One of my favorite favorite favorite (seriously favorite!) baking products has just gotten even better! Eeek? How can this be! We’re talking about Sweets & Treats Bake Bright cupcake liners of course! You guys know I’ve been a long time dedicated fan and user of their cupcake liners – they really are the best and cupcake liners are important stuff around here! It was pretty much love at first use when I tried out their greaseproof liners a few years ago. Unlike any other liners out there they actually hold their color when you baked them, leaving the days of disappearing cupcake liner prints in the past. And if we’re being perfectly honest, I thought the liners were just fine the way they were…but turns out they had set an ever higher bar! Recently they released a brand new version of their liners specifically developed and produced by Sweets & Treats right here in the US! The paper is even better and brighter with even more prints!
This week I was able to give them my first test run! They sent me over some fun new polka dot prints to try out and I got right to baking! Of course I wasn’t going to go easy on them so I baked up some chocolate fudge cupcakes, some of the darkest cake I make! I was totally not surprised to see how well they held up. Seriously…I don’t think they lost a single trace of color and they were so sturdy, call me impressed! I mean do you guys see these beauties! It’s hard not to create such adorably perfect little cupcakes when you’re using these liners. And you guys…they have pastel…PASTEL! I’ve been asking for pastel for-e-v-e-r.
Now let’s get down to some sweet specifics shall we?
While I felt the end result was even brighter and better I didn’t really change my cupcake baking process much. However, the crazy strong Bake Bright paper does make them a little different then the old version when baking. The first thing I noticed was when placing them in the cupcake tray they didn’t slide down into the cavities like they generally did in the past. This is pretty normal for most brands of cupcake liners, but others totally cave in when you attempt to correct it. We have all baked cupcakes in cheap liners with “waves” in the liners right? Since the Bake Bright liners are more firm in nature they kind of rested half way down, which could potentially make your cupcakes bake a little wonky. Super easy fix. Resist the urge to push them down into the cavities right away. Fill your cupcake liners with the batter first, the weight will pull them down a bit. Then just before putting them in the oven gently push them all the way down into the cavity with your thumb and finger. Unlike other cupcake liners, the Bake Bright liners were strong enough to handle me pushing them down. Other thinner liners tend to fold and cave in when pushed on.
Tada! They came out just perfect. (I used 3TBSP of batter in each). People often ask me how my cupcakes bake up at just the right height like that. Well to be honest it’s a combo of reasons. For one, a good recipe is most important. Cupcakes are picky little creatures, not all cake batters work well when turned into cupcakes. You want a good combo of moisture and rise! Cake batters that are overly heavy and moist with low rise tend to not bake up so well as cupcakes. If you know your recipe rises a little less add a little more batter! You can also do a test run of one cupcake to start to be sure. If you don’t make sure your cupcake is rising enough you’re going to risk the liner not having enough batter to cling to and maybe then you might find the dreaded “peel effect” after baking. Yikes!
I throughly tested my cupcakes to see if they would keep that same pretty color and shape after being decorated and stored. I’m happy to say they looked the exact same several days later! Although my liners came out just great no matter what I did, I would recommend making sure you pull the cupcakes from the baking tin about 2 minutes after baking, and place them in a storage container when they are completely cool. Fridge or counter works perfectly fine!
Seriously aren’t these so much fun. I just love a pretty cupcake!
Also, I think it’s important to share one more tip for working with the new Bake Bright liners. Although all my liners came in perfect shape and have stayed that way, I know life happens and sometimes cupcake liners get all out of whack. The first thing I do to prevent this is to make sure I’m storing them nicely. I keep them in a plastic container stacked no more then 4-6 inches high. Storing cupcake liners in tall long upright stacks for a long period of time could cause them to widen with weight as the stacks go down. And keeping them in a plastic container keeps them from accidentally getting pulled out of shape by the run away pantry item (or kiddo). I also make sure that when I’m using the liners I gently separate my stacks by taking the liners off one at a time from the bottom gently pushing them off with my thumb. When you grab cupcake liners from the top and pull them out they tend to loose some shape. No so much with these sturdy little guys but it does happen. And since they are so sturdy they may not pop right back into shape.
But if your liners do decide they want to go a little on the crazy side, have no fear we can fix them! When I have a stack of out of shape liners I simply place them in two cookie cutters over night, one on the outside one on the inside. You’ll want to find a cutter about the size of the cupcake pan cavity, but any cutters will work! Any if you don’t have a cutter on hand, you can do the same thing with the opening of a cup or even pressing them into the cupcake pan cavities and weighting them down in the center with something like pie weights. The Bake Bright liners reformed perfectly since they hold their shape so well.
Have you gave the new liners a test run yet? If not what are you waiting for!
You can check out all the new liners for yourself here, I can’t wait to grab some pastels!
