Cupcake Tricks? (Hawki or others)

SBS0628

I love making cupcakes. I just really suck at them.

I am in charge of making the "graveyard" cupcakes that I posted a ways down for a party tonight. They are currently baking but YET AGAIN! I managed to get the batter everywhere and the cups are totally not filled evenly.

Does anyone have a trick for how to neatly fill baking cups? Do you have a special spoon or a bowl with a spout? Or is there something else I can use as a "batter pour-er"?

What about frosting? Does everyone use piping bags? Am I the only lame one still attempting to slather it on with a knife?

Help me.

Leigha12

I just use a spoon to fill the cups, but I wipe off the excess batter with a wet paper towel before it goes in the oven.  For the icing, if it's store bought, I use a knife, but if I make it, I use disposable piping bags.  I don't use all of that stuff often enough to buy the expensive stuff, so I just use disposable bags, and the plastic tips and casings. 

ETA: You can try putting the batter in a large ziploc and cutting off a tip. But I feel like you'll still have leakage moving from one cup to the other.

kaleyandjason

I use a large ice cream scoop. It works well and makes them very even. As for icing, I suck at that so I have no advice.

mbd62709

Like Kaley, I use an ice cream scoop for the batter.

For icing I either use an icing spatula or I have a cookie press that I can put icing in and pipe it that way. Not sure if you have one of those?

hawkilady

I'm chiming in a little late but I use an ice cream scoop to fill cupcake liners and a mini cookie scoop to fill mini cupcakes.  I've also used a gallon sized ziploc with a corner cut off but if your batter is thin, this doesn't work as well.

For frosting, I use piping bags for the most part.  If I use a spatula, I use a small offset spatula to do it, start with a big glob of frosting in the middle, hold the spatula at an angle and swirl around the outside turning the cupcake in your hand. 

Kellybeth124

Like PPs, I use an ice cream scoop to fill mine. Specifically, one like this:

Key feature being the all metal lever since ones with plastic levers tend to break easily and don't release as well. 

I'll defer to Hawki on the best frosting application. My attempts have a definite "homemade" look as I tend to slather frosting on with a mini spatula like this one: