Tips For The Perfect Wedding Cupcakes

When we were talking about wedding cupcakes versus a wedding cake, there were a lot of opinions, but one that rang loudest was Erica M., who said she was making cupcakes for her boyfriend's mother's wedding.

The wedding came ... and so did her gorgeous cupcakes.

These look professional. From the touch of the embellished cupcake liners to the perfection of the icing on top, these are absolutely perfect and wedding worthy.

For me, a piping bag and tips don't make gorgeous icing. They make an uneven mess on top of a cupcake. I start steady and then I lose it at the top. So these would be out of the question. And baking eight dozen like Erica did, wow.

I asked Erica (who does this as a hobby for family and friends, not professionally if you can believe that) if she could share a few tips. I thought it was asking for a lot and definitely didn't want to put her out, but she happily obliged and typed up a list of tips that would definitely help everyone. So if cupcakes are your passion, you're gonna wanna print these tips out. Seriously. They're amazing and helpful and I want to publicly thank Erica from the bottom of my heart for taking the time to type them and share them with us.

Tips For The Perfect Wedding Cupcakes

Take it away Erica ...

Here's a few tips/rules to live by when making cupcakes: 

1. Make sure everything is at room temp unless it says otherwise, everything combines easier. (There's also some sciency reasons why but I wont get into that right now lol.) 

2. For cupcakes that are uniform in height, use a #20 ice cream scoop for standard size cupcakes. One scoop will fill the liner to the correct amount and takes the guesswork out of measuring batter for each one. (You can find a picture online of these scoops if you want, its just an ice cream scoop with a yellow handle).

3. Avoid over-mixing the batter! So many people do this and wind up with hard or brownie like cupcakes. The key to light fluffy cupcakes is to create small air bubbles in the batter by mixing them lightly. I always hand mix my batter with a spatula towards the end, a stand mixer can easily over-mix it.

4. Don't open the oven every 5 minutes to check on them!!! lol. Doing this lets out more heat than most realize and can make the cupcakes (or anything for that matter) not rise properly and you may wind up with a lopsided cupcake. Not a pretty picture huh?

5. Always have a good attitude when baking and take pride in your work! If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right!

6. Always always always level out dry ingredients with the back of a butter knife. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've eaten a cookie or cupcake that has way too much flour or baking soda/powder in it. It doesn't taste good!

7. Quality ingredients = quality product

8. Preheat your oven before you start mixing and measuring everything. A preheated oven should be at temperature for at least 20 minutes to ensure proper baking.

9. When frosting a cupcake using a pastry bag, do a couple of test swirls first! It'll help get your technique right and it gets those first few big air bubbles out. I find that holding my bag at a 45 degree angle gets me the best swirl when using a star tip.

10. The last and most important tip: Have fun doing it!! Baking is an enjoyable experience and can be done by anyone at any skill level! Don't worry about making a mess, it's part of cooking and can be cleaned up later. Relax, enjoy the smell of fresh cupcakes, taste the frosting, and be happy!

I love her tips almost as much as I love her wedding cupcakes. I'm going to print these myself and tape them to the inside of my recipe book. My fave tip was the one that the oven should be at temperature for 20 minutes before baking. I had absolutely no idea about that (and truth be told, I used to never pre-heat the oven -- shh).

Now that I told you which tip was my fave, I want to know yours.

BRIDAL BABBLE: What wedding cupcake tip did you find most helpful?