Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

hi i was hoping somebody could give me a few tips. i have been getting quite a few orders in for different cakes and cupcakes so to save last minute panic and mayhem i tend to bake the cakes or cupcakes off the day before which leaves me the whole day to just concentrate on the decoration and presentation. however i made cupcakes last week and saved one back to try and i found it was quite dry!! i put hours of effort into making them look pretty but there really isn’t much point if they are all dry what am i doing wrong? any tips would be greatly appreciated. i have read somewhere that adding a few drops of glycerine helps to make your cakes last a little longer does this mean it helps to keep them soft and moist too.?

Hi pistolaki, this is a problem that I used to have too even though I always followed my recipes faithfully my cupcakes, while tasting lovely, always seemed to me to be rather dry. Glycerine was mentioned to me and I did try a few drops but found that it made minimal difference to my cupcakes, though it works well with my big cakes. Then one day when I was caught by a visitor to my front door, my daughter, worried about my cupcakes over cooking ‘helpfully’ took them out the oven for me somewhat earlier than i would have done. When I returned to the kitchen I was horrified, I thought they were not cooked properly and had no colour at all! I thought they were ruined and would have to make another batch, however I unpeeled a couple of them from their cases and, much to my surprise, they were cooked perfectly, I’d describe them as only just done, but they were really moist and soft and soooo much better than my usual! Since then I’ve tinkered with my timings and now remove my cupcakes from the oven exactly 7 minutes less than my recipe time suggests to get lovely moist cupcakes every time! This is obviously only my experience, a happy accident with fabulous results! So my suggestion to you would be to try the same, reducing the baking time by, say, 5 minutes initially, and see how you go. There may be other ways to achieve the same results, but this is what has worked for me, and I’m very happy with my results, so maybe worth a try? Good luck.x

wow thank you ! what a lovely story 🙂 i will definitely try this out xx

Hi pistolaki

You can also use cupcake filling nozzles like this http://www.cakedecoration.co.uk/product.php?id_product=2450 or the bismark nozzle like this this http://www.cakeybake.co.uk/cakeybakeshop/prod_1574570-Wilton-230-Bismark-Piping-Filling-Nozzle.html to pipe flavours and filling into your cupcakes to keep them moist and tasty.
I’m not good with cupcakes and find these nozzles a God send.

oooh thanks madeitwithlove i’ll have a look at those.. i took your advice and brought those flavours you recommended to me they are really good 😀

You won’t be disappointed! Pleased you liked the flavours. x