Cupcakes

[Sage]

I am making cupcakes tomorrow and wondering if I should use my convection or regular to bake them.. Need your advice Tink; I know you did talk about it when you were at the bakery.
Rita

[**Tinkerbell**]

Hi Rita!
If you're baking gluten free, use the regular bake setting.
If you're making a wheat based cupcake, then go ahead and try the convection.

If you're still not sure, then just fill one muffin cup and bake one cupcake on convection to see how long it takes and how well it turns out. If you don't like it, put all the rest in on the regular setting.

Sorry I didn't get back here til this morning! I hope I'm in time to help you. Good luck!

[Sage]

I ended up making them this morning with the regular instead of convection; I read quite a few negative comments; they came out great.

[**Tinkerbell**]

Awesome! Are they for an occasion or just experimenting?
I love cupcakes!

[Sage]

My husband's 73rd birthday; I made him some Rum Raisin cupcakes with a maple syrup frosting.; they turned out pretty nice; I just might post it.

[**Tinkerbell**]

Oh, yum!
You should post it. Happy birthday to your DH!

[katie in the UP]

Those sound heavenly!!

[Bonnie G #2]

They do sound great and a very grown up version. I'm startin to fall in love with cupcakes (is it cupcake wars?) but haven't made any yet, I've even bought decorating tips to give it a try so I really need to get to it.

[Sage]

I have been looking at those kits and I think I need one.

[Bonnie G #2]

Sage wrote:
I have been looking at those kits and I think I need one.

At least you were looking Sage, I bought and am NOW looking, seriously though I think once I get on the cupcakes it'll be fun to use. Trouble is right now I'm trying to loose some weight so with family so far away to pawn them off on I'm kind of afraid to make them (hmmmm, maybe I can send to work with DH)

[Sage]

Isn't here always something.

[**Tinkerbell**]

Make the cupcakes, cool, wrap and freeze most of them undecorated. Then just pull out a few at a time.

Or, cut the recipes down to only make half a dozen cupcakes at a time. I have one recipe posted for a small batch, 6 cupcakes, but I know there are recipes online that make only two cupcakes at a time. Small batch frosting recipes also.

Go ahead and get those decorating tips dirty. You won't use them all, even after 25 years of cake decorating there are a few tips that I've only used a handful of times, but testing them out and seeing what they can do is so much fun. Great to do with the kids or grandkids too. I taught both my kids and a few of their friends how to use a decorator bag with icing and tips. They love to decorate their own cupcakes.

My favorite tip for cupcakes though is the Wilton 1M for swirling. You can bust out dozens of cupcakes in no time with it.

[Sage]

Just beautiful. Now I really want to learn this. You are a pro.do you really think I can learn to do this?

[Bonnie G #2]

Lovely Tink, I want to learn too

By the way, my shipment from the states arrived yesterday and now my tips are here.

[**Tinkerbell**]

Sage wrote:
Just beautiful. Now I really want to learn this. You are a pro.do you really think I can learn to do this?

Absolutely! There are some great tip instruction videos to be found on You Tube.
I taught both ladies at the bakery, who had never picked up a decorator bag or tip before, how to swirl a cupcake.
The more you do it, the better you get.

My best advice would be to go slow. You don't have to rush through each decoration. A lot of the flowers and stars will require you to stop squeezing, release the pressure and pull away from the design. If you don't do it that way the designs get really messy.
Also, make sure your frosting is not too soft. Don't start practicing with an all butter buttercream or a cream cheese frosting.
Start your tip practice with a half shortening and half butter buttercream frosting recipe.

Oh! And don't worry if your first cupcake swirl sucks. Just scrape it off the cupcake and start over. Put the frosting back in the bag and keep going. You'll get it!