Cupcake Basics: Liners
Cupcakes are typically baked in cupcakes liners and these liners are sometimes, interchangeably, called cups. You could bake cupcakes without the liners by greasing the pan or using parchment paper, but one of the joys of cupcakes is that you can hold and eat them, without directly holding the cake. Some people enjoy peeling back the wrapper to reveal the cupcake.
Cupcake Month is a series of posts dedicated to- 31 Days to a Better Cupcake: Everything You Need to Know About Making & Decorating Cupcakes!
Cupcake liners come in different sizes to fit the cupcake pans and the liners also come in different shapes, colors and patterns. For every color and pattern you can think of, there is probably a cupcake liner to match. While colored and patterned cupcake liners are pretty to look at and give a ‘come hither’ look to the cupcake, I feel the frosting/icing is really what makes the cupcake.
You can use the plainest, vanilla looking cupcake liner, but frost it beautifully and the liner falls into the background, letting the frosting take the shine. I do, however, like the idea of using matching cupcake liners, so for instance, if you were making a chocolate cupcake, you could use a light or dark brown liner and conversely, if you were making a vanilla cupcake, you could use a similar colored liner.
Another aspect of cupcake liners is their quality. Cheaper cupcake liners tend to lose their color when they are baked and you can see the oil/grease seeping or getting absorbed into the liner. Take a close look at the image below to see the grease absorbed into the liner
You can avoid the grease stains by using better quality liners, which are typically labeled as being ’greaseproof’ or ‘glassine.’ Batters that are lighter in color (for instance, vanilla) tend to help the liners maintain their vibrant colors, but good quality liners should hold well even with batters that are darker in color (e.g chocolate).
Cupcake liners come can be found in your local grocery store/supermarket in the baking aisle or at various online vendors and will usually come in sets of 50-75 with some liners being sold wholesale.
It is also important to keep in mind that when you are baking with liners and adding them into the cupcake pans, the liners will tend to stick to each other, so you might end up using two liners and not notice that till you’re done baking, just an FYI!
The rainbow colored liners are mini cupcake liners. The animal print and rainbow liners are by Wilton. The plain liners are a cheaper, lower quality brand.
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