We share all of our tips and tricks for How to Make Perfect Cupcakes Every Single Time.

Cupcakes are a great dessert choice for a special family dinner, for a party or for just a random Wednesday. They taste amazing. They are fun to decorate.  They are easy to serve.  They are easy to transport.  People of all ages love to eat them.  And guess what?  They are easy to make too!  We have made thousands of cupcakes over the years and this is where we share all of our tips and tricks on How to Make Perfect Cupcakes Every Time!

How to Turn a Box Cake Mix into Delicious Cupcakes

If you have the time, a from scratch cupcake recipe is always nice. But to be honest, we usually use a “doctored up” box cake mix for our cupcakes.  With just a few substitutions you can turn any cake mix into a rich and moist cupcake that tastes like it came from a bakery.  Check our our How to Doctor a Box Cake Mix post for all the tips and tricks to create an easy to make cupcake batter no matter what the flavor.

About those Cupcake Ingredients

Even a box cake mix requires fresh ingredients. And here is a place where you shouldn’t skimp.  Fresh, room temperature ingredients will up the deliciousness quotient of your cupcakes by a factor of 10o.

Two Sisters’ Baking Tip – if you aren’t sure if your eggs are fresh, fill a coffee cup with water.  Carefully drop the egg into the water.  If the egg lays horizontally on the bottom of the coffee cup, it is fresh and ready to use.  If it stands on the bottom, vertically, it is fine to use but will be bad soon.  If the egg floats to the top, throw it away!

Tricks for Mixing Cupcake Batter

You need a mixer to make your cupcake batter.  Brownies and quick breads are best when mixed with a spoon but not so for cupcakes.  Fortunately, you can use either a stand mixer or a hand mixer. 

It is super important not to over-mix the batter though. We beat the batter for a minute on low to get the dry ingredients mixed with the wet ingredients and then we move up the mixer speed to medium and beat for TWO MINUTES only.  Cupcake Batter Perfection!

How to Fill a Cupcake Liner like a Pro

The trick to perfect consistently shaped cupcakes is an ice cream scoop.  We use a 3 tablespoon scoop which fills the cupcake liners 2/3 full which is the perfect amount of batter for each cupcake.  Too little batter (liners 1/2 filled) and the cupcakes won’t rise over the edge of the cupcake liner.  Too much batter (liners more than 3/4 filled) and the cupcakes will overflow onto the cupcake pan and turn out like a muffin.

If you don’t have an ice cream scoop yet, use the 3 tablespoons of batter as a guideline for filling each cupcake liner.  

Another great tool, a 24 cup Muffin and Cupcake Baking Pan which will allow you to cook all your cupcakes in one batch in a single pan. Super helpful!    

How do you know when a cupcake is done?

Baking cupcakes is easy peasy.  Remember to pre-heat the over to 350 degrees – the pre-heating is super important. Place the cupcake pan in the middle of the oven.  Don’t have pans on two racks of the oven, if they can’t fit together on the middle rack, back the batches separately. Don’t open the oven while the cupcakes are baking.  If your oven is heating correctly, cupcakes should take about 18 minutes to bake. You’ll know they are getting close when the top of the cupcakes aren’t glistening anymore.  After 18 minutes you can open the oven and check the doneness with a wooden toothpick (it will come out clean) or by pressing down on the top of the cupcake (the cupcake will bounce back up, no indentation.) 

Tips for Cooling and Storing Cupcakes

We take the cupcakes out of the hot baking pan and have them cool on a cookie rack as soon as they are cool enough to touch (about 5 minutes.). 

We store our unfrosted cupcakes in the fridge if we make them the day before because we think that keeps them fresher longer but you can leave them out.  Once they are frosted we do store them in an airtight cupcake holder in the refrigerator but we take them out of the refrigerator a couple of hours before we are going to serve them because room temperature cupcakes definitely taste better than refrigerated cupcakes.

Don’t Forget the Frosting and Sprinkles

It is here at the end of How to Make Perfect Cupcakes Every Time is where the fun begins!  What are you going to put on these perfectly baked cupcakes?  Need some frosting ideas?  We have over 60 delicious frosting recipes for you to choose from but you can’t go wrong with any of our four most popular frosting recipes:  The Best Buttercream Frosting, The Best Cream Cheese Frosting, The Best Chocolate Frosting and The Best Whipped Cream Frosting.

And don’t forget the sprinkles!!  

(Did you know you can make your own sprinkles in any color you need.  Click here to find out how!)