How to Make Cupcakes

Banana Cupcakes

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas
• 1/4 cup buttermilk
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• FROSTING:
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 3 tablespoons milk

Directions

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream shortening and sugar. Add the eggs, vanilla, bananas and buttermilk. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to banana mixture. Fill 18 paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full.
2. Bake at 350 degrees F for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove to wire racks to cool completely. In a small mixing bowl, cream the butter, sugar and enough milk to achieve desired spreading consistency. Frost cupcakes.

1. We made banana cupcakes out of this Banana Cake recipe. As with any cake, you want the butter and eggs to be at room temperature before you begin mixing the batter. Measure out your ingredients, preheat the oven, and prepare your pans while you wait.

2. Before you line your muffin tin with cupcake liners, spray a light coating of cooking spray over the surface of the pan, or use a paper towel to wipe a thin film of cooking oil over the top. This will help keep the tops of your cupcakes from sticking to the pan if they rise above their liners.

3. Combine the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl. Cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice.

4. A Note on Creaming:

Unlike cookie doughs, for which you just want the sugars and butter to be well combined, cake batters require a little more work.The butter should be noticeably lighter in color as air is beaten into it; the mixture will look very fluffy.

5. Scrape down the beaters and the sides of the bowl. Add the room-temperature eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

If you use refrigerator-cold eggs, they won't incorporate into the mixture as well and will make the batter look "curdled." You want your cake batter to be smooth and homogenous.

6. After the last egg is fully incorporated, add any flavorings called for in your recipe, like vanilla extract or lemon zest. Following our banana cake recipe, we added the sour cream and mashed banana at this point.

7. Ingredients such as cake flour, baking soda, and cocoa powder should be sifted before adding them to the mixing bowl to prevent dry lumps in your baked cake.

• These lumps won't be broken up by gentle mixing--and the last thing a cake batter needs is vigorous beating.

8. Once you add the dry ingredients to your cake, you just want to stir the batter until it's smooth, taking care to scrape down the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl with a rubber spatula.

9. Our favorite tool for scooping cupcake and muffin batter is a spring-loaded ice cream scoop. It's fast, it divides the batter equally between the muffin cups, and it keeps your hands clean.

You can also use a spoon or spatula to scoop the batter; the main goal is to try to distribute the cake batter evenly among the cups.

10. Once the pan or pans are full, they should go into the hot oven immediately. The longer the cake batter sits out, the more leavening power you lose, so you should bake all of your trays of cupcakes at the same time.

11. Cakes and cupcakes bake in relatively hot ovens so that their structure is set quickly and the cake doesn't dry out during baking. Our recipe called for an oven temperature of 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Because of their small size, of course, cupcakes bake more quickly than cakes. Start checking for doneness at twenty minutes: the cupcakes should spring back when you touch the centers lightly with the tip of your finger.

12. If the surface springs back, use the toothpick test to be sure the cupcakes are done.

• Insert a toothpick in the center of a cupcake and hold it there for a second before pulling it out.
• If there's any wet batter on the toothpick, continue baking for a few more minutes.
• If the toothpick comes out clean, or a couple of crumbs stick to the toothpick, they're done.

Cool the pan on a rack until the cupcakes are cool enough to handle, and then gently remove the cupcakes from the pan to cool completely before frosting and decorating.

How to Frost Cupcakes

It's easy to add icing to your little cakes.

Frosting can be spread, piped, swirled and spiked to suit your fancy.

1. You can use purchased frosting to ice your cupcakes, or you can make your own.

• Plan to use two to three tablespoons of frosting per cupcake (about 1.25 ounces/42 grams) if you're spreading the frosting.
• You'll need twice that amount if you're using a piping bag (2.5 ounces/70 grams per cupcake).

• 2. We made a tangy cream cheese frosting to go with our banana cupcakes (see How to Bake Cupcakes and How to Make Frosting). To spread the frosting, a small offset palette knife is our favorite decorating tool--but a butter knife will work fine, too. Scoop up a generous dab of frosting and plop it in the center of the cupcake.

3. Hold the cupcake in one hand and the knife in the other. That will let you get a good view of the cupcake so you can spread the frosting evenly over the entire surface.

4. Practice different frosting effects: you can make one big swirl pattern, a bunch of little wavy swirls, or spikes.

5. If you like the look of piped icing, you'll need a pastry bag with a large star tip. To fill the pastry bag without getting frosting all over the bag and your hands:

• Put the pastry tip in the bottom of the pastry bag. Set the bag over a tall glass or measuring cup and fold a three- or four-inch cuff over the edge.

6. Use a rubber spatula to scoop frosting from the bowl into the bag. Fill it no more than two-thirds full; you can always reload the pastry bag with more frosting, but if it's too full you're likely to squeeze frosting out of both ends of the bag.

7. Lift the bag out of the glass and twist the top to close. You can use a twist-tie to keep it closed, or you can hold the bag closed by keeping the twisted end under the palm of your hand while you pipe.

8. To pipe frosting, you want the cupcake on a flat surface rather than in your hand.

• Hold the main body of the pastry bag in your right hand (if you're right-handed), keeping the twisted end folded under your hand.
• Rest the piping end of the bag on your left index finger for better control. You'll use your right hand to squeeze out the frosting, and your left hand to guide the pastry bag.
• Start by piping a circle around the outer edge of the cupcake.

9. Continue the coiling motion until you reach the center of the cupcake.

10. Stop squeezing the pastry bag; pull the tip up while twisting your wrist to get a nice      finished swirl.