Janay's Crazy Cupcakes

Introduction:

For this food experiment in class, I decided to explore the chemistry of the well know birthday dessert, cupcakes. I decided to test out how the amount of flour will change the texture and shape of the cupcake. Let's get started.

The Scientific Research:

There were many things that I needed to research but I'm only going to point out the main ones. We add eggs to the batter to bind all the ingredients together which gives it it's structure. We add flour to also helps with structure. Baking soda is used to help the cupcake rise making it light and airy. Now that we got the scientific stuff out of the way, let's move on to the fun stuff. Fun fact, you shouldn't put baked goods in the refrigerator because then the corn starch will crystallize faster and make the cupcakes become stale and nobody wants a stale cupcake.

The Ingredients and Experiment:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Grab a large mixing bowl and a medium mixing bowl.
3. In the large mixing bowl mix all of your dry ingredients together which consists of:

1. 1/4 cup flour
2. 1 cup granulated sugar
3. 1/4 tsp baking soda
4. 1 tsp baking powder
5. 1/4 salt

4. In the medium mixing bowl mix all of your wet ingredients together which consists of:

1. 3/4 cup of unsalted butter
2. 3 egg whites
3. 3 tsp vanilla extract
4. 1/2 cup sour cream
5. 1/2 cup whole milk

5.  Now create a crater in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients in that crater.

6.  Use a stand mixer or hand mixer and beat together for 2 minutes or until the batter is smooth and create ribbon streams. If you don't have a stand or hand mixer then just use a whisk.

7.  Add 2 tsp of the batter into the cupcake liners.

8. Repeat steps 3-7 while changing the amount of flour to 1/3

9. Repeat steps 3-7 while changing the amount of flour to 1/2

10. Place the cupcakes in the oven for 20 minutes.

11. Let them cool and then you'll have your results.

Data and Results:

Here we have the end product of the 1/2 cup of flour added to the batter. As you can see there is a white ash on top of the "cupcakes" and although it is smooth, you can still see cracks on the surface.

Next we have the finished product of the 1/3 cup of flour added to the batter. Here we can see that the "cupcake" is very bumpy and not as smooth as the first one. It also has less cracks than the first one as well.

Lastly we have the product of the 1/4 cup of flour added to the batter. At first glance the cupcake doesn't look done but it actually was. It, like the second one, is bumpy and a lot less smooth than the first. It does have a bouncy texture which I did not expect. This one was less like the others.

Analysis and Conclusion:

In the end product, do not add more flour to the batter because then your cupcakes won't turn out correct. The more flour you add, the harder your cupcake will become. Honestly, it wouldn't be considered a cupcake anymore, it would be considered a biscuit or a scone because of how hard they became. Thanks so much for reading and I'll see you soon BYE!!!!!