I just tried another batch of the meyer lemon cream cheese pound cake. (recipe is from a bridal magazine and has been printed by Martha as well. http://www.marthastewartweddings.com/recipe/meyer-lemon-and-cream-cheese-pound-cake)  I’m trying to make this cake into cupcakes and I’m having some issues.  The cupcakes looked perfect in the oven and after 16 minutes at 325, the tester came out clean.  The issue I have is that after I pull out the cupcakes from the oven and put them on a cooling rack (while still in the pan), they start to shrink away from the paper.  I’ve been reading around these forums and the internet and it seems like not all pound cakes transcribe well into cupcakes.  Is this possibly the problem I’m having?  The baking time seemed really short to me but it was when I went in to rotate the two pans that they looked done, so I checked.  I was thinking of going longer but I think all that would do is form a crunchy crust on the outside of an absolutely delicious cake but maybe it needs more time to set in the oven.  I’m tempted to just switch to TCB’s lemon poppy seed pound cake recipe and use Meyer lemon juice and zest instead of the regular lemon. (minus the poppy seeds).  No levening in that MS recipe still surprises me.  I appreciate the help.

- BQ

BRIAN:
  Good afternoon. I am sorry to learn of your baking failure. However my friend, I am happy to tell you that the failure lies in the recipe & not with you. This recipe is what is known as a “HI~RATIO CAKE FORMULA” in comm bakeries. It requires a special ingredient that you do not have, known as “EMULSIFIED SHORTENING” (Sweetex). It is used instead of butter.
  Brian, notice the sugar & flour…The weight of the sugar amounts to 21, oz. The weight of the flour amounts to approx 14,oz.
Whenever the weight of the sugar exceeds the weight of the flour you will have a big problem…that is why you sustained a failure.
  Brian, if you do not mind a bundt cake…. as a rule baking in a bundt pan these out of balance recipes bake a viable cake due to the 4, sides getting the heat. Otherwise my friend if you insist on this formula you must employ a different mixing technique. It is known as a 2 stage mixing method. Exactly like the method RLB features for her cakes in the cake bible book.
  Brian there are other recipes featuring cream cheese pound cakes around that you can consider.

  Good luck & enjoy the rest of the day.

  ~FRESHKID.

Wow…thanks Freshkid!  The bridal magazine that we originally found this recipe in has instructions for a 6,9,10, & 12 inch round pan.  I had just assumed that I could use it in cupcakes.  Darn.  We just really love the flavor of this cake and when paired with a Pomegranate Mousseline buttercream, it was just to die for, imo.  Good to know it’s not me though   I used the creaming method because that’s what was written in the original recipe but I was going to try another batch tonight so maybe I’ll try the 2 stage method and/or I’ll look for another recipe and go through TCB some more.

Brian, in my experience many pound cakes do not work well for cupcakes.  Layer cake recipes seem to have the structure needed to produce light, rounded-top cupcakes.

A traditional pound cake does not have chemical leavening, though many recipes add it now to give a little lightness. 

If shrinking away from the wrappers is the only problem, perhaps you could fill them full enough to rise up over the top edge of the wrapper and “grab on”?  It could be the high butter content of a pound cake that keeps it from sticking to the papers.

Oooo, another thought- I do believe pound cakes work well with a center tube, and there are some bundt/ring shaped pans that make cupcake-sized cakes.  Then there are no issues with paper liners (they don’t use them) and it doesn’t matter quite so much if the cake bakes up puffed, flat or slightly sunken, as you will flip these over and use the molded side.

Julie - 29 June 2009 09:21 AM

Brian, in my experience many pound cakes do not work well for cupcakes.  Layer cake recipes seem to have the structure needed to produce light, rounded-top cupcakes.

A traditional pound cake does not have leavening, though many recipes add it now to give a little lightness. 

If shrinking away from the wrappers is the only problem, perhaps you could fill them full enough to rise up over the top edge of the wrapper and “grab on”?  It could be the high butter content of a pound cake that keeps it from sticking to the papers.

Thanks about the info about the leavening in a pound cake.  After the shrinking pound cupcakes I had looked in TCB for RLB’s pound cakes and noticed the ones in the beginning of the book all had some leavening so I thought maybe this was the issue. 

The shrinking away from the wrappers is the only issue.  But, wrt your suggestion of how much to fill them, the cakes were filled just enough to reach over the top of the wrapper and it was the cake shrinking that made it an issue.  The top edge of it did stick to the paper, but the rest of the cake shrunk away so after it shrunk there was a crumb edge near the top of the wrapper and a moist cake that shrunk away from the sides.  In order to test a few different options in the batch in question, I had used the supermarket bought paper liners, the same liners greased with Pam for baking, and no liners with Pam for baking.  (recipe called for butter + flouring of the cake pans).  The result was the same across the board.  With the no-liner batch, I probably slightly overfilled it because it overflowed the cavity ever so slightly and when it shrunk down the overflow didn’t come with it.  Like I’ve read on this forum a bunch, I think it’s key to just do practice runs before the “due date” and I think I’m going to scale down the recipe to 5 or 6 cupcakes and try different things.  I just don’t want to give up on this recipe yet.  (and also I’m stubborn so I won’t go down without a fight)

Brian:
Welcome to my world of shrinking cupcakes and paper liners falling off. AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!  There are just some cakes that don’t translate well to cupcakes and I have had this problem many many times.  I found it happend the most with Rose’s Chocolate Butter cake recipe. (One of my absolutely favorite cakes to make for a layer cake).  I’m not as experienced as a lot of people who post here, but I do bake a lot of cupcakes and have found that the creaming method seems to yield a cake that shrinks less than the two stage method.  Good luck!  I’ve been tinkering with recipes for a couple of years now, trying to get a cupcake that tastes great, feels great in the mouth, and looks good too (and can keep its wrapper on!).