Oreo cupcakes rose really high, sank and formed a crust :-s (1 Viewer)

[Violet786]

I followed the recipe as follows:

1. Creamed together 1 cup butter and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy
2. Sifter 1 cup of self raising flower, removed 1 tablespoon flour and added 1.5 tablespoon corn flour, sifted 2 tablespoons cocoa powder and 1 teaspoon baking powder
3. Add 2 beaten eggs slowly into the mixture, and then added the flour once eggs were combined.
4. I continued beating the mixture on low speed and 1 tablespoon milk to achieve dropping consistency.

I put it in the oven at gas mark 4 and saw that at first my cupcakes were rising, and then they sank, and when I took them out the oven they had a hard crust formed on top of them - I can't seem to understand why!

I have a fan oven which i switched on as I started beating the butter and sugar together.

Suggestions would be appreciated!

 

[Angie]

Firstly welcome to the site.

From the info you have given I can offer you the following advice:-

It is imperative that your oven has been pre-heated to the required temperature, however; yours should have heated up to the required temp if you put in on when you were creaming your butter and sugar together. Mine bleeps when it hits the right temp.

Cupcakes rising really quickly can be caused by either the temperature of the oven being set too high or perhaps because too much raising agents such as baking powder or bicarbonate of soda have been added to your batter/mix. Tip - Turn the temperature down by about 10-15°C, as you can always cook cakes for longer on a lower temperature and check to ensure you are adding the correct amount of agent (measuring spoons would help with this).

If the cakes have dipped or sank this may have been caused by possibly one of two reasons. One being that you have opened the oven door too soon whilst baking or two perhaps the cake has not had chance to cook for long enough. Tip - Do not open the oven door, however, if you need to; leave it as long as possible and preferably until the mix resembles some form of cake before opening the door.

I'm wondering if your cakes are baking really fast on the outside (forming a crust) and then not being cooked enough in the middle. Did you skewer the cakes when you baked them for approx length of time to test the centres to see if they were done? Too much sugar can also be a factor in crust forming. Cupcakes usually take about 18-20 mins to do.

I'm also wondering if you have enough eggs in the mix to bind the ingredients together and if you used eggs at room temperature.

Gas mark 4 is about 180°C and although cupcakes are usually done at a higher temperature to bake, I find that baking mine on 170°C gives my cakes more of an even rise.

For cupcakes I tend to use 150g Marg/150g Sugar/150g Flour and 3 eggs. If you remove 20g flour then 20g of cocoa can be added in its place to make chocolate ones and then you could crush up some oreos and add in if you like.