00:00creating cupcakes. This is great if you're a beginner and you're just starting out making
00:04cupcakes or you're looking for some hints and tips. I really hope you'll enjoy this.
00:09So if you're totally new to making cupcakes, the first things that you're going to need
00:14is a cupcake tray or they're also called a muffin tray. And you'll also need some cupcake cases.
00:22Now these ones are made of paper and all the tray is going to do is just hold your cases
00:28so that they keep their shape. Now I always get a lot of questions about the cupcake cases
00:33that I use. They measure around five centimeters on the bottom, around four centimeters in height.
00:40And this is going to give you a cupcake of around seven centimeters across the top.
00:45Now you can also get foil lined ones, but I tend to just make sure that my cupcake cases
00:50are made of quite a thick paper. This means that you're going to keep the color on the outside.
00:56What I mean by this is if you've got some thinner ones, as you can see, these are more like
01:01greaseproof paper and are a bit more see-through. What will happen when you bake in these ones
01:07is you'll see the color of your cupcakes through it. So you just want to decide the type of look
01:13that you're going for. Now, as well as full-size cupcakes, you can also get mini cupcakes,
01:19which are great alongside full-size cupcakes. If you're making these, you want to do exactly
01:25the same. So just make sure you get a mini cupcake tray, which can hold your paper cases.
01:32So I'm going to start just by adding my cupcake cases into my tray. Now I'm going to be making
01:37these cupcakes as vanilla cupcakes and using my vanilla cupcake recipe. Now I will put the
01:43full recipe in the description below the video, along with some links to some other of my favorite
01:49cupcake recipes. Now, before I add my mixture into my cases, one thing that I wanted to mention
01:55is sometimes you can get quite oily bottoms to your cupcakes. This happens with some recipes
02:02and also if you're using quite thin cupcake cases. So if you are finding that this is happening to
02:08you, one thing that you can do to solve this is to use a little bit of uncooked rice. Just by
02:15sprinkling a few grains of rice at the bottom and placing your cupcake cases over the top.
02:21When your cupcakes are in the oven, the rice is going to soak up any excess oil.
02:26You then want to divide your mixture between all of your cases. Now your cupcake mixture will rise
02:32when you bake it. So you want to fill your cupcake cases around a third of the way up.
02:37So this is a heap tablespoon, or if you want to do them exactly, it's around 56 to 59 grams of
02:44mixture per case. Now, once all of your cupcake cases have been filled, you then want to bake
02:50these in your oven. Now, I will use just a normal oven setting at 180 degrees Celsius for around
02:5723 to 25 minutes until they're cooked all the way through. And with the vanilla ones, we have a nice
03:03golden color on the top. I get a lot of questions about using a fan oven. I tend to use a normal
03:10oven setting just because with a fan oven, it tends to bake the outside of your cakes or your
03:16cupcakes a lot quicker than the inside. So you can end up with a bit of a harder shell on the
03:23top of your cupcake, or what can happen is it can start to bake the outer edge. And as your cupcake
03:29rises, it can burst through the top, giving you kind of like a volcano looking top to your cupcake.
03:36Now, if you only have a fan oven setting, all you want to do is just reduce the temperature to stop
03:42that outer shell baking so quickly. And you may need to bake your cupcakes for a few minutes longer.
03:47Once your cupcakes are baked, I've just taken them out of the oven and just placed my tray
03:52on my wire rack. To check that my cupcakes are baked all the way through, I'm going to use a
03:57cocktail stick and just push that into the center. If that comes out clean, then you know that they're
04:02baked all the way through. So I'm just going to leave my cupcakes in my cupcake tray just until
04:08they've cooled down enough that I can lift them out. I'm then going to leave them on my cooling
04:13rack until they have completely cooled. Now, in baking cupcakes, one thing that some people do
04:19have a problem with is their cupcake cases peeling away from the sides of their cupcakes. Now, there
04:27are a few reasons why this would happen. The first one is your cupcakes may be slightly underbaked.
04:34Another reason may just be the cupcake cases themselves. So if you're finding this happening
04:39a lot, maybe try a different brand of cupcake case. Now, one of the most common reasons for
04:44this to happen is actually the way that you store the cupcakes. So maybe you're using a metal cake
04:51tin or a plastic tub with a plastic lid. Firstly, if you place the cupcakes into the cake tin before
04:58they have completely cooled, you may see condensation appear on the lid of your tub or
05:04your cake tin. Now, even if your cupcakes have been left to completely cool before you've added
05:10them into your tin, because you've added the lid on and you're stopping any air circulating,
05:15it can warm up inside your tin and create moisture. And it's this moisture that allows
05:21those paper cases just to peel away from your cupcakes. So if you're not quite ready to decorate
05:27your cakes straight away, once they have cooled down, just pop them into a cardboard cake box and
05:32make sure you've pulled the lid all the way down. This will allow air to circulate around and stop
05:37those cupcake cases peeling off. Now, obviously this cupcake box only holds four cupcakes,
05:43but you can get larger ones to hold. For this, you're going to need some piping bags. These
05:47ones are just disposable piping bags, but you can also get reusable ones. And I've also got
05:53some piping tips. Now, piping tips come in so many different sizes and shapes, it can be hard to know
06:00which piping tips you need for cupcakes. If we have a look at these closely, the really smaller
06:06ones are not going to give you much buttercream out of that end nozzle. So for cupcakes, you want
06:12to be using larger piping tips. So these ones measure around a centimeter and a half to two
06:18centimeters on the end. Now, probably the question that I get asked the most often is which piping
06:25tips should you get if you're starting to pipe cupcakes? And my answer to this is the 1M and
06:33the 2D. Now, when you look at piping tips, they tend to have a number and a letter or just numbers
06:39on the front. And this is a universal reference to the shape of the piping tip. So this one,
06:46for example, is a Wilton 1M. But if I was to get a 1M from a different brand, it would usually be
06:52exactly the same size and shape. So here I've got the 1M, and this is an open star tip. So the
06:59points come straight up. I've then got a 2D, and this is a closed star tip. So it's the same kind
07:06of shape, but the points at the top are just folded over. One thing to mention with the 2D piping tip
07:13is where all the points come over, you want to have a small gap in the center. Now, sometimes
07:19when you wash this piping tip, it can get a bit squished and you lose that gap, which means when
07:25you go to pipe the cupcakes, you'll see a gap in your swirl. So all you want to do if they have
07:31is just go in with a knife and just tease those back. Now, the reason I love these two piping tips
07:37if you are starting out piping cupcakes is there is so many different options to what you can do
07:43with these piping tips. You can create a classic buttercream swirl or a classic rosette swirl.
07:50You can then change it up and create so many different effects. Now, I do have another video
07:55tutorial where I compare these two piping tips and show you eight different effects you can create
08:01just with these. So I will put a link to this in the description below. Once you've perfected
08:07the buttercream swirl and the rosette swirl, you can then start using some other piping nozzles.
08:13One bit of advice that I would say is don't go out and buy hundreds of piping tips. Just start
08:17with a few and just have a look around and work out the different styles you like and build up
08:24your collection that way. So the next thing to do is add our piping tip into our piping bag.
08:30So you just want to take a look at the piping tip, hold it on the end. Coming up around halfway,
08:36cut into my piping bag, slot your piping nozzle in, pulling it right to the end and making sure
08:41that it's nice and secure on the end of your bag. That's then ready for you to add your buttercream.
08:48Now, one thing that I did want to mention are couplers. Now, these are great if you're using
08:53one color buttercream, but you want to use multiple piping tips. This really saves you using loads of
08:59different piping bags. And these are just two different style ones. You want to get different
09:03size ones of a different size piping tips. So this one is a larger one. If I unscrew that,
09:09it comes in two halves and this one just fits larger piping tips. And the Wilton one, you can
09:17add on slightly smaller ones. So in order to fit these into a piping bag, you want to do the same
09:24thing. Snip off the end. You want to make sure that your bag is coming over the section with
09:30the grooves on there. You can then add your piping tip to the outside of your bag while
09:36screwing on the second part. That's then nice and secure for you to add your buttercream into the
09:42end. When you want to replace the piping nozzle, all you then do is just twist off the end,
09:47remove the piping tip you no longer want to use and just replace another one. So these are really
09:53great if you are using the same color buttercream and you want to save the amount of piping bags
09:58that you're using. I've then got some American buttercream, which I've colored in this pink
10:04color to match my cupcake cases. And I will put a link in the description below to my buttercream
10:11recipe. Now, I always use just a tall glass to hold my piping bag. And this just allows me to
10:18fill the piping bag without having to try and hold it with one hand. You then want to take that off
10:24and just hold in the end. I'm going to twist that round whilst pushing that buttercream
10:30to the end of my piping bag. Now, I'm right-handed, but you can do this in your left hand.
10:36You want to twist the end of the bag just to make sure it's nice and secure. And I hold this between
10:40my first finger and my thumb. This is where I'm going to apply pressure to the end of my bag.
10:46You can then either use this hand to guide it round or just lightly hold it with the other hand,
10:51just bringing it round the top of your cupcake. Now, I'm going to go through how to do a normal
10:56swirl and also how to do a rosette swirl. For the normal swirl, using the 1M piping tip,
11:02hold the piping bag just slightly above your cupcake, applying pressure and just working it
11:07round the outside of that cupcake case. Once we've done one rotation, bring your piping bag
11:13in slightly and do another rotation around just on the edge of the previous layer. I'm going to
11:19come to the end and do exactly the same, just bring it up. So we're creating this pyramid of
11:24buttercream. Once I've got that nice buttercream swirl, I'm going to stop applying pressure before
11:29I pull the piping bag away to give me a lovely point on the top. Now, one thing to think about
11:34is the speed that you pipe your cupcakes will actually affect the outcome of how they'll look.
11:39If you do your buttercream swirl quite fast, you'll get quite smooth, straight lines. But the slower
11:44you go, the more buttercream comes out of your piping bag, which gives you a slightly ruffled
11:50effect. You can see examples of this in the video where I show you the comparisons between the 1M
11:57and the 2D. Now, in comparison to the classic buttercream swirl, we've got the rosette swirl.
12:04Now, instead of starting on the outside of your cupcake, we're actually going to start in the
12:10center. So we're going to apply pressure to allow some of that buttercream to come out and connect
12:14with the top of our cupcake. I'm then going to wrap my piping bag around, just creating a little
12:19circle in the middle before continuing to wrap it around the outside of the previous curve until I
12:24get all the way to the edge. Once I reach the edge, I'm going to stop applying pressure and
12:29just pull my piping bag off to the side just to finish off that rosette. Now, where I use the 1M
12:35piping tip for the classic buttercream swirl, I've popped my 2D piping tip into my piping bag
12:41for the rosette. Now, if you find that your buttercream gets quite soft quite quickly where
12:46you're holding your piping bag, my advice is to put a smaller amount of buttercream in your piping
12:51bag and just refill it as and when you need. This is going to stop the heat of your hand warming up
12:57that buttercream as you pipe your cupcakes. You can then finish off your cupcakes with some
13:02sprinkles or some decoration of your choice. Once I've piped my cupcakes, if they're not going to
13:07be eaten straight away or I need to transport them, then I do like to pop them back into the
13:12cardboard cupcake boxes. If it's quite cool where you are, you can then either leave them out,
13:16or if it's quite hot, you can pop the cupcakes into the fridge. If you do have any fondant
13:21decorations on your cupcakes, the change in temperature can make the fondant go slightly
13:26shiny once you take them out due to the change of the fridge temperature to the room temperature.
13:32So just leave these to one side and this will dry up. Another thing you want to remember is to always
13:38take them out of the fridge around half an hour before you want to eat them so that that sponge
13:42can get back to room temperature so it will be nice and soft and fluffy. So here we have the
13:48finished piped cupcakes. I really hope you've enjoyed this video tutorial.
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