Baking – ideal temperature for baking cupcakes

bakingcakecupcakes

I baked two batches of cupcakes at 180˚C but both collapsed in the middle. I guessed I must have used a little extra baking soda in the first batch so I used lesser amount of baking soda and baking powder in the second batch. The cakes rose nicely for first few minutes (I watched through the glass door of the oven without opening it) and then collapsed in the middle finally resulting in hard on the outside, sticky in the inside mess.

Recipe: Adapted from an eggless cake recipe.

  • Ingredients: 1 cup butter; 1 cup granulated sugar; 1 cup flour; ¼ cup milk; ½ teaspoon vanilla essence; 2 teaspoons cocoa; ¼ teaspoon baking powder; ½ teaspoon baking soda.
  • Process: I cream the butter and sugar together and then add milk and vanilla essence. I then mix dry ingredients and fold them lightly in the batter. Then bake them in cupcake moulds at 180˚C (356°F).

Best Answer

I would say that the eggless recipe is at fault here. It is not a recipe which replaces the eggs somehow, it is a recipe which simply leaves out the eggs. The symptoms are very typical for that case: there is no binder in the recipe, so all the gas created by the baking powder (that first rise you observe) just goes into the atmosphere, leaving you with warm pudding (the sticky mess you observed).

So, if you want a classic cake texture, use a standard recipe with eggs. If you absolutely can have no eggs at all, try a recipe that uses a commercial egg replacer. In the worst case, use some of the homemade replacers, but the texture won't be as nice. As for just leaving out all eggs, there are cakes which do it, but you have to get accustomed to liking the end result.

As the solution here is to choose a different recipe, just use the temperature suggested by your new recipe.