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Easy CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

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Crazy Cupcakes: One Easy Cupcake Recipe with Endless Flavor Variations 

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Crazy Cupcakes: One Easy Cupcake Recipe with Endless Flavor Variations 

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Crazy Cupcakes: One Easy Cupcake Recipe with Endless Flavor Variations!

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How to Make Vanilla Cupcakes | Easy Vanilla Cupcake Recipe

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How to make Vanilla Cupcakes Recipe - Tutorial

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How to Bake Perfect Cupcakes - Advanced Tips

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Bake cupcakes with perfectly flat and round tops! Here are a pro baker’s top tips for baking perfect cupcakes every single time! #cupcakes #bakingtips

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Most cakes contain eggs, milk, flour and sugar. Now there's a way to make them without one or more of these ingredients.

Anne Spurkland is a doctor and professor of anatomy at the University of Oslo. She has researched autoimmune diseases for many years, particularly multiple sclerosis, and has extensive experience in lab research.

She also has a penchant for baking cakes.

Spurkland has friends who are allergic to milk and egg, and a few years ago her husband contracted coeliac disease. This caused her to start experimenting with cakes they all could eat.

Coeliac disease affects the small intestines and links to intolerance for the grain protein glutin. Consumption of grain products thus leads to an allergenic reaction in the small intestine.

Researching cakes

Spurkland has written a book on the art of baking tasty cakes without milk, flour, eggs and sugar. Here she compiled cake recipes in which these ingredients are replaced by other common household products.

She says her research and laboratory experiences came in handy when she experimented with pastries.

"I have good training in thinking systematically through a problem, and the reasoning required in baking and lab work has a lot in common."

What is a cake, actually?

Spurkland started her work by giving consideration to what a cake really is, and what functions the various ingredients have.

According to her most Norwegians think of a cake as one baked in a form, rather airy, sweet and soft. And of course lots of cakes include frosting or whipped cream.

"My mission has been to develop something that could be served with coffee and be considered as a cake."

She says this project wasn't just about cakes.

"It was also a way of easily imparting what we in basic research actually do. Our knowledge can solve problems," says Spurkland.

Scientists do things on a daily basis that are nearly impossible to explain, where the key is significance of the chemical properties of biological molecules.

"I've worked a lot with cakes in the same way as in research. But tasting cakes is a lot more accessible."

Milk is the least important

According to Spurkland the least important ingredient of cakes, except cream cakes, is milk. And about 80 percent of the recipes in her book are milk free.

She says milk can usually be replaced by another liquid like water or juice.

Butter isn't so important either.

"The taste of butter is great, but its chemical functions in baking can be achieved in other ways."

What you need to replace butter is a fat mixture that can be solid and liquid at room temperature like butter, she adds.

Spurkland often replaces butter in her recipes with white shortening, coconut fat and coconut milk.

For example she has made lemon cream of lemon zest, lemon juice, sugar, corn starch, egg yolks and coconut fat.

Cakes without flour

Making cakes without wheat flour is no problem either, according to Spurkland.

Unless you are baking with yeast, wheat flour can usually be replaced by corn starch or potato starch.

"It works as long you are sticking to fluffy, spongy cakes and as long as you use eggs in the dough," she says. "Wheat flour doesn't have any taste, so it isn't the taste people will be missing, it's the consistence."

Wheat flour is comprised of starchy grain covered in proteins.

Gluten is the name of the substance created when the proteins in the flour get moist.

When water is added, the proteins glutenin and gliadin absorb the liquid, stretching out and getting sticky. The more you knead the dough, the more gluten you get.

Gluten is good for getting bread to cling together but if you have too much of it in cakes they become tough and compact.

Corn and potato starch consist of starch only, with no proteins. This means you get the same stickiness from the starch when the dough is heated but you get no help from the proteins.

"This works fine as long as you have eggs in it," says Spurkland.

Eggs take care of the process that normally comes from the proteins in wheat flour - keeping air in the dough, maintaining the shape of the cake during heating, keeping the water from evaporating out of the finished baked pastry or bread and blocking the starch from re-crystallising and making the cake dry.

Other replacements for wheat flour are rice flour, ground seeds and nuts or boiled beans and peas.

Pumpkins for eggs

It's a lot harder when you strike eggs from a recipe. Eggs help put air in the dough and also keep the cake together.

"The consequences of removing eggs from cakes, are manifold," says Spurkland.

"You can't just replace eggs with one single other ingredient. So what you use instead depends on what qualities you are looking for."

For instance in a cupcake recipe, she has replaced eggs with pumpkin.

She explains that when you beat pumpkin in a mixer the cells of the vegetable break apart. All of the cells have membranes, and these contain the same fats that are found in eggs.

So the mashed vegetable will have many of the same properties as the fats in eggs, such as the cohesive effect on water and fat.

The concentration of fats is much different than in eggs, but plants have a lot of complex carbohydrates.

"When the cells are crushed these will be released and contribute to trapping the air. These combine to give you the opportunity to mix air, sugar, water and fat, says Spurkland.

Sugar is a brain-teaser

The final and often the most difficult ingredient to remove is sugar. But fortunately there are some tricks for obtaining sweetness without it.

"I've used apricots, raisins and dates just for the sweetness."

And then there's the Maillard reaction. This is the name of the chemical reactions between the amino acids and proteins that occur during heating.

For instance it's the Maillard reactions that explain why a sweet bun tastes and looks as it does if it is brushed with egg, milk and sugar before being popped into the oven. This is the reaction that gives a dark crust to pastries and cakes and it often triggers a sweet taste.

In cakes made without sugar, you may therefore still get sweetness.

Sugar is important despite it all

But sugar is often important for the structure in cakes. When you whip eggs and sugar, which most cake recipes will be asking you to do, the sugar increases the viscosity of the egg mixture so the air bubbles which get mixed in don't pop straight away.

But this can also be solved because the sugar content in dried fruit is also high.

In Spurkland's cookbook she describes an apricot cake that uses dried apricots as the sugar source.

But sugarless cakes are almost a self-contradiction. Most of the sugarless pastries in her book are the compact rather than the spongy kinds, such as pies and tarts, pancakes... and of course, the Norwegian lefse.

Translated by: Glenn Ostling

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Anne Spurkland is a doctor and professor of anatomy at the University of Oslo. She has researched autoimmune diseases for many years, particularly multiple sclerosis, and has extensive experience in lab research. She also has a penchant for baking cakes. Spurkland has friends who are allergic to milk and egg, and a few years ago her husband contracted coeliac disease.

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Taken from the August 2019 issue of Physics World. Members of the Institute of Physics can enjoy the full issue via the Physics World app.

Baking is like a scientific experiment, combining the reactions of chemistry, the processes of biology and the laws of physics. Rahul Mandal, a metrology researcher by training, talks about how his scientific thinking helped him become a baker and win The Great British Bake Off in 2018

Baking has always fascinated me. Not only because I love to eat, but also because I love to prepare food for others. Generations of people have put a lot of dedication, love and passion into making something delicious - when people gather for a celebration, the centre of attraction is almost always food.

My other love is science. That comes from my questioning nature, which, combined with my potential for talking constantly for hours, always kept my parents busy. As a little boy, one thing that intrigued me was rain. Rain is a big thing in India, especially during monsoon season, which brings a sigh of relief after the scorching heat of summer. It always made me wonder where the rain came from. Little did I know that the same water that turns into vapour and then condenses to create clouds also creates the all-important steam during baking, helping cakes and breads to rise and pastries to puff.

For me, baking is a perfect combination of chemistry, biology and physics. Chemistry, as you mix different edible chemicals to create dough or batter, with tiny air bubbles trapped inside. Biology, as the culture of yeast provides carbon dioxide to make your bread rise. And physics, as those trapped gases expand and give the rise to the bakes.

Being part of The Great British Bake Off 2018 was a great experience. Apart from being in "the tent", the other exciting part was the opportunity to do research on the science of baking and do some live experiments in front of millions of people. Just like any other experiment, understanding how baking works is the key to ensure the quality of the results. Designing and planning a bake is crucial - and is similar to setting up a laboratory experiment. You have to carefully consider each individual variable: from the proportion of ingredients, to the atmosphere inside the tent, to the structural stability of the bakes. All play important roles.

You could even say the kitchen is the oldest laboratory known to humankind.

Let's talk about bakes

Baked goods are eaten all over the world, the most common being various kinds of cake, bread and biscuit. These are part of our daily life, whatever our country or culture. Their precise form will vary depending on the availability of grains - wheat, corn, barley, oat, rice and a few other cereals - as well as the local climate and the lifestyle of the people. But all start with grinding grains into flour and mixing it with liquid and fat to form some type of paste, dough or batter. Each will create a different type and texture of bread, cake or biscuit.

In my role as a STEM ambassador, I regularly visit schools and events to encourage young people to develop skills and careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The way I do that is by talking about the science of baking, giving students a variety of baked foods and asking them how they think the same ingredients can give such different results.

The kids will quickly tell you that cake is airy, soft, moist, spongy and squeezy. Bread is soft and squeezy too, but also chewy. And biscuits are solid, hard, maybe chewy, and snappy.

Same ingredients, different results

Even though they contain the same basic set of ingredients (see table above), the textures and flavours of Victoria sandwich cake, brioche bread and biscuits are completely different.

Cake (left) is the most decadent of all with equal amounts of fat, flour, sugar and eggs, which contributes to the soft and moist texture.

Brioche bread (centre), on the other hand, is more chewy and bouncy in texture thanks to the gluten that forms during kneading.

The snappy structure of the biscuits (right) comes from the comparative deficiency of hydration in the biscuit ingredients.

They are all delicious to eat, but the specific proportions (and some added ingredients like baking powder and yeast) make all the difference.

Each contains flour, fat, sugar and eggs in different proportions (see box above), which is one of the reasons for the differences in structure. The other reason is the additional ingredients - baking powder in cake, and yeast in bread - that make the mix rise and give you that airy spongy texture. Both play the crucial role of introducing carbon dioxide into the batter or dough.

Rise to the occasion

Baking powder is a combination of sodium bicarbonate and a dried acid, such as cream of tartar (potassium bitartrate). In its dry condition, it is inert and doesn't react. But when added to the cake batter, the liquid makes it active, creating lots of tiny carbon dioxide bubbles that fill the mixture. To give maximum flexibility, commercial baking powders often have a two-stage rise - once during mixing, and again during oven baking. (Some recipes call for self-raising flour instead of baking powder - it simply contains added baking powder to provide the leavening during baking.)

The other way of introducing gases into cake batter is much more laborious. Known as the creaming method, it requires beating the butter with the sugar. You can observe this process by noticing the mixture change colour, from a buttery golden yellow hue to a creamy white, as you beat more air bubbles into the mix.

For bread, it's slightly different. The gas bubbles are created by yeast, a common type of fungus that is readily found in the atmosphere - it's the same type of fungus that is often seen as a white misty coating on grapes. Only a few varieties are safe for human consumption, and these are mass produced for the bread and beer industries. When added to a dough, the yeast feasts on the carbohydrate in the flour to create carbon dioxide as a byproduct, which makes the dough rise as it rests or "proves".

So the important aspect for the soft fluffy baked goods is that they incorporate air before they are placed in the oven. It in this hot environment that the magic (or the physics) happens, and the dough or batter is transformed into a soft bread or spongy cake.

Into the oven

We can break down the many heat-induced reactions that occur in the oven into three generalized stages: expansion or rising; setting the structure; and colouring.

During expansion, the batter or dough reaches its full volume. The heat from the oven makes the trapped gases (air or carbon dioxide) expand in volume, as described by Charles' law, which states that the volume of an ideal gas at constant pressure increases in direct proportion to absolute temperature. This is what gives us the familiar aerated texture. Alongside this expansion, the water molecules start to evaporate and create steam, which also expands and increases the total volume of the bake.

During the setting stage, the structural elements of egg and flour start to form the framework of the bake. The coiled protein molecules start to denature or unwind, and coagulate or firm up. The starch molecules absorb water and swell up until they disrupt and gelate. Along with the coagulated protein, this is what gives the cake or bread its final spongy structure.

In the final, colouring stage, the batter shape becomes stable. The proteins and sugars react on the surface of the bake, to create a beautifully coloured crust. This is the Maillard reaction, which can also cause caramelization at higher temperatures. The Maillard reaction can create hundreds of different flavour compounds depending on the conditions and ingredients - the same basic reaction also gives roasted coffee and seared meat their distinctive flavours.

Make it snappy

Now let's talk about the harder, snappier bakes - pastry and biscuits. They are a bit different from bread and cakes, but the basic ingredients are still very similar: flour, fat and water, sometimes with added eggs or sugar.

In the case of pastry, the all-important rise comes from steam generated from the water and fat during baking in the oven. Fats used in baking generally include some water - butter is about 18-20% water, while baking spread is a kind of margarine with around 25% water. During baking, the water vaporizes to create steam, which increases in volume as the heat rises, pushing the flour molecules or layers apart. The proportion of butter or fat gives different kinds of pastry their distinctive short, flaky or puffed texture (see box).

Pastry variations

Shortcrust pastry (top) is created from a breadcrumb-like mixture. Flaky pastry (middle left) requires cold butter to be grated in, while choux pastry (middle right) is cooked twice. Puff pastry (bottom) layers butter and dough in a time-consuming process.

Shortcrust pastry, as the name suggests, is very short or crumbly. Recipes for shortcrust typically involve rubbing the flour and butter together until it resembles bread crumbs. A bit of water (and in some recipes, egg or yolk) is then added to bind the dough together. When everything is combined, pockets of fat are separated and surrounded by dough. During baking, the butter melts and its water vaporizes, creating pockets of steam that expand and push the particles of dough apart. This creates the short texture of this pastry.

Flaky pastry uses more butter than shortcrust. Frozen or very cold butter is grated and folded into the pastry dough - taking care not to let it melt through the dough, otherwise something more like shortcrust is produced. The steam from these little grated chunks of fat pushes the layers of dough apart during baking, creating the distinctive flaky structure.

Puff pastry needs a lot of work to prepare (there's no shame in buying ready-to-roll pastry - many professional cooks do). Layers of butter are folded between layers of dough, to create a structure of many thin sheets. During baking, the butter melts and creates steam, which pushes the sheets of dough apart, resulting in the typical puff pastry structure.

Choux is the most complex type of pastry. When baked, it creates a thin crisp shell of pastry encasing a hollow centre that can then be stuffed with a delicious filling. It takes a bit of effort and practice to master this. The trick to choux is that it is cooked twice. The flour is cooked first during the preparation of the dough, and then again during baking. If you look at the ingredients, you will see that it takes a huge amount of water compared to other pastries, almost double the volume of flour, as well as eggs. The water evaporates during baking and, as the temperature increases, its volume increases according to the gas laws, pushing the pastry out and creating the hollow cavity with a crisp outside.

Have your cake and eat it

I have found that talking about the science of baking is a great way to get young students thinking about how we can explain everyday things that we might otherwise take for granted. It's particularly engaging if there's something tasty to eat alongside the science.

A lot of the time in schools, we forget to link science with its applications in an engaging way. That can make study much drier and more difficult than it needs to be, which is completely the opposite of what science is intended for.

Think about how you were taught addition when you were little - if you have two sweets and your friend gives you two more sweets, how many sweets do you have? The thought of sweets probably helped you learn your lesson a lot quicker.

In the same way, if you want to get kids interested in science, it helps to link it to real life in ways they might not have considered before. That can be as simple as thinking about what happens to the water in your kettle when you make a cup of tea. Or it can be more complex, like chocolate tempering, which is a remarkably similar process to steel tempering. In recent STEM events at the University of Sheffield's Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre where I work, we've let children try their hand at "welding" with chocolate, using molten chocolate to join slabs together into box structures, and then testing them to destruction. Bringing together the fun of food and baking with science and engineering really does give you the best of both worlds.

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Taken from the August 2019 issue of Physics World. Members of the Institute of Physics can enjoy the full issue via the Physics World app. Baking is like a scientific experiment, combining the reactions of chemistry, the processes of biology and the laws of physics.

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The Science of Baking: How Physics and Chemistry Can Make You a Better Baker

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Learn to level up your goods as we break down the science of baking for you via our step-by-step illustrated guide.

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Baking is a both a science and an art. This article explains the science behind it.

In any baking recipe every ingredient has a purpose. For example, in a cake flour gives the structure, eggs bind the ingredients, baking powder and baking soda make it rise, fats like butter and oil make it less chewy, and sugar sweetens and keeps it moist.
Function of each ingredient
Baking soda and powder make baked goods rise. How does it do that? When mixed in batter, it makes carbon dioxide bubbles that help the cake to rise. As the cake bakes, the gas bubbles get trapped in the batter, which makes the cake light and fluffy.

Eggs help bind ingredients together. When it's heated, the protein in the egg opens up and helps bind by making the batter into a semi-solid state. It also prevents crumbling and gives a smooth creamy texture.

Fats make our treats less chewy. They are awesome tenderizers. They coat the proteins in the flour, which prevents them from mixing with water and forming gluten.

Sugar adds sweetness and moistens our treats.

Flour gives the base and structure. There are 2 types of protein in flour called glutenin and gliadin. When water is added to the flour, the proteins come together and form a new protein called gluten. Later, inside the oven, the proteins and starches in the flour turn into a sturdy structure.

Every ingredient also needs to follow a certain proportion. For example if you put too much baking powder, the cake can crack. And if you put too little, it will be chewy and dense. Infact, once I put too much eggs in my cake batter and the cake became hard and heavy :(

Any system can function only if all it's parts do their job. The same principle applies to baking. Like with everything else, practice makes perfect. Most people follow a recipe when baking. As they get familiar with it, they tweak it to get better and better results. But to decide what to tweak, you need to first understand the science of baking!

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Baking is a both a science and an art. This article explains the science behind it. In any baking recipe every ingredient has a purpose. For example, in a cake flour gives the structure, eggs bind the ingredients, baking powder and baking soda make it rise, fats like butter and oil make it less chewy, and sugar sweetens and keeps it moist.

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Cupcakes 101: Tips to Bake the Perfect Cupcake 

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Cupcakes 101: Tips to Bake the Perfect Cupcake 

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Ready to level up your homemade cupcakes? We'll teach you to take any cupcake recipe from good to great! You'll find our favorite tricks - pulled from decades of catering and professional recipe testing experience - plus a ton of side-by-side photos that show you exactly how different variables will affect your cupcakes. Plus, answers to your most frequently asked cupcake questions!

This guide was originally published in 2013. It was updated in 2023 with additional photos and more FAQs!

Cupcakes: An essential food group? We say yes.

But homemade cupcakes can also be notoriously, well, finicky. From cupcakes that sink in the middle to wrappers that peel away for no good reason, there's no shortage of cupcake problems that plague home bakers. But good news: We're here to help!

Of course, great cupcakes start with a great recipe - and not all recipes are created equal! Look for high-quality sources who test their recipes for accuracy (*casually drops a link to our cake and cupcake recipe collection*) But also, don't forget that everyone's palate is different: You may have to try a few different recipes before you find one that's perfectly suited to your taste buds! (Also, worth noting: Please follow the recipe you're using! If you make a bunch of substitutions, you're going to run into problems fast).

Still, a great recipe is only one part of the equation. Perfect homemade cupcakes also depend on the ingredients you use, the techniques you employ, and the variables in your own kitchen. But thankfully, in most cake recipes, the same basic principles apply.

In this guide, we're sharing the most important rules to bake great cupcakes at home. These battle-tested tips will give your homemade cupcakes a bakery-level WOW factor, whether you're baking cupcakes from scratch or using your favorite boxed cake mix!

1. Use high-quality ingredients

Trust us: Ingredients matter. You don't need to splurge on every baking staple, but there are a few key upgrades that will make a world of difference in the depth and complexity of your cupcake flavors.

Cocoa Powder

Investing in a deep, flavorful cocoa powder is the single best thing you can do to level up your homemade chocolate cake. We've tested hundreds of chocolate cake recipes: Great cocoa (and great vanilla! But we'll get to that in a minute) consistently makes the biggest difference in flavor.

Cocoa powder also makes a difference in the texture, color, and even height of a chocolate cupcake. Observe:

We baked six versions of our small batch chocolate cupcakes for this experiment, each with a different brand or style of cocoa powder. In the photo above, you can see the dramatic color difference that resulted - as well a difference in the texture of each cupcake top!

Cocoa powder can also have a surprising effect on the height and shape of a baked cupcake:

Why the stark difference between cocoa powders? Cocoa contains a bit of acid, which reacts with any baking soda in a cupcake recipe. Some varieties of cocoa powder have a higher acid content than others, which can affect the leavening power of your baking soda and lead to some variation in the rise and shape of a chocolate cupcake.

And of course, different brands of cocoa also make a difference in the color of a cupcake's interior:

What type of cocoa should I use for cupcakes?

While cocoa powder can have a big impact on the shape, color, and look of a chocolate cupcake, we always believe that the most important criteria is how it tastes. We recommend trying a few different varieties of cocoa powder until you find the one you like the most!

Our favorite all-around cocoa powder: King Arthur Flour Double Dark Cocoa Powder. We use this cocoa powder in cupcakes, brownies, and more - it works well in any baking recipe and has a gorgeous, deep chocolate flavor. If we could only stock one cocoa powder in our kitchen, it would be this one.

We also love using different cocoa powders for different occasions (or just for fun!) A few of our favorites:

Diaspora Co Anamalai Cocoa has a very light color with a delicate, almost floral taste. It's perfect for summertime, for pairing with fruit frostings or fillings, or as a complement to rich toppings like caramel or chocolate ganache.

Ghirardelli Unsweetened Cocoa Powder is a great all-around cocoa. It doesn't pack quite as much flavor as the KAF Double Dark, but it's a close second (and it's available at most grocery stores!) We have noticed this cocoa powder tends to clump more than others, so you may want to sift it to work out any lumps.

King Arthur Flour Black Cocoa. This cocoa powder is a deep midnight black color and has the most amazing, bitter taste. It won't be everyone's favorite, but the folks who get it, get it.

Vanilla Extract

Great vanilla makes a shocking difference in homemade cupcakes - from a small dash in your favorite chocolate sheet cake batter to a heavy pour in our Lemon Vanilla Cupcakes.

Unlike cocoa powder, you can't really see a difference when you switch vanilla extracts, but you'll definitely taste one: A good vanilla brings out all the other flavors in the batter for better balance and a richer, more complex cupcake.

Which vanilla extract is best for cupcakes?

Our go-to vanilla for baking: Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Extract. Nielsen-Massey vanillas are an investment, but they're hands down the best we've tested. This particular vanilla is usually the lowest price point in their collection: You'll get all the benefits without the higher price tag. One bottle lasts us 2+ years even with heavy use.

Our favorite budget vanilla extract: ALDI Pure Vanilla Extract. ALDI doesn't mess around with their store brands, and this vanilla extract packs a punch on a budget.

Our favorite splurge vanilla extract: Nielsen-Massey Ugandan Vanilla Extract. Nielsen-Massey's vanillas are all excellent, but if we had to pick a favorite from their premium options, it'd be this one. It has a deep, rich, almost fruity flavor that works so well in rich recipes like chocolate cake or brownies.

If you can only splurge on one pantry staple, make it a good vanilla extract. It makes a big difference in cupcakes, but it will also elevate your favorite cookies, brownies, and more!

Flour

We could write an entire dissertation on the differences between each type of flour (could and did - check out our Everyday Artisan Bread course for a detailed look at how flour affects your baking!) But we have a lot of ground to cover in this article, so we're going to move through this section pretty quickly.

You have two real options when it comes to the style of flour you use in your cupcakes: Cake Flour and All Purpose Flour. The primary difference between these flours is how much protein they have (which affects how much gluten they have, which affects the ultimate structure and texture inside your cupcake).

In a nutshell: Cake flour typically gives you a slightly softer cupcake, with a slightly flatter, less domed top and a more uniform crumb. Cake flour has a low protein content, which means it develops less gluten in your cupcake batter (basically, it's just harder to overmix your cupcakes if you use cake flour).

If you're a frequent cupcake baker who wants the softest possible texture, stock some cake flour in your kitchen! But the difference in taste isn't huge, especially if you follow these other best practices. So if the idea of one more thing in your kitchen makes you squirm, just stick with regular all purpose flour!

Real life example: As a professional recipe tester, I honestly only use cake flour when I'm making yellow or vanilla cakes for a special occasion (like someone's wedding or a big birthday party). 90% of the time, I use All Purpose flour in my cakes!

No matter what flour you choose, we recommend King Arthur Flour. It's incredibly consistent from bag to bag and routinely outperforms other brands in our testing.

For a deep dive on all things flour, enroll in our Everyday Artisan Bread course! It goes into MUCH more detail about flour types, protein content, and our recommended brands.

Butter

Good quality butter makes a fairly noticeable difference in cupcake recipes that call for room temperature butter to be creamed with sugar (like our Lemon Vanilla Cupcakes).

Cupcake recipes that use melted butter, though (like our Chocolate Stout Cupcakes) don't really seem to benefit from higher-quality butter in our testing - you can't really taste much of a difference there.

But butter makes a smaller difference than other ingredients: if you're on a budget, prioritize high quality vanilla and high quality cocoa powder over a more expensive butter option.

If you'd like to stock high quality butter for your cupcake baking, we recommend Vermont Creamery Cultured Butter and Kerrygold Grass Fed Butter.

Should I use salted or unsalted butter in cupcakes?

It's really up to you! Different bakers have different opinions. In most of our cupcake recipes, we call for unsalted butter because we like having total control over the final salt content in a recipe. Some bakers love using salted butter because the salt helps the flavors pop a little more. Good cupcake recipes will specify what type of butter you should use, but we encourage you to try both and see if a favorite emerges!

Baking on a budget? Don't stress about splurging on high-end ingredients if it doesn't work with your budget! Do ingredients make a difference? Yes, absolutely. But so does everything else on this list! Follow the rest of the tips in this article, and your favorite cupcakes will still improve dramatically without having to spend a dime.

2. Bring ingredients to room temperature

We'll be honest: Taking the extra time to bring ingredients to room temperature before baking can be, well, annoying AF. But trust us when we tell you: This step is worth it.

Cold, straight-from-the-fridge ingredients (especially eggs and milk) won't mix into your batter as smoothly. For example: When a cold egg hits melted or softened butter, the butter starts to seize up again, which can completely change the intended texture of your cake.

Room temperature eggs are especially important when you're working with a creamed butter-and-sugar mixture: It's essential the butter remains soft to trap air in the batter in order to have a light, fluffy cake (we use this technique in our White Chocolate Cake Recipe!) Read more: Do eggs in baking really need to be at room temperature?

Basically, cold ingredients can lead to a grainy, clumpy batter. That's not great for the end product, of course: we don't want to discover a big chunk of unmixed egg or a pocket of flour when we bite into a cupcake. But also, when a cake batter looks clumpy, bakers will spend more time mixing the batter in an effort to work those clumps out (more time mixing = more gluten development = denser cupcake with uneven air pockets in it).

Different bakers have different opinions on what exactly it means to "bring ingredients to room temperature" (some bakers shoot for a very precise batter temperature and individually temp each ingredient, for example, while others simply let their cold ingredients sit out for a bit while they do other things).

In our testing, we found the biggest benefit comes when cold ingredients - specifically, eggs and milk (or buttermilk) - are allowed to sit at room temperature on the counter for at least 1 hour before mixing into the batter. That 1 hour mark is where we observed the most dramatic difference in cupcake height, crumb, and texture compared to eggs and milk that came straight from the fridge.

Past the 1-hour mark, the difference isn't as stark. We also didn't find it beneficial to use super precise measurements here (for example, bringing milk to a specific temperature checked with a kitchen thermometer before mixing it into the batter).

In professional kitchens, we certainly pay that kind of detailed attention to temperature (when you're baking huge batches of everything, every variable needs to be as consistent as possible!) But for home bakers, that 1 hour on the counter will give you the best result with the smallest amount of effort.

Worth noting: Both of the cupcakes in these photos still tasted good! You can definitely tell a difference when they're side by side, but we were still perfectly happy snacking on the cupcakes made with cold ingredients.

What about room temperature butter?

We focused on eggs and milk when we were testing recipes for this section, because different cake recipes use butter differently! Some cakes - like our Chocolate Stout Cupcakes - use melted butter in the batter, which is easy to make and doesn't leave a ton of room for error.

Light, fluffy cakes will typically instruct you to use room temperature butter. Butter at room temperature should be easy to spread, but still hold its shape. It shouldn't be shiny or melty, and should actually feel fairly cool to the touch: if you press a finger into it, it should offer a tiny bit of resistance (as opposed to melting away or collapsing when you touch it). It can take several hours on the counter for a stick of butter to reach room temperature (about 65-70° F, depending on what baker you talk to). Read more: What Room Temperature Butter Really Means.

3. Use a kitchen scale

Here's the thing: Measuring ingredients by volume (with measuring cups) is notoriously unreliable. It's especially inconsistent when you're working with dry ingredients like flour (we actually ran a HUGE experiment to test this - you can read the full results in our Everyday Artisan Bread course or hear a summary in our Free Bread Bootcamp Webinar).

In a nutshell: Each person measures a cup of flour a little bit differently, which makes it very, very easy to accidentally use too much flour in a recipe and end up with dry, dense cake.

But when you use a kitchen scale to measure by weight (in grams), you get a perfect measurement every time.

When you're baking, look for cupcake recipes that are specifically written with (and tested with!) gram measurements (oh hey, there's a link to our cupcake recipe collection again *wink*). Measuring your ingredients by weight will give you much more consistent results for perfect cupcakes every time.

PS - If you don't have a kitchen scale, measure your flour with the scoop and level method for best results!

What kitchen scale should I use? We use (and love) the Escali Kitchen Scale. We've tested recipes with half-dozen or so of the most popular kitchen scales - this one is far and away our favorite. It's compact, easy to use and clean, and is the most reliable with small quantities.

4. Don't Overmix the Batter

This is a term that bakers and bloggers like to throw around a lot without a ton of context: "be sure not to overmix the batter!" is tacked onto the end of many a recipe without much other guidance. So what does it mean, exactly?

When we talk about "overmixing" cupcake batter, we're really talking about two main issues:

1. Developing too much gluten. Flour contains proteins that form gluten, which is activated in part by mixing. Basically, the more you mix your batter, the more gluten develops - and more gluten means chewier cupcakes with bigger air pockets (in cakes and muffins, these air pockets are called "tunneling"). Gluten, of course, is a very important ingredient in homemade artisan bread: It's what makes our bread dough smooth and stretchy. But while that chewy texture is great for sourdough, it's not really what we're looking for in cupcakes - so we want to mix our cupcake batter as little as possible in order to develop as little gluten as possible.

2. Releasing air from the batter. Many cupcake recipes rely on an important first step of creaming the butter and sugar together to develop a light, fluffy dough. Whipping softened butter and sugar together incorporates air into our cupcake batter and gives our cake its soft, even structure. Once we build all those air bubbles into our batter, we want to be very careful not to crush them: Mixing too long or too vigorously can collapse these fragile air pockets, so it's important to stir gently, and as little as possible.

Why does too much gluten cause tunneling?

When we've developed too much gluten in our cupcake batter, the gluten strands create a kind of cage structure inside our cake: Picture a big net (our gluten networks) with a bunch of balloons inside (our air pockets). As the air pockets (balloons) expand in the oven, they float through the batter and kind of shift the net (the top of our cupcake) up along with them in a smooth, even movement. But if we develop too much gluten in our dough, that net is more like a metal jungle gym: And the air pockets have to work a lot harder to break through it. That means a ton of pressure builds up inside each air bubble, leading them to burst with a lot of force (as opposed to a gentle expansion). The result is long, hollow tunnels inside of your cake, and a cracked surface that forms when air erupts through it like a volcano.

What does overmixed cupcake batter look like?

We wanted to know what kind of effect overmixing really has on homemade cupcakes, so we tested it! We mixed one batch of small batch chocolate cupcake batter by hand until the ingredients were just combined, then put just half of it into cupcake liners as usual. We then used an electric mixer to mix the remaining batter for an additional one minute before baking all the cupcakes together. Here are the results:

Right away, you can see an obvious difference in the surface texture of these two cupcakes. The cupcake on the left - baked normally - looks just about perfect. The cupcake on the right - which is the exact same batter, just mixed for an extra minute - looks dense and lumpy.

These differences persist when we cut the cupcakes open:

The cupcake that was mixed an extra minute with our electric beater is short and dense with a ton of tunneling. The cupcake that was mixed by hand until the ingredients were just incorporated looks, well, like a cupcake. (FWIW, the overmixed cupcake also didn't taste great - kind of like an undercooked, chewy torte.)

How to Avoid Overmixing Cake Batter

Here's the good news: If you're mixing cupcake batter by hand (with a whisk, spoon, or spatula) it's pretty difficult to overmix the batter to the point where you'll be able to see or taste a difference.

If you're using a stand mixer or hand beater, though, it's much easier to over mix batter. Don't let that scare you off of using your electric mixer, though - just keep a close eye on it and you'll be fine! You can use a fairly high speed to cream any butter and sugar together, but once you add the flour and other dry ingredients to your batter, be sure to beat it on a very low speed until ingredients are just combined.

The most important rule of using a stand mixer: Don't walk away while it's running! Leaving the mixer on while you're doing something else is a surefire path to over-mixed cupcake batter. It's just too easy to get distracted and forget to turn it off in time (we're speaking from experience on that one *facepalm*).

Pro Tip: We recommend making a cupcake recipe by hand a few times to get a sense of what the batter should look and feel like, so that when you do use a stand mixer it's easier to follow the batter's visual cues to avoid overmixing!

As a general rule of thumb, we recommend you mix your cupcake batter until no dry bits of flour remain, and then stop!

5. Check your oven temperature

It goes without saying that you should pre-heat your oven, but we'll say it anyway: pre-heat your oven!

If you put cupcake batter into a cold oven, it can mess with the baking process and result in lopsided or dense cupcakes. For best results, give your oven ample time to come to the correct temperature.

It's also important to double-check your oven temperature. We recommend investing in a good oven thermometer to get a feel for how accurate your oven is. They're small, and they have a little hook at the top so you can hang them from your oven rack and keep them out of your way.

Older ovens are especially finicky when it comes to temperature readings: We've had ovens be off by as much as 30 degrees in either direction! If you know your oven runs especially hot (or especially cold), you can adjust the temperature to make sure you're baking your cupcakes at the correct setting. An oven thermometer can take the guesswork out of mysteriously over- or undercooked cupcakes and ensure control over the baking process.

6. Don't open the oven door during baking

We know, we know: It's tempting to sneak a peek at your cupcakes. But we beg of you: Do not open the oven door while the cupcakes bake.

Opening and closing the oven door creates big temperature swings that affect how evenly your cupcakes bake, and even a gently closed oven door can shake and burst some of the fragile air bubbles in your batter (which leads to a denser cupcake with a weaker structure and more tunneling).

To test the impact of opening and closing the oven door during baking, we made two identical batches of chocolate cupcakes. The first batch was baked normally, and we didn't open the oven door until the baking time had elapsed. While the second batch of cupcakes baked, we opened and closed the oven door once every 3 minutes until the cupcakes were done.

Here's how they turned out:

You can see right away how uneven the open-and-closed-door cupcake is compared to our control cupcake. And you can see an even bigger difference once we cut them open:

Similar to cupcakes made with overmixed batter, the open-and-closed cupcakes are shorter, denser, and exhibit a lot of tunneling (although it's worth noting that the open-and-closed cupcakes tasted significantly better than the overmixed ones).

When can I open the oven?

All that said, it's sometimes necessary to open your oven while your cupcakes bake: Whether you need to rotate the pan to adapt to an oven's hot spots, or insert a cake tester to see if the cupcakes are done baking.

Our general rule of thumb: Let your cupcakes bake for at least ⅔ of the recipe's specified bake time before you open the oven door. This gives the cupcakes' structure enough time to stabilize before you introduce a gust of cold air into the oven, so you can rotate a pan or check for doneness without compromising the final product.

7. Bake cupcakes in the center of your oven

When you're ready to bake, set cupcake pans on the center of a rack set in the very middle of your oven. This will ensure good airflow and help even out heat distribution, preventing overcooking on any one side of the cupcake.

If your oven cooks unevenly from front to back, rotate the cupcakes ⅔ of the way through cooking time. (Don't rotate any sooner, or the cupcakes may not have had time to set properly!)

If need to bake two pans of cupcakes at a time, place each pan side by side on the same rack. If your oven isn't wide enough for two cupcake pans at once, place two oven racks in the centermost positions of the oven and stagger the cupcake pans so that they aren't directly on top of each other. If one cupcake pan is directly on top of another, it will impede the oven air's ability to circulate, which can affect the total baking time and final texture of your cupcakes. Give each pan as much space as you can while still keeping each one as close to the center of the oven as possible.

8. Use a Scoop to Fill Cupcake Liners

There's nothing worse than pulling a tray of cupcakes out of the oven and discovering that half of them are done while the rest are still raw inside. This usually happens when each liner has a different amount of batter in it: The cupcakes bake unevenly and, you're left with some that are perfect and some that are over- or under-cooked.

The easiest way to ensure your cupcakes bake evenly is to use the same amount of batter in each cupcake liner. We like using a cookie scoop for thicker, fluffier cupcake batters: a large scoop (3-4 Tablespoons) is great for standard-sized cupcakes and a small cookie scoop (1-1.5 Tablespoons) is perfect for mini cupcakes.

If you're making cupcakes with a very thin batter (like our coconut oil chocolate cupcakes) it's easier to pour the batter into your cupcake liners than to scoop it. We like to transfer the batter to a small measuring cup and pour it into the liners a bit at a time to keep the cupcakes as even as possible!

Note: Because a thin cupcake batter fills all the nooks and crannies of the cupcake liner, it's easy to visually gauge whether each liner is filled with the same amount of batter. Bend down so you're about eye level with the cupcake pan, and make sure the top of each cup of batter lines up (if not, use a small spoon to add or remove batter as needed until they're all at a fairly even level). This can take some practice, but you'll get the hang of it in no time!

How full should my cupcake liners be?

The recipe you're using should specify how full each cupcake liner needs to be; usually, we recommend filling cupcake liners about ⅔ of the way full for best results.

9. Move cupcakes to a wire rack to cool

When your cupcakes are done baking, transfer them to a wire rack to cool as quickly as you can!

If you leave cooked cupcakes in a hot pan, the residual heat can continue the cooking process (which can overcook the cupcakes and ultimately dry them out). But the heat of the pan will also create steam around each cupcake once it leaves the oven, which causes the cupcake liners to peel away from the cake (this is one of the most common complaints we get about homemade cupcakes!)

To transfer hot cupcakes to a cooling rack, use a potholder to hold the hot pan in one hand and gently tip each cupcake onto the wire rack with your other hand (you can also use a butter knife to coax each cupcake out of the pan and onto the rack). It can take a bit of practice to get this movement down - go slowly and be careful not to burn yourself!

Let your cupcakes cool completely before frosting them: Even a tiny bit of residual heat from a cupcake can melt your frosting, so be sure to give your cupcakes at least an hour to cool on this wire rack before you move on to decorating!

10. The most important cupcake ingredient

We've packed a ton of information into this article - and each of these tips will help you refine the cupcake recipes you already love! But when it comes to great homemade cupcakes, remember the MOST important ingredient:

Practice.

When it comes to cooking and baking, there's no substitute for practice. Even the very best recipes (*casually drops a link to our cupcake recipe collection*) and tips will only take you so far. Plus, every kitchen is different! Every oven heats a little bit differently, different brands of ingredients can have their own quirks, and even the temperature and humidity in your kitchen can affect the outcome of your cupcakes.

Use this guide - and your favorite cupcake recipes! - as a starting point. But also: Take some time to refine your process. Try a few different ingredients until you find your favorite combos. And most importantly: Give yourself permission to make a few bad batches of cupcakes on the road to total cupcake world domination (and be nice to yourself when those bad batches happen! We've all been there).

This article is part of our Cooking 101 Series, and focuses primarily on baking cupcakes. For more cupcake tutorials, check out our posts on how to store cupcakes, our favorite cupcake decorating ideas, and the best piping tips for cupcakes.

Three rules for at-home cupcake experiments

A lot of the advice in this guide boils down to "try a few things and see what you like!" But as with any experiment, there are a few best practices to follow to make sure you're getting the results you need:

Test with the same recipe every time. If you're trying to decide between a brand of cocoa powder, or a type of vanilla, make sure you're keeping the base recipe the same and changing only one variable at a time.

Control as many variables as you can. Stay as consistent as possible when you test different cupcake variables! For example, if you're trying a new brand of flour, make sure you're measuring it the same way every time (we recommend using a kitchen scale) to get an accurate read on how it performs for you.

Be patient. It takes time to hone your perfect cupcake recipe (at Life As A Strawberry, we test each cupcake recipe an average of FIFTEEN TIMES before it gets published!) Enjoy the process, try some new things, and be nice to yourself if a batch doesn't turn out the way you'd hoped. Our team is here to cheer you on the whole way!

Our Top Cupcake FAQs

Our Favorite Cupcake Recipes

Ready to bake? Find your new favorite cupcake recipe in our cake & cupcake collection. Our cupcake (and cupcake frosting!) recipes are tested by multiple recipe developers to ensure they work for you - and each recipe includes step-by-step photos and tons of tips to help you along! A few of our favorites:

Still have a question? Leave a comment below - our team is happy to help!

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Professional recipe testers share their top tips for homemade cupcakes! Tons of side-by-side photos show how each variable affects a recipe.

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Not only are we focusing on COOKIES this month, we're also getting our feet wet in the cupcake decorating department. I love your response so far to September's baking challenge recipe! I hope you're having a lot of fun decorating the sunflowers, as well as building some confidence. Because that's what I want these challenges to be: educational + confidence boosting + fun + delicious.

With back-to-school events, bake sales, weddings, showers, and fall baking in full swing this month, I figured it's the best time to share another baking basics post.

And cupcakes are calling our names...

Recipe: soft and fluffy funfetti cupcakes dressed in pink!

I compiled a list of my 10 best cupcake baking tips- all geared toward helping you bake a better batch. Get your ovens preheated, my friends, because you'll have the baking itch after reading this!

1. Follow the Recipe

Well, duh. This sounds pretty obvious, right? Well actually... no! We often substitute ingredients in recipes based on what we have. Subbing out eggs, reducing sugar, using liquid sweetener instead, all-purpose instead of cake flour, baking soda for powder (no! don't do it!), egg whites instead of whole eggs, etc. I do not recommend doing this unless the recipe states. Don't sabotage your time, effort, and money! Ingredients are needed for a reason and, more often than not, a cupcake recipe fail is because the recipe wasn't properly followed. I'm guilty too!

I always recommend following a recipe the first time you try it, then making alterations as you see fit the next time.

2. Room Temperature Ingredients

This one could get a little too long so I'm just going to direct you to my entire post on the subject. To sum it up: "room temperature" isn't listed next to ingredients for fun. There's science and legitimate reason behind it. If a recipe calls for room temperature ingredients, use room temperature ingredients. See the article I linked in this paragraph for more explanation. 🙂

3. Don't Over-mix, Don't Under-mix
Recipe: apple spice cupcakes with salted caramel frosting
Not too much, not too little. Make sure you're mixing the cupcake batter together *just until* the wet and dry are combined. Overmixing batter, whether that's for cakes, cupcakes, breads, muffins, etc, lends a tough-textured baked good. Don't turn on the mixer then leave the room. Goodness no!

Not to get all NERDY on ya or anything (hi, have we met?) but if you overmix the batter, you run the risk of over-developing the gluten. This results in squat-looking cupcakes, dense-textured cupcakes, and heavy-tasting cupcakes. Mix just until there are no more pockets of flour. And maybe a few more seconds to rid any big lumps.

Likewise, don't undermix- obviously we want all of the ingredients incorporated together.

4. High Quality Cupcake Liners

Did you know that a cupcake liner is kind of a big deal?!?! Seems silly, right? I started using higher quality + grease-proof liners a few years ago. My cupcakes stopped sticking to the sides of the wrapper (ugh I hated that!!) and the liners no longer oozed grease. If the cupcake liner feels cheap, it probably is cheap. I swear by these parchment paper liners or any quality liners labeled "grease-proof."

For a little pizazz, I love these!!

5. Fill Cupcake Pans Appropriately

Did you know this one simple step can make or break your batch? It's often something we overlook completely- just pour/scoop batter into the cupcake wrappers and bake. Well, depending on the recipe, you could be over-filling or under-filling the liners. This leads to:

cupcakes that rise up, then sink

cupcake "mushroom tops"

overflowing

Unfortunately, most recipes don't tell you how far to fill your liners. My general rule? 2/3 full (about 3 scant Tablespoons). All of my cupcake recipes turn out when filled this high- with the exception of my chocolate cupcakes. 1/2 full is imperative there!

If the batter is very thin, use a bowl that has a spout and pour the batter into each cup. If the batter is thick, use a large spoon or an ice cream scoop if you prefer.

6. Oven Thermometer, Every Time

Unless you have a brand new or regularly calibrated oven, your oven's temperature is likely inaccurate. Isn't that crazy?? When you set your oven to 350°F, it might not really be 350°F inside. It could only be off by a little - 10 degrees or so. Or more than that - 100 degrees or even more. While this might not seem like a big deal to you, it is a huge problem for baked treats!

A temperature mismatch results in dried-out baked goods. Burnt uneven cakes and cupcakes. Heavily browned or undercooked in the centers. And as you know, when it comes to baking- accuracy is everything; there is little room for error. Having an oven whose temperature is off can ruin your baked good, not to mention the time, energy, and money spent. The inexpensive remedy is an oven thermometer. Place it in your oven so you always know the actual temperature. Trust me!

Do you have a convection oven? Read #7 in this post.

7. 1 Batch in the Center

Only 1 batch at a time in the very center of the oven. I know that sounds crazy!! But my reason is because you get the best possible results when the oven only concentrates on that 1 batch. If you absolutely need to bake more than one batch at a time, make sure you rotate the cupcake pans from the top rack to bottom rack a couple times in the baking process to encourage even browning. And turn the pans around as well. Ovens have hot spots!

But if you're only baking 1 batch: center of the oven. That's the oven's magic spot.

8. Bounce-Back Test

You can determine if a batch of cupcakes is done in the oven by testing with a toothpick, right? You know, sticking a toothpick into the center of the cupcake and if it comes out clean, they're done? Sure that works. But here is what I always do instead. And you don't need to waste time and fumble around for a toothpick!

Remove the cupcakes from the oven or leave them in, your choice. Gently press down on the cupcake. If the cupcake bounces back completely, they are done. If your finger left a dent in the cupcake, they need more time. So easy. I always do this!

And this nifty little trick can be used on muffins as well.

9. Allow to Cool Completely

This sounds like a no-brainer, but we're often in a rush- myself included. Especially when I need to photograph a cupcake recipe! Decorating cupcakes before they are completely cool is, well, a recipe for disaster. The frosting will melt. Whenever I need a batch of cupcakes to cool down on the fly, I let them cool for 10 minutes inside the cupcake pan. Then I remove them from the pan and stick each cupcake in the freezer for about 20 minutes. They're cool and ready for decoration. Easy and quick.

10. Store Properly

Unfrosted cupcakes are wonderful left at room temperature for a few days. Cover them tightly and they'll stay soft, moist, and fluffy until you're ready to decorate them. After you frost them, they're OK for a day or two at room temperature, but should be refrigerated after that. I always let cupcakes come to room temperature before serving. The cupcake itself tastes best that way!

Traveling with cupcakes? I love this cupcake carrier. Sturdy, tall tops (for tall frosting!), and keep the cupcakes in place.

Recipe: super moist chocolate cupcakes

Make your next batch your BEST BATCH!
Further reading:

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10 Tips for Baking the BEST Cupcakes - Sally's Baking Addiction

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Not only are we focusing on COOKIES this month, we're also getting our feet wet in the cupcake decorating department. I love your response so far to September's baking challenge recipe! I hope you're having a lot of fun decorating the sunflowers, as well as building some confidence.

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This tortilla de patatas is the traditional Spanish Omelette that you would get in any authentic tapas bar in Spain. My recipe is inspired by the incredible tapas we ate at the Club Pollensa on our recent trip to Mallorca. The ingredients are as basic as they come; potatoes, onion, eggs and good quality extra...

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This tortilla de patatas is the traditional Spanish Omelette that you would get in any authentic tapas bar in Spain. My recipe is inspired by the incredible tapas we ate at the Club Pollensa on our recent trip to Mallorca. The ingredients are as basic as they come; potatoes, onion, eggs and good quality extra...

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Hello! My name is Nick Evans and I write and manage Macheesmo. I started Macheesmo 11 years ago when I was just learning my way around the kitchen. I love to cook and love everything food-related, but I have no formal training. These days I focus on fast, accessible recipes with the occasional "reach" recipe!

I've posted almost 2,000 recipes on Macheesmo. For each one, I do my best to give full explanations of what I did and tips on what I'd do differently next time. I'll bring up the tricky parts and the easy parts.

I hope you can find something and cook something!

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Hello! My name is Nick Evans and I write and manage Macheesmo. I started Macheesmo 11 years ago when I was just learning my way around the kitchen. I love to cook and love everything food-related, but I have no formal training. These days I focus on fast, accessible recipes with the occasional "reach" recipe!

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That's right. I made A Life of Pi Pie. Or to make it a bit simpler let's just call it A Life of Pie. I was so proud of it I actually did a little dance around my kitchen once I was done.

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my favourite ingredient is love and I put it into all my bakes

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A simple and delicious Apple Crisp Recipe with perfectly cooked apples and the most addicting, streusel top! We love serving it warm with big scoops of vanilla ice cream. It's one of our favorite fall desserts!

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A simple and delicious Apple Crisp Recipe with perfectly cooked apples and the most addicting, streusel top! We love serving it warm with big scoops of vanilla ice cream. It's one of our favorite fall desserts!

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For people who, like, totally love food.

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Serious Eats is the destination for delicious food, with definitive recipes, trailblazing science, and essential guides to eating and knowing all about the best food, wherever you are.

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Watch Cupcake Wars Cosmic Cupcakes Highlights from Food Network