FROM 18TH SEPTEMBER – 24THSEPTEMBER IT IS NATIONAL CUPCAKE WEEK. BUT OF COURSE AT THE HUMMINGBIRD BAKERY, WE LIVE EVERY WEEK LIKE IT’S CUPCAKE WEEK!

Here are our ten tips from The Hummingbird Bakery for how to bake the perfect cupcake every time:

1. Cube your butter and let it come to room temperature along with any eggs you’ll be using. Sift your icing sugar to remove lumps.
2. Always use full-fat ingredients. Cupcakes are a treat, so there’s no reason to skimp. The taste and texture of your cupcakes will be improved by the higher fat content of whole milk, real butter and full-fat cream cheese (we promise!).
3. Choose the best quality ingredients, flavourings, chocolate, essences and extracts that you can afford. Cupcake recipes don’t often have many flavours competing in any given mouthful, so a poor quality ingredient will have nowhere to hide. Good quality ingredients, on the other hand, will give you a better tasting cupcake.
4. Preheat your oven using an oven thermometer to check the temperature. Many ovens operate at inaccurate temperatures which can lead to a whole host of sponge issues from dry, cracked and burnt to sunken, under-baked and soggy.
5. If baking Red Velvet or colourful sponges like a Rainbow Cake, use gel food colouring such as those made by brands like Wilton and Sugarflair. Add with a toothpick to your cake mixture and mix in well with a silicone-tipped spatula until you reach the desired depth of colour.
6. Beat buttercream frosting for more than five minutes in an electric stand mixer or using an electric hand mixer. The more you whip buttercream frosting, the fluffier it will become.
7. Don’t beat cream cheese frosting in an electric mixer for more than five minutes; this could cause it to split or go runny. You really only want to combine it until smooth and free from icing sugar lumps.
8. For a professional look, use a food portioner to scoop out batter and frostings. This will give you enviably uniform sponges with even amounts of frosting on each one.
9. Muffin cases will give you generous American-sized cupcakes, so always use these rather than the daintier fairy cake cases. If you’re trying out other tins or cases, always fill no more than two-thirds full with mixture to leave rising room.
10. Use a metal skewer to check the centre of the cupcakes are cooked. If it comes out cleanly and no batter residue is left on the skewer, the cupcakes are done. You can also check by pressing lightly on the sponges and they should bounce back to the touch.

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New cookbook edition out soon! 

Our bestselling cookbooks have been sold across the globe and helped bakers like you turn out incredible home-baked goodies.

With a million copies sold worldwide, pre-order The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook revised and expanded edition with new recipes out 5th October 2017 from Amazon UK here.