Cupcake Troubleshooting

Hello friends! Today I bring you this comprehensive Cupcake Troubleshooting Guide! We are going to go over 10 issues, how to identify, and fix them! So you can make perfect cupcakes everytime!

Let’s get right to our Cupcake Troubleshooting Guide!

1. Why are my cupcakes dry?

What causes cupcakes to be dry? This is one of the most asked questions out there and we will cover it here on the Cupcake Troubleshooting!

Baking your cupcakes too long is a sure way to make them dry. And while you are checking the baking time, also check the oven temperature, if the temperature is too high, it’s going to make it easier for the cupcakes to over bake as well.

Not measuring the ingredients accurately will also make for dry cupcakes. Too much flour will absorb all the moisture, making for a dense and dry crumb.

Also, under whipping the butter may cause your cupcakes to be dry and dense. You want to whip the butter to the point where it’s fluffy and airy, the air in the butter will provide lift, and fluffiness to the final product.

And lastly, over mixing the dry ingredients will cause a dry and tough crumb. That’s because once you add flour to the wet ingredients and begin to stir, it will develop gluten. The more you mix, the stronger and longer those gluten strands become, which will make for a tougher crumb later on.

How to fix dry cupcakes:

• Bake the cupcakes just until they are done. When you touch a cupcake gently, it should spring right back, or a toothpick inserted into the cupcake should come out clean.
• Make sure to have an oven thermometer in place. Most home ovens are not accurate at keeping it at the temperature you set it to. (You can read all about the importance of having an oven thermometer here. It’s a post about macarons, but I explain in detail how ovens work and this applies to all baked goods).
• Use a scale to weigh the ingredients, always! To make sure you aren’t over measuring the flour or other ingredients.
• Whip the butter until fluffy, for about 2 to 3 minutes, to ensure enough air is incorporated into the batter to make fluffy cupcakes.
• Substitute some of the butter for oil. Oil makes for more moist baked goods, but it’s not always the best call for every recipe, so it’s a matter of experimenting.
• Stop mixing the dry ingredients as soon as you see no more streaks of flour. Sifting the dry ingredients before hand will minimize mixing time, which will then minimize the gluten development.

2. Why did my cupcakes explode?

Exploding cupcakes can happen due to a few factors.

Hot oven temperature is one of them. Since the outside of the cupcakes will bake faster than the inside, the batter on the inside will start to rise after the outside has already formed a skin, causing this characteristic explosion to happen.

Too much leavening agents will cause over flowing batter (as we will see below), and also can be responsible for volcano cupcakes.

How to fix exploding cupcakes:

• Make sure to have an oven thermometer in place. Most home ovens are not accurate at keeping it at the temperature you set it to. (You can read all about the importance of having an oven thermometer here. It’s a post about macarons, but I explain in detail how ovens work and this applies to all baked goods).
• Use the proper amount of leavening agent as indicated by the recipe, and be careful with substitutions and interchanging baking soda with baking powder, as the proportions will be different if you do so. That is, if it’s even recommended to replace one for the other in the first place, which will depend a lot on the other ingredients in the recipe. Sally’s Baking Addiction has a wonderful article on leavening agents.

3. Why are my cupcakes dense?

Dense cupcakes happen for almost the same reasons as the dry cupcakes.

Adding too much flour and dry ingredients will absorb the moisture in the batter, resulting in a dry crumb.

Not whipping the butter enough may cause your cupcakes to be dry and dense. You want to whip the butter to the point where it’s fluffy and airy, the air in the butter will provide lift, and fluffiness to the final product.

Not using enough leavening agents, so this way the batter won’t have the necessary lift, or using expired/old baking soda and baking powder.

Using too little sugar, or liquid ingredients. If you are someone who likes to reduce the sugar in your baked goods, think twice, sugar isn’t there just for sweetness, it also helps with the structure of cakes, cookies, and cupcakes!

Over mixing the dry ingredients will cause a dry and tough crumb. That’s because once you add flour to the wet ingredients and begin to stir, it will develop gluten. The more you mix, the stronger and longer those gluten strands become, which will make for a tougher crumb later on.

Dense cupcake troubleshooting:

• Use a scale to weigh the ingredients, always! To make sure you aren’t over measuring the flour or other ingredients.
• Whip the butter until fluffy, for about 2 to 3 minutes, to ensure enough air is incorporated into the batter to make fluffy cupcakes.
• Think twice before altering a recipe and reducing the amount of sugar. Sugar is very important to the structure of the baked goods.
• Make sure the baking soda and baking powder are fresh. How to fix: check if the baking powder or baking soda you are using are fresh. Add 1/2 tsp of baking powder to 1/4 cup of warm water and mix. If the mixture fizzes and bubbles, you are good to go. If not, toss it. And for the baking soda, add 1/2 tsp of baking soda to 1/4 cup of white vinegar. The mixture should also cause a reaction and fizz. If nothing happens, toss it.
• Stop mixing the dry ingredients as soon as you see no more streaks of flour. Sifting the dry ingredients before hand will minimize mixing time, which will then minimize the gluten development.
• Use cake flour if you are having too much issues with dense cupcakes and cakes. Cake flour has a lower gluten content (7.5 to 9%, compared to 8 to 11% from all-purpose) and will help with the texture of the final results.

Bonus cupcake troubleshooting question: Why do my cupcakes have holes? Sometimes the cupcakes will also look like they have holes in them like the picture below. In this case, troubleshoot the same way you would dense cupcakes like I’ve explained above. Because that’s exactly what the holes mean: dense cupcakes.

4. Why did the chocolate chips/ berries sink to the bottom of the cupcakes?

Well, this happens because chocolate chips and berries are heavy, so they sink.

I have a recipe for Lindt Truffle Cupcakes, and when I first posted the recipe I recommended inserting the truffles in the cupcake before baking. However, I realized this caused most of the cupcakes to have a sunken truffle all the way on the bottom.

The solution was to insert the truffle in the cupcake midway through baking. This can be a tricky technique, since you have to open the oven door for a few moments while you place the truffles in the cupcakes, and that, combining with the added weight of the truffles can cause the middles of the cupcakes to be slightly sunken.

So I am not going to recommend adding chocolate chips and berries to the cupcakes in the middle of the baking process. It works for the truffles, but wouldn’t work for chips and berries.

My recommendation is to instead of mixing the berries/chocolate with the batter, do the following:

Place a spoonful of batter on the bottom of the cupcake tin. Sprinkle a few berries/chocolate on top. Then drop another spoonful of batter, more berries/chocolate on top. And then gently swirl the batter.

Also, I don’t waste time anymore coating the berries or chocolate in flour, since it doesn’t seem to help the case, and also adds more flour to the batter, which means adding more dry ingredients, causing the batter to be dry. However, I will say this, if the batter is particularly liquidy, go ahead and coat the berries in flour in addition to layering them between two spoonfuls of batter.

5. Why are my cupcakes sticky?

Let’s do some sticky cupcake troubleshooting!

Cupcakes can get sticky on top due to the reaction of the sugar with the air. Sugar is hygroscopic, which means it attracts water. So, if the air is particularly humid, the sugar on the top of the cupcakes will attract water particles from the air, making the cupcakes wet, or sticky.

Which also means that storing cupcakes while they are still warm may result in sticky tops.

Another reason why cupcakes have a sticky top could be due to over measuring the sugar, or because of the use of brown sugar. Brown sugar is more hygroscopic than white sugar, so if you combine that with a humid climate, or with storing the cupcakes while they are still warm, it’s a formula for sticky tops.

Under baked cupcakes may also get sticky.

How to avoid or fix sticky cupcake tops:

• Let the cupcakes cool down completely before storing.
• Place the cupcakes in the fridge to dry.
• Use a scale to weigh the ingredients, specially the sugar.
• If you are in a humid climate and encountering issues with sticky cupcakes, sub the brown sugar for white.
• Bake the cupcakes until fully done, when you touch a cupcake gently, it should spring right back, or a toothpick inserted into the cupcake should come out clean.

6. Why are my cupcake wrappers peeling away?

If the cupcake wrappers are peeling away, that could mean a few things.

First, it could just be the brand of paper you are using. Experiment with different brands to find a great one that isn’t made out of greasy paper.

Secondly, excess moisture could be the culprit. Too much moisture will make the cupcake liners peel away as well.

How to stop cupcake liners from peeling away:

• Look for a high quality cupcake wrapper brand. I always love Wilton cupcake wrappers! They’ve never failed me.
• Make sure the cupcakes cool down before storing them.
• Use a scale to weigh the ingredients and follow the recipe correctly, to ensure you aren’t adding too much liquid or moisture to the batter.

7. Why did my cupcakes overflow?

The answer to this question sounds pretty simple, right? Probably because of filling the pans too much!

Well, probably! But maybe there might be a couple more other reasons. Besides the fact that the pan may have been overfilled, perhaps you have used too much leavening agent.

Or you have tried to change a recipe, and have added ingredients that reacted with the leavening agents in the batter, for example, if you’ve added any acidic liquid such as lemon juice, or vinegar.

And lastly, over beating the butter, or over mixing the eggs, may cause too much air to be added to the batter, which can cause it to rise a lot in the beginning portion of the baking process, making it spill out of the pan.

How to fix overflowing cupcake batter:

• Fill the cupcake tins up to 2/3 of the way full, unless the recipe specifies something else, such as this Chocolate Cupcakes recipe, which requires the tins to be filled up to halfway.
• Use the proper amount of leavening agent as the recipe calls for.
• Avoid adding lemon juice or vinegar to a batter unless the recipe is indicating.
• Don’t over beat the butter, or the eggs. Cream the butter for 2 to 3 minutes only, and the eggs only until incorporated.

8. Why do my cupcakes have pointy tops?

If your cupcakes have pointy tops, here are some of the reasons why.

Reason number one and most likely: the oven temperature was too high! It will cause the cupcakes to rise rapidly forming weird shapes.

Second reason could be overfilling the cupcake pan. On the picture example above, I overfilled the cupcake pan, and it’s a recipe that uses only baking powder, and no baking soda. So it caused the cupcakes to expand upward in the middle, but they didn’t expand to the sides, as you would expect from overfilling the cupcake pan, and I believe it was the lack of baking soda that caused it to happen this way.

Lastly, over beating the butter and eggs may also cause the tops to form peaks like this, since too much air has been incorporated into the batter, making the cupcakes expand as they bake.

How to fix cupcakes with pointy tops:

• Make sure to have an oven thermometer in place. Most home ovens are not accurate at keeping it at the temperature you set it to. (You can read all about the importance of having an oven thermometer here. It’s a post about macarons, but I explain in detail how ovens work and this applies to all baked goods).
• Fill the cupcake tins up to 2/3 of the way full, unless the recipe specifies something else, such as this Chocolate Cupcakes recipe, which requires the tins to be filled up to halfway.
• Don’t over beat the butter, or the eggs. Cream the butter for 2 to 3 minutes only, and the eggs only until incorporated.

9. Why are my cupcakes flat?

Flat cupcakes are kind of sad, but it’s not the end of the world. They can be beautiful once you frost them. But if you really want to know, here are some ways to fix flat cupcakes.

Flat cupcakes can happen for a few reasons. Expired or old leavening agents such as baking soda or baking powder can cause cupcakes to deflate, since the necessary chemical reactions to make the batter rise won’t be able to take place.

Opening the oven door too early may cause cupcakes to fall flat, since heat will scape, and cold air will go in the oven, causing the cupcakes to either deflate or not be able to rise at all.

The same way that low oven temperature will result in flat cupcakes, since they won’t have the necessary heat in order to rise beautifully.

Adding too much oil may cause cupcakes to deflate as well. As well as adding too much sugar, because both of those ingredients will weaken the structure of the cupcakes to the point of making them collapse.

How to fix flat cupcakes:

• Make sure the leavening agents you are using are fresh. How to fix: check if the baking powder or baking soda you are using are fresh. Add 1/2 tsp of baking powder to 1/4 cup of warm water and mix. If the mixture fizzes and bubbles, you are good to go. If not, toss it. And for the baking soda, add 1/2 tsp of baking soda to 1/4 cup of white vinegar. The mixture should also cause a reaction and fizz. If nothing happens, toss it.
• Don’t open the oven door in the first 10 to 12 minutes of the baking process.
• Have an oven thermometer in place, to ensure your oven is accurately set, and the cupcakes have enough heat.
• Follow the recipe, and use a scale to measure the ingredients to ensure you aren’t adding too much sugar or oil. When you scoop a cup of sugar it might not be an actual 200 grams in there, which is why it’s important to use a scale.

10. Why did my cupcakes sink?

There are many reasons why cupcakes may sink in the middle. Which is why I made a special post to cover this topic separate from this cupcake troubleshooting guide, so I could go into detail in my explanations.

Visit this page to find out why cupcakes sink and how to fix it.

I hope you enjoyed today’s Cupcake Troubleshooting Guide. Let me know if you have any more questions by leaving a comment below!

For more cupcake recipes, please click here.

Also, check out my book Fantastic Filled Cupcakes!🧁

Thanks for reading my Cupcake Troubleshooting Guide!