Barbara Beery - The Llamacorn Cookbook

Cupcakes are a beloved treat in Llamacorn Land. Here are some helpful tips and tricks to make, bake, and decorate the perfect cupcake. These hints will also be useful for you when you make some of the tasty cupcakes in the recipe section of this book.

Use any of the three delicious homemade cupcake recipes in this cookbook. You can always use your favorite cake mix to make cupcakes too. These recipes and most boxed cake mixes make 20 to 24 cupcakes.

Fruit juices work especially well to add a natural sweetness, moistness, and fruit flavor to cupcakes. You can add fruit juice to almost any vanilla or fruit-flavored cupcake recipe by substituting the milk or water called for with an equal amount of fruit juice.

Make specialty cupcake flavors by folding stir-ins into your cupcake batter after it has been mixed. Fun stir-ins include colorful sprinkles, mini chocolate chips, crushed hard candies, marshmallows, or whatever else you think would be good.

You can dress up your cupcakes with colorful paper and foil cupcake liners. They are festive and inexpensive, and they make cleanup a snap!

Bright and colorful silicone cupcake molds are another perfect choice for cupcake liners. Not only do they come in a variety of whimsical shapes, but they are also an eco-friendly baking choice because the molds may be washed and used over and over.

You can find a large selection of colorful paper cupcake liners and silicone cupcake molds many places online or in the baking sections of craft stores.

To make sure your baked cupcakes do not stick to the liners, lightly spray the inside of each liner with nonstick cooking spray before adding the batter.

Carefully measure all ingredients. Dry ingredients like flour and sugar should be measured in measuring cups that are specifically made for dry ingredients. Just scoop dry ingredients loosely into measuring cups and level off the top with the back of a table knife. Liquid ingredients like milk and oil should be measured in clear measuring cups with spouts that are specifically made for measuring liquid ingredients. Place the measuring cup on the counter and then bend down and look at the cup at eye level to make sure your measurement is correct.

Bring all ingredients such as eggs, liquids, and butter to room temperature before making your cupcake batter. The ingredients will mix more evenly and the result will be a wonderfully smooth and creamy cupcake batter.

Dont overmix the batter. This will cause the cupcakes to become chewy and tough rather than perfectly moist and tender.

Fill cupcake cups one-half to two-thirds full. Try using an ice cream scoop to fill the cupcake cupsevery scoop is the same amount, so each cupcake will be the perfect size every time!