupcake companys".

Thanks all for your help, might try tweak the suguar/butter a little bit next time and get new cases and see what happens.

faceache

Whats a cupcake? Definitions range from any cake baked in a small cup to a cake baked with cup measures.

As the cupcake trend has come from the U.S. and their cake recipes differ from ours then you could arguably say their consistency is more correct. American cake recipes seem invariable to be beaten to death in a stand mixer and are of a much more batter type consistency - think Cake Boss. Muffins are another case in point, standard shop bought muffins here are nothing like the real thing, here they are just giant buns whereas the American type has a much more open texture and a different method of making. I also think it is near on impossible to copy an American recipe exactly here as the ingredients are just not the same.

I think most Irish people consider a large bun with fancy icing a cupcake.

sillysocks

faceache wrote: »

American cake recipes seem invariable to be beaten to death in a stand mixer and are of a much more batter type consistency - think Cake Boss.

The mix that the receipe gave me yesterday was quite like a thick batter - I was able to pour it into the tins, so it probably was more of an "American" style cake I made.

faceache

Can be hard to replicate what you buy from cupcake companies for several reasons. Sometimes they do just have a good recipe, other times it comes out of a big bulk bag with the instructions to just add water. I know my local 'cupcake bakery' uses these mixes and every now and then I love the taste of a bought cake. Smaller artisan type bakers normally produce something which is made from scratch.

The sugar content of that recipe was colossal and sugar is sticky stuff so I think that was it, what about trying the Rachel Allen cupcake recipe, that would be geared for Irish ingredients -

http://www.rte.ie/food/2008/1028/lemoncupcakes.html

oops practically the same as the ones given above

michelledoh

Asides from the contents of the ingredients, why don't you try those silicone cases. My mum bought them quite cheaply recently and she loves them1 I saw them in argos and dunnes.

Sigma Force

I generally do a queen cake type bun just because they turn out well and you can add different things to it without making any changes to the basic recipe then I (well I try not very neat at it) pipe the icing on in a swirl..ish.
In my mind a classic cupcake would look a bit muffin shaped with an ice cream swirl on top like a fat 99.

Was looking at some Irish online cupcakes made by bakeries and small companies and a lot of them are just buns with icing on top.

Either way the main thing is that a cupcake doesn't dissapoint, you can get some that look amazing but taste like pants.

Whats up Cupcake?

use grease proof paper

Acoshla

Whats up Cupcake? wrote: »

use grease proof paper

...To do what with? Can't exactly line the cupcake cases with it.