Taylor Swift’s favourite Aussie baker reveals the secret to making the fluffiest cupcakes

Cupcakes fit for a pop princess.

Shirley-Temple-cupcakes-recipe-close-up

If there’s one thing we know about T-Swift, she loves to bake. From whipping up whoopie pies to making her famous chai sugar cookies and (reportedly) making cinnamon scrolls for her boyfriend’s football team – Taylor loves to get creative in the kitchen.

When Taylor was in Australia, she called upon Sydney baker Gabriela Oporto to whip up a cake for The Eras Tour… because there’s no better way to fuel yourself to perform for three hours than with some cake. 

Gabriela is no newbie to making cakes for celebrities. In the past, she’s baked for Ed Sheeran and Harry Styles, so it’s clear she knows a thing or two about cake. 

Now, she’s decided to share her top baking secrets and tips with the world. So while we might not be able to commission her to bake for us a la Taylor, at least we can use her wisdom to bake our own perfectly fluffy cupcakes at home.

Where do people go wrong when making cupcakes?

Gabriela notes that there are a few places in the cupcake batter-making process that people tend to mess up. Firstly, when beating the butter and sugar, people often don’t beat it for long enough. 

Then, they don’t incorporate the eggs slowly enough, they overmix the batter once they start adding flour and/or they don’t bake the batter straight away.

Doing any or all of these will result in dense cupcakes… and no one likes a dense cupcake.

How to make fluffy cupcakes

Gabriela has four tips for making the fluffiest cupcakes at home:

1. Beat the butter and sugar for a long time until the colour has lightened – this should take about 5 minutes at medium to high speed. Often recipes will say to beat/cream the butter and sugar till light and fluffy – listen to the recipe, that’s for a reason! 
2. Incorporate the eggs one at a time and beat for a minute after each egg has been added. This will give the mixture enough time to incorporate each egg properly to avoid curdling. 
3. We’re making cupcakes here, not bread so there’s no need to spend too long mixing in flour. Fold in the flour till just combine – be careful not to overmix. 
4. Once the batter is ready, pour it into cupcake liners and bake straight away. Letting the batter rest too long before baking will cause your cupcakes to be dense. 

Our favourite cupcake recipe

Excited to put into practice what you’ve just learnt? Our vanilla cupcake recipe is the only cupcake recipe you need in your baking repertoire. These cupcakes are moist, buttery and of course… fluffy!

Check out our vanilla cupcake recipe

Vanilla Cupcake Recipe

More cupcake recipes:

• Strawberries and cream Oreo cupcakes
• Vegan cupcakes with caramel popcorn
• Chocolate caramel cupcakes

Originally published as Taylor Swift’s favourite Aussie baker reveals the secret to making the fluffiest cupcakes