Cooking For Engineers

[healthy]

Why do cupcakes usually sink as they cool, and can anything be done by the "average" cook to prevent it from happening?

[Guest]

I'm not quite sure how this website works, but I was hoping someone might be able to confirm...do cupcakes sink because the air trapped inside the batter expanded in the oven, and when they cool, they shrink? Is there anything that can be done to enhance the batter and prevent it from happening?

[Pickles]

I can't tell you for sure, however there are many reasons that you will get cup cakes (or just cakes for that matter) that will sink slightly.

If your talking about cupcakes falling, ie, the tops of the cake caves in, then that is usually because of fluid content or not enough holding power of the cake. The cell walls that are created can't hold up to the weight of the cake and collapse.

On the other hand, if the cake falls just slightly and hasn't caved in then I would hazerd a guess its contracting of the air bubbles and so the walls of the air bubbles are no longer tight and relax a little.

I hope someone more in the know of cake baking will come along and answer your question more correctly. If not, I'll come back a little later after looking through a few books.

[McDee]

Dragged out my baking textbook since I took the class a year ago and retained very little of it.

They discuss 3 causes:

Weak internal structure
Too much sugar or fat for the batter to support
Not fully cooked

Fixes for the first two are: "Adjust formula". I'd have to assume you're using an established recipe, so if the next fix doesn't take care of it, I can do some more reading.

The fix for the last cause is "Test for doneness before removing from oven". I would assume that this is the most likely cause of your issue if you're following the directions exactly.