And so, you’re left standing in the kitchen with a spoonful of cupcake mix wondering just what went wrong…

We’ve all been there, after all that effort you’ve created a cupcake that requires 2 cups of tea to just to help it go down.

But, no more – with these top tips for moist cupcakes you’ll never look back or need double teabags at the ready ever again!

• It’s in the details: Paying super close attention to the quality of ingredients you use will make such a difference.  Although basics flour may seem nice and cost effective it won’t do our cupcakes any favour and could leave them dry, so treat yourself and spend a little extra for top quality cakes.

• Paper it up: These new silicone cupcake holders are certainly all the range, especially because you can get them in awesome neon colours, but they actually dry out your bake.  Paper liners help retain the moisture because they give your mix a good, tight hug when baking, thus reducing the drying effects!

• Bake to the beat: Many people just throw their wet ingredients in with their dry and mix it until all are combined in a nice batter – but this can actually dry out your mix.  Instead, set your mixer to a low setting and carefully add your dry ingredients in tablespoonfuls.  Then beat until they’re only partially combined.  Remove from the mixer and finish it off with a rubber spatula – this means you don’t over mix the batter.

• Oil it: it sounds odd, it looks weird when you first add it but oh my does it make a difference!  But don’t just use oil over butter or you’ll end up with really dense cupcakes, instead replace ¼ of the butter in your recipe with an oil (vegetable is best).

• Eggy, eggy, eggy: Because of their protein content eggs actually help strengthen the flexibility of the protein in the flour.  They also help the oil and water blend well so they don’t separate.  But, don’t use cold eggs, instead crack your eggs into a glass bowl and cover with cling film and set on the work surface while you prepare everything else – eggs at room temperature beat better and will produce moist cupcakes.

• Like butter wouldn’t melt: well, actually, your butter shouldn’t melt before you use it.  It should remain firm but not hard, sticky but not sinky when you press it with your thumb.  Basically as the butter melts in your bake it produces air and steam making your cupcakes light, airy and moist.  If it’s all melted before you start, no steam will be produced leaving your bake dense.

So there you have it, from scratch cupcakes that are moist and pure delish thanks to a few simple, yet highly effective top tips.

Happy baking!

Or what about tiny baked goodies with shortcrust pastry and a dollop of jam beneath a crumbly cake?

But how many of you would think of a baked cake (sort of) that’s velvet in texture and delightfully different?

Baked cheesecakes are much more popular across the pond with our American cousins than in the UK but that doesn’t stop them being fantastic and a delicacy each baker must try to accomplish.

We know it can be a bit daunting baking something new and ‘untested’ so just check off these simple steps and you’ll have perfect baked cheesecake each time no matter what the recipe calls for.

• Prepare, prepare, prepare – Baking a cheesecake takes more panache than just squishing some crumbed bicky’s into a tin and layering on a smooth, creamy topping.  The difference between a good baked cheesecake and an outstanding one lies in the crust, after all, there’s nothing worse than a soggy base.

To ensure a perfectly crisp crust you must prepare your pan accordingly, this applies to ‘leak proof’ one’s too.  Wrap a springform pan with aluminium foil on a flat surface and fold up the sides of the tin.  Repeat this process and crimp the tops of the foil together.  Be careful not to tear or create holes in the foil of either layer as these could allow water to leak into the pan and ruin your base.

• Mix it, don’t whip it – Gently mix all your ingredients together for the filling don’t whisk them.  Whisking adds air which means your cake will puff up then sink when cooling.

• Take your time – Timing is everything when it comes to baking the perfect cheesecake.  If you bake it too quickly in an oven that’s too hot, you’ll end up with a dry, cracked cake.  The experts recommend you opt for a long, slow bake at 180 degrees C to ensure an even internal temperature.

• Bath it – You should place the aluminium wrapped springform pan in a high sided roasting tray and pour 2 litres of boiling water into it before popping the cake into the oven.  We don’t know really why this works – but it does, trust us!

• Don’t toothpick – This will go against all natural instinct for amateur bakers who love a good old toothpick in the centre to check if a cake is baked properly, but this will give you false results.  The centre of the cake should be a little soft so your toothpick may come out a bit sticky.  Also, you may cause cracks to form.

• Keep it cool – When all the hubbub of baking is finished, you must allow your cheesecake to cool properly before you add any fancy toppings like sour cream and cherries.  Experts say to pop your cake into the fridge (covered with more aluminium foil) for a minimum of 4 hours.

Baked cheesecake really is a delight, so if you fancy something a little different for a summer desert why not try it and add this delish desert to your baking repertoire.

Making it is a skill, it’s an art, it may as well be a sport.  It requires dedication, a watchful eye and commitment to the task.

It’s certainly not for the faint-hearted and demands 100% concentration.

It is, of course, pastry baking…

With shows like the Great British Bake Off challenging amateur bakers to push themselves to the limit for the perfect pastry, and throwing around words like ‘blind bake’ is it any wonder people opt for the just roll kind?

But, never fear, pastry baking isn’t as difficult as you may think.

Yes, it requires concentration and confidence in what you’re attempting to achieve, but it is doable.

Here are our Top Tips for Perfectly Proper Short Crust Pastry:

• Get your hands dirty – You can use a food processor to mix your pastry, but you run this risk of over working the dough resulting in tough pastry.  The preferred method is with your hands, well, fingertips actually.

When mixing, imagine you’re playing with fine sand, picking it up from the bottom of the bowl, lifting it high then sprinkling it back with gentle rubbing until the mix resembles fine breadcrumbs.

• Ice, Ice baby – Well, not quite ice, more like cool, very cool!  Everything that touches your pastry must be cool.  This includes your work surface, utensils and hands – yup that’s right, your hands must be cool too, after all, you’ll be rubbing that mix with your fingertips!

• Get speedy – Pastry needs to be mixed quickly.  Quick hands means the flour’s gluten development is minimised.  If you’re too slow, you could end up with elastic, difficult to roll dough, which could lead to a rough bake that shrinks.

• Water it – Water helps bind the pastry together but be careful not to over water it or you’ll end up with a clammy, sticky mess.

Using a cool tablespoon, slowly and evenly drizzle cold water into the mix.  Then use a chilled, round bladed knife to mix into a ball.  If you’re making enriched short crust reduce your water to 2-3 teaspoons.

• Chill out – As you’ve probably guessed, everything to do with making a top-notch pastry relies on temperature.  Once you have a smooth dough ball, wrap it in cling film and pop it in the fridge for 30 min before using.  This helps all the gluten relax and resets the fat making it more manageable and less likely to shrink when you bake it.

It sounds much more complicated than it is, trust us… But it’s all well and good reading how to make it – now’s the time to try, and succeed!  You’ll never buy the rolled stuff ever again.

It’s a question that’s puzzled bakers for years, especially those just starting out in the baking world.

On the face of it, they seem to do the same job.  They’re white, odourless and both vanish as soon as you mix them into your scrummy bakes.

Most importantly, they help that cake rise.  If you didn’t add one or the other you’d be left with a very flat and very, very dense bake – which ain’t very tasty!

Here’s the science bit…

Baking powder is actually made with baking soda.  The big difference, and it really is a big difference, is it contains two other ingredients – an acidifying and drying agent.

1 teaspoon of baking powder contains ¼ baking soda and ¾ acid and starch.

When added to your mix, the baking powder will slowly begin to release carbon dioxide, but doesn’t truly come into its own until you pop the bake in the oven.

As the temperature of your bake increases, the baking powder bubbles and releases even more carbon dioxide, which forces your mix to rise into light, airy, fluffy, delicious goodness!

However, baking soda is pure sodium bicarbonate and although it also helps your bakes to rise, it can have a rather unpleasant after effect if used incorrectly.

When added to your mix and heated, carbon dioxide is again formed, but that’s not all it produces…

It also releases sodium carbonate (Na₂CO₃ for all you science lot) which is the sodium salt of carbonic acid.  Unfortunately, this doesn’t leave a very pleasant taste in the mouth and has the potential to destroy a perfectly fine cake.

You can get around this by mixing the soda with an acidic ingredient, like lemon juice, as this helps neutralise the alkalinity of the sodium carbonate.

But what does this mean for all you bakers out there?

Well, baking powder is great for recipes that don’t have acidic ingredients, whereas baking soda is quite the opposite; it thrives with recipes that require buttermilk and all things citrusy.

The key thing to remember is this: if you’re substituting ingredients, e.g. adding orange juice to your regular sponge cake mix to make orange sponge, you’ll have better result if you replace half of the called for baking powder quantity with soda.

It’ll neutralise the acid in the orange juice and ensure your cake rises to absolute perfection.

The only thing is, because baking soda is 4 x more powerful than baking powder, you’ll only need ¼ teaspoon of baking soda for every full teaspoon of powder.

This is very important or you’ll end up with a wildly out of control cake that could taste of sodium carbonate!

The best thing to do is follow the recipe carefully, and if you feel like adding a touch of bakers flare, remember to amend your leavening ingredients accordingly for a truly brill bake.

These tiny, puffy circles are intriguing, fun and stir the small kid inside even bigger kids (adults) to leap with pure joy.

But what are they exactly?

Are they biscuits, cakes, mini meringues?  And why is every celeb chef and Chef Patissier obsessed with making them?

Even Master Chocolatiers are jumping on the bandwagon – just check out Pierre Ledent.

Well, to be honest, I don’t think macarons (or ‘whoopie cushions’) even know what they are!  The definition is this:

A biscuit made with egg white, sugar and ground almonds or coconut.

Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t meringues made from egg whites and sugar?

So in essence, a macaron is a biscuity meringue – a beringue, or, miscuit…

They’ve recently shot to fame since appearing on shows like Masterchef and The Great British Bake Off where contestants puff and fluster in the attempt to get the ‘perfect’ macaron.

They’re characterised by a smooth domed top with a ruffled ‘foot’ and an equally smooth flat base.  You can find all sorts of fillings sandwiched between the two beringues like chocolate ganache, lemon curd, raspberry jam or even butter cream.

The experience when you first bite down on that delightful dome is truly amazing!  First you get the crisp of the smooth surface, then the typically meringue like centre that’s slightly soft and chewy, then you hit the lush filling that’s packed with all the flavour – mmm, my mouth is watering!

Traditionally they only came in chocolate or raspberry but nowadays you can get pretty much any flavour you want like pistachio, honey, lemon, champagne or even marmite.

They’re believed to hale from France, although some historians deem them to be of Italian origin.  They say there’s evidence to suggest the Italian pastry chef for Catherine de’Medici brought the sweet treat into the county when she married Henry II of France in 1533.

Macarons, however, should not be confused with macaOOn’s regardless of how similar they are.  In the UK, we tend to spell macaroon for everything so just be careful if you can’t see what you’re ordering…

A macarOOn is a ‘small sweet cake consisting largely of ground almonds’ although the majority of the ingredients used to make them are rather similar, if not identical, to a macarOn.

Confused yet?  I know I am!

There’re loads of variations too, like the Scottish macaroon that has a thick, velvety centre covered in coconut.  These can be dipped in chocolate and you may even find chopped pecans or almonds added to the mix for extra bite.

So, there you have it!  A macaron is a delightfully puffy and playful treat that makes you smile as soon as you see it, and, let’s be honest they’re super tasty too!

This question has been the crux of many foodie debates the world over and still people are unsure what exactly makes a muffin and what makes a cupcake.

The internet is full of hilarious and sometimes odd revelations about these two baked treats.  For instance, some argue there is no difference just that a muffin is bigger is size.

Others declare the difference lies in the icing with cupcakes decorated to multicoloured perfection with delightful flourish, whereas muffins only get a glaze or crumb if they’re lucky.

Some people even say that muffins are muffins because they’re healthier than cupcakes…

Eh, no – but more on that later!

So, we feel the time has come to dispel all muffin/cupcake rumours and put this random debate to rest once and for all.

Ding, ding: Round 1 – What do the scholars say?

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a muffin is defined as:

A small domed spongy cake made with eggs and baking powder.

Whereas a cupcake is:

A small cake baked in a cup-shaped foil or paper container and typically iced.

So there’s not much difference here, according to the scholars both are classed as cakes.

However, according to many foodie bloggers and cupcake fanatics on the internet, muffins are known as ‘quick breads’ due to the way they are made.

Round 2 – What about the ingredients?

Well, muffins and cupcakes all pretty much contain like for like ingredients, but the quantities are very different.

In a cupcake mix you could use 2 eggs whereas for muffins the same size you’d maybe only use one.

Muffins also contain a lot more flour than cupcakes but both tend to use the same amount of sugar (thus throwing the whole ‘but muffins are healthier’ argument right out the window!)

This extra flour makes muffins much denser than cupcakes, almost bread like…

Round 3 – It’s all in the bake…

For all their similarities, muffins and cupcakes are baked very differently.

Muffins can be made using only a spatula and 2 bowls – 1 for wet and 1 for dry ingredients.

All you do is add the wet to the dry and mix.  You don’t even have to wait until the mix is smooth before spooning all that yummy, gloopy, muffiny goodness into cases.

Cupcakes, on the other hand, need the use of a food processor to cream the butter until it’s light and fluffy, you also need to blend for a lot longer to ensure the mix is super smooth.

The flour is also added at the last minute so the gluten doesn’t have much time to form making them much springier.

So there you have it.  A muffin is most certainly not the same as a cupcake and now you know why.  A combination of ingredients and how they’ve been put together makes all the difference.

But let’s face it, they both taste absolutely a.maz.ing!