HOME > Chowhound > Home Cooking > Jul 17, 2009 06:03 PM
Cupcakes- oil or butter  I am hosting a baby shower and I have a
bit of a conundrum concerning one of the desserts. I currently
have a favorite coconut peach layer cake recipe that I want to
convert into cupcakes because I have a whole spread of other
desserts like cookies and scones and cream puffs that I figure
people will be more apt to eat something in a cupcake form
rather than cut a whole piece of layer cake. Anyway, here are my
questions.  1. Do you think I should use a combination of oil
and butter or straight butter?  Oil is 100% fat to butter's 80%
so I would modify and swap out about a quarter of the volume
butter for oil (not olive even though, yes, it is supposed to
keep baked goods more most than say vegetable because I don't
like the flavor of even light olive oil in my cakes). There are
tons of arguments that oil makes a harsher crumb, but I figure
that a combo would give a good balance considering both moisture
and denseness. Then again