So I keep seeing this “trick”, where people suggest putting rice in the bottom of their cupcake tins, between the liner and the tin itself. This will apparently soak up the oil, or does it???
Why are your cupcake liners wet?
Are they oily, or is it moisture (ie. water)?
Is it OK for cupcake linersto be oily?
It’s the technique you’ve used, or the recipe that’s the issue. Your cupcakes shouldn’t be oily at all. If it’s moisture then you want your cupcakes moist, don’t draw the moisture out of your cupcake into rice that you’re going to chuck out. Most cupcakes are at their best, on the same day they’re baked, so removing any moisture isn’t a great idea.
Moist yes, oily no. The outside of your paper liners should have some signs of moistness, or your cupcakes will only be good to eat while they’re still warm from the oven, or very nearly straight after. Does that make sense?
You need some fat, or your cupcakes will be dry and go stale very quickly. Although there are ways to keep the oil in the recipe and not have it leach out.
Its all in the method
The most common reason for oil to leach out of cupcakes is an issue with the method. Interestingly, it’s often the Thermomix owners that have this issue because they’ve processed the mix incorrectly. It’s all about how we handle the butter. We can’t make cake in the Thermomix the same way we would in a stand mixer.
In fact, we’ve developed a course for making a cake in the Thermomix for this very reason. Changing a method to cater for different equipment, is something thatwe go over at length in Bake Club as well.
So, if your cupcakes are oily then don’t blame yourself, it may be the method that’s not quite right. Don’t “over process” the butter so that it’s too soft and it leaches out on baking.
..and it can be the weights and measures
Of course, another reason may be that your recipe simply has too much fat (this includes butter). The recipe might be off, a lot of people don’t realise how measurements work. I think there would be probably only two out of ten people that start Bake Club with me that understand the difference between our measurements in Australia and anywhere else in the world.Here’s a free handy guide you can download.
For example, in America, they have different sized cups and tablespoon measures than us. And I’d say only 5 out of 10 people know that a cup of oil weighs differently than a cup of flour. I always use the analogy of how much does a cup of lead weigh, compared to a cup of feathers. The same volume, but totally different weight.
Learn the techniques
People wonder why specific recipes don’t work for them. I see so many recipe reviews where ten people say it’s brilliant then you get one that says it doesn’t work and complains. Always makes me smile. Yes, things can go wrong but if you learn the techniques and understand a bit about what is going on you won’t have many bad bakes.
Want to know more?
Want to learn how to make perfect butter cakes? We have two online courses, one for a stand mixer, and one for the Thermomix. Making perfect butter cakes unlocks a range of cake baking possibilities.
