Paying extra attention to your ingredients and how you combine your wet and dry mixtures will result in moist cupcakes made from scratch. Furthermore, using paper cupcake liners will help retain the moisture in your cupcakes because the liners hug your baked goodies, reducing the drying effect of the environment. Skip the foil liners and the silicone cupcake cups if you want your made-from-scratch cupcakes to stay moist.
OIL
Including oil in your made from scratch cupcake batter highly ensures your cupcake will be moist. However, because oil is all fat without any air or emulsifiers whipped into it, if you used only oil in your cupcake batter, your cupcakes will be moist, but quite dense. Using a combination of liquid fat and solid fat increases the likelihood your cupcakes will be moist and airy. Replace 1/4 of the butter or shortening in your recipe with vegetable, canola or olive oil.
BUTTER AND SHORTENING
Butter and shortening are solid fats that must not melt prior to adding them to your batter. When you press your thumb into a stick of butter it should offer some resistance so your thumb does not sink down easily. All fats coat the protein and starch molecules in your flour. As the solid fats melt while your cupcakes bake, they produce air and steam so your cupcakes are moist and tender. Replace 1/4 of the butter in your recipe with shortening.
EMULSIFIERS
Emulsifiers keep mixtures of oil and water well blended so they do not separate. They also enhance the strength and the flexibility of the protein molecules in flour. This means that as your cupcakes cook, the batter can hold air very well so you end up with a nicely textured, moist cupcake. Egg yolks and mayonnaise contain emulsifiers and fat. Consider adding a ½ cup of mayonnaise to your cupcake batter if you are batter does not include oil. The mayonnaise adds fat and emulsifiers without thinning out your batter, producing a very moist cupcake.
EGGS
Place your eggs in a bowl of 110-degree Fahrenheit water then cover the bowl with plastic wrap so your eggs are at an optimal temperature for beating. Beating warm eggs will produce well-risen, moist cupcakes. Combining the sugar, fats and eggs together aerates the fats, dispersing them well throughout your batter so your cupcakes are moist.
WET AND DRY
When combining your dry mixture with your wet mixtures, set your electric beater to the lowest setting. Beat your batter just until it is partially combined. Finish incorporating the mixture with a rubber spatula so you do not overbeat the cupcake batter. This helps keep your cupcakes moist and soft as they bake and cool.
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- newmom815
on Feb. 13, 2012 at 3:17 PM