Dry cupcakes :(

[brenda_3687]

Hi everyone!!! So i hope you can help me out with this one. I am recently new to baking and usually my cupcakes turn out deeeelish but other times they are a little too dry :sad: and i have no idea why. Can someone help me please???

[Laura]

It could be that you are baking them for too long, perhaps at a lower heat than the recipe calls for? It could be one of a number of possibilities of things that could be drying them out. I used to have an older gas stove (from the Mad Men era!) that heated unevenly, which meant that I had to turn things midway through, and constantly check to see if what I had baking was done all the way. I became accustomed to giving things a little more time than the cookbook instructions specified. Giving things "a little more time" eventually became giving things a LOT more time. It eventually became apparent that the oven was NOT heating up to anywhere near the temperature given on the dial. A repairman said that the valves in the stove were leaking so not enough gas was getting to the flame (which also explained why I had to be constantly re-lighting the pilot light as well as the burners themselves) but plenty of gas was getting into the household (I wasn't imagining that smell). :ohmy: Fortunately, nothing blew up...yet!
Unfortunately, it was hard to find replacement valves for a model that old, so the Mad Men era stove went out for the garbage collection, and I am now getting used to a new-model gas stove with electric ignition (I HATE that tick tick tick sound and more often then not don't hold the dial long enough or turn it the wrong way).

[Princess Cupcake]

Hi Brenda and welcome! Can you give us an example of a recipe you've been using that's coming up dry? Has it worked for other people? I'm thinking perhaps you need more oil or butter to keep things moist. Or perhaps applesauce, zucchini etc.

[brenda_3687]

I might be baking them for too long, but the recipe i tried was a rose petal cupcake. The taste was good but super dry and a little unpleasant to eat because of that :( I have heard of the applesauce but never tried the zucchini. Thats probably my next move :) and hopefully not over bake them. Thanks ladies for your help and i will let you know how it goes.