Cupcake crush

Cupcakes have become mainstream, as they are served everywhere from birthday parties to corporate events. Baking  is an art, a science  and it also  means finding comfort in the family's best kept secret recipes. All you need is a right technique. Here are some tricks  to making some fantastic cupcakes:

* Pans: Standard baking tray cups measure 2-inch in diameter and are used for regular-sized cupcakes. Mini-baking cups are 1 inch in diameter, while the jumbo ones are 3 ½ inches. You can get some adorable cupcake wrappers, which can be placed in the baking pan before you pour the batter.

* Ingredients: Cupcakes are miniature versions of your favourite cakes. Choose the ingredients depending on the texture you want for your cupcakes. Keep the scaling of ingredients in mind to fit small batches of six or 12 pieces. Quality ingredients are the key to great cupcakes. For example, in case of chocolate cupcakes, make sure you choose a good quality Dutch cocoa and some Belgian chocolate chips.

* Mixing: Techniques like creaming, folding, foaming etc are crucial to baking. Mixing of the batter determines the texture of the cupcakes. If you are looking for soft and fluffy cupcakes, cream the butter and sugar until they are light and fluffy.

* Portioning: If all the cupcake liners are filled with the same quantity of batter, the cupcakes will be baked evenly. Use an ice-cream scoop to portion the batter.

* Filling: You could add caramel squares to the middle of the batter, nuts or chocolate chips as filled centres before baking. You can even fill the centres with yummy sauces like lemon curd, caramel once the cupcakes are baked.

* Frosting: Icing is the best way to dress up your cupcakes. Ensure that the cupcakes are completely cool before frosting them. Try frostings like American buttercream, Swiss meringue buttercream, whipped cream and ganache.

* Decorating: You can garnish you cupcakes with sprinkles, fresh fruit, chocolate chips, candy or chopped nuts. You can even drizzle some chocolate sauce, top it with cherries or dip it in caramel or Nutella.

(The author owns Indulge Cupcakes)