One of These Things is Not Like the Other

Dear Tricia, What's the difference between a muffin and a cupcake? I tried to make muffins and the recipe stunk. The muffins had too many blueberries and it kinda sunk into the muffin pan.


I know... muffins and cupcakes go in the same little paper cups that go in the same little muffin pans and they look so alike too. Baking can be hard and those little guys are probably reveling in the fact that they're making it harder. Jerks.
But there's three major differences between the two and I'm happy to share those with you.

1. Cupcakes have more sugar in them- usually double the amount. They also have more fat (oil or butter... it depends on the recipe), though not always double.

2. The way you mix them in the recipe is usually different too. Muffins are pretty simple: you mix the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking soda, etc. The stuff that's not wet. Duh.) in one bowl and the wet ingredients (eggs, oil, water, etc. The stuff that's not dry. Unless you've had one too many bong hits, this should also be common sense, but no judgment.) in another bowl. Then you stir them up together just until they're mixed. It's really simple and fast, actually. That's why they're awesome for breakfast- you can have them mixed in the time it takes to brew a pot of coffee.
Cupcakes have a more complicated mixing method that is used in most cake recipes too. First, you have to cream the butter and the sugar together, then you slowly add the eggs, then you add the dry ingredients. It takes an electric mixer, and its more time consuming. In fact, I've wrote two separate blogs on how to master this method. (Why Butter and Eggs are the Slash and Axl of Baking is my favorite one.) Not all cupcakes use this method... but unless they come out of a box, a lot of them will.

3. Cupcakes usually have frosting. And while I'm totally supportive of eating one at every meal, you won't usually see them at the breakfast table.

The thing about putting heavy stuff in a batter is that its easy for it to sink to the bottom, especially if there's a lot of it, like in your recipe. Some recipes just aren't good recipes. And unfortunately, except for yours truly, there's no bad recipe police squad. But when it comes to adding extras, like chocolate chips in cookies, or nuts in banana bread, or berries in muffins... you can always change that to what you like. That's not the case for super important measurements for baking soda and salt and things like that, but for the rest of it... feel free to make your own rules.
Next time when you add the blueberries to your muffins, toss them in flour before you stir them in. This should help keep them afloat in the batter while your muffins are baking. (The protein in the flour helps make a little safety net around the blueberry that keeps it from sinking.)
If you ever have crappy muffins that have sunk, like yours did, you don't have to throw them away. Break them up in little pieces and eat them on top of yogurt and fruit. Serve it for brunch, calling it a "yogurt and muffin parfait" and you'll be so gourmet. Oooh la la...

Fancy Pants Baby Shower Cupcakes

Dear Tricia, Oh pastry guru, can you answer a question for me?? I am making cupcakes for a friend's baby shower next weekend. I found these, which I like. (See above photo!) However, one part of the recipe says to make the flowers out of fondant and if you click print recipe it suggests using royal icing. What is the difference? I have heard scary things about fondant. I'd like the whole cupcake to be edible.

Have you ever heard my rant about fondant? If not, let me do you the honors. Here are the reasons why I hate decorating cakes with fondant:
1. Fondant tastes like tootsie rolls.... if you're lucky. I don't know that cake and tootsie rolls and cake are a stellar combination, but I'm up for a debate on that. If you're unlucky, it tastes like chalky play-dough without that magic childhood saltiness. (Again, please refer to my "How did Diana Ross' hair get into my eggs?" post)
2. It's expensive and you either have to go a cake decorating store to buy it, or make your own, which people rarely know how to do.
3. It's just sugar. Buttercream frosting has butter in it. And butter is awesome.
4. It makes things look like you don't want to eat them. And frankly, as much as I like to "eat with the eye first," I also like food that looks like food. I don't want to be scared of a cake.

So, with that aside, lets address your fondant vs. royal icing-on-the-baby-shower-cupcake-issue. While the cupcakes you intend to make are lovely, they look a little difficult. But I'm not doubting your capabilities, lets just find the easiest way to make this happen.
Royal icing isn't the greatest idea for a very delicate looking cupcake as the picture shows (I'm guessing the food stylist used fondant), but it's an easy way to get the basic gist of what the photo shows you.
Let me get my megaphone to explain something to everyone first.
*For anyone who doesn't know what royal icing is, here's an explanation! Remember the icing your mom made to decorate Christmas cookies? It was powdered sugar and water and egg whites? And remember how when it dried it became hard? That's what royal icing is! Everyone understand?? Good!*
Okay, megaphone down.
Funny how royal icing is called royal but its not like it has a British accent or anything.
So here's how you can make the petals with royal icing. Follow said recipe. Pick your color. And either in a piping bag, or a ziploc bag with the corner snipped off with a pair of scissors, pipe a tear drop shape that is the size of half the top of your cupcake onto a piece of wax paper or parchment paper. So if you're using a standard cupcake pan, pipe 1" tear drops. Next to that pipe another tear drop. Repeat. By the look of the photo, you're going to need about a dozen of these per cupcake. (I'm already exhausted just thinking about it.) For every cupcake you're also going to need to pipe a small circle for the center of the flower. (That's where the magic happens, according to my 9th grade biology teacher.) These are going to take a day to dry. When they're dry, gently peel them off the paper and put them upright in a circle on the cupcake frosting. Once a dozen of them are settled, put the royal icing center in the middle to complete the flower.
Using fondant is also an option, but that would involve you rolling it out, cutting tiny strips in very straight lines and quickly shaping them into teardrops before they harden. Again, totally do-able, but more time consuming than the royal icing and much more expensive.
At this point I'd go with the royal icing. But I'm also the person who tends to conveniently get "food poisoning" in order to skip baby showers, so that should tell you something.

The Cupcake Vomit Dilemma

Dear Tricia, When I bake cupcakes, why do some of them rise unevenly? It's like there's a big bubble that always explodes out of one side and it doesn't look pretty. Please help me.

It almost looks like the cupcakes threw up on themselves, doesn't it? Ugh... I hate cupcake throw up. Luckily, there are some tips to trouble shoot so that your next batch vomits much less.
First and foremost, are the cupcakes vomiting only on one side? If so, it's probably your oven heating unevenly. A lot of ovens have "hot spots" and just heat up more on one side than the other. Make sure you're turning the cupcake pan a couple of times while it's baking.
Another possible cause for the cupcake up-chuck is not mixing in your baking soda (or baking powder, or both, depending on what recipe you're using) completely. While I'm not a huge fan of sifting (or doing laundry, or rum, or Jennifer Love Hewitt), its very important to sift the baking soda and the flour together so that it gets evenly dispersed into the batter. Otherwise, its very possible that you're getting a big chunk of baking soda in one part of the batter and of course its going to explode out the top of that cupcake.
Make sure you are not filling the cupcake liners too full. If the batter is all the way to the top, it has nothing to hold on to as it rises, so its more likely to lean to one side. Leave about 1/2" of space at the top of the liner for the cupcake to rise. Like me, it needs a lot of personal space and room to grow. Be nice to your cupcake and respect its wishes.
Lastly, when you fill your cupcake liners with batter, try to keep the batter as even as possible. Don't just dump a bunch of batter in there with some of it going all the way up to the top of the cup and one half barely covering the bottom. While this is probably the least likely reason for your dilemma, its still a possibility. I'm a fan of using an ice cream scoop because its easy to measure out each cup evenly, and you get a perfectly round dome to work with.
Happy Cupcake-ing. For some awesome decorating ideas, check out Amy Sedaris' book "I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence," where she completely bypasses the cupcakes and decorates herself in frosting and sprinkles. Genius at its best. (Besides this blog.)