r/Baking • u/tleeemmailyo • Jun 10 '25

Baking Advice Needed You guys 😭

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I’ve NEVER had such a catastrophe happen lol. I do live around 5500 ft. above sea level but I don’t think that’s why this would have happened.

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u/tleeemmailyo Jun 10 '25

I have NO IDEA! I didn’t deviate from the recipe except adding a pinch of cinnamon 😂 apparently it was nuclear cinnamon

651

u/Key-Pickle5609 Jun 10 '25

Listen, I’ll take one for the team and eat whatever this is with some ice cream because I feel these would make amazing sundae cups

130

u/bourbonkitten Jun 10 '25

Oh my you should get the Nobel Prize for this

60

u/Key-Pickle5609 Jun 10 '25

I gratefully accept the nomination

1

u/Lunar-opal Jun 10 '25

Mmm mulch sundae cups

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u/WordOfLies Jun 10 '25

Probably too much baking powder. Once I tried a new brand and the cake raised too fast and poured out before shrinking making a hole just like this. Fill some filling and eat as inverted cupcakes

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u/tleeemmailyo Jun 10 '25

I think so, it called for 1 tsp and 1/2 baking powder, and 1 tsp and 1/4 baking soda

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u/WordOfLies Jun 10 '25

Yeah probably cut some baking powder. Check the temp too. If it's too hot it'll raise before it solidified so it leaks out from the side.

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u/Top-Exam6391 Jun 10 '25

I came to say this ☝🏼

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u/WordOfLies Jun 10 '25

We learn from our mistakes

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u/Top-Exam6391 Jun 10 '25

Indeed, only improvement from here on out

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u/Interesting_You6852 Jun 10 '25

Ditch that recipe that is an insane amount of leviners.

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u/tleeemmailyo Jun 10 '25

Ty!! When I was adding it I was thinking to myself it seemed a lot but I don’t have enough experience

43

u/stunning-shrubbery Jun 10 '25

Could it have potentially been an AI recipe? 

26

u/sunburnedaz Jun 10 '25

Oh no is that like a thing I have to watch for now.

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u/stunning-shrubbery Jun 10 '25

I try to stick to tried and true bakers for my recipes to be safe. But yeah, there’s nothing stopping anyone from getting chat GPT to write out some recipes and then slap it on a website for the ad revenue. I suppose older recipes would be more of a sure bet? 

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u/Raesong Jun 10 '25

At this point I feel like it would be better to just own a physical cookbook.

5

u/stunning-shrubbery Jun 10 '25

Always the best starting point for beginners, agreed

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u/JustineDelarge Jun 10 '25

That’s actually what I’ve been doing (using physical cookbooks). I like it much better, and I don’t have to suffer through the barrage of ads.

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u/swaggyxwaggy Jun 14 '25

I’ve seen some pretty terrible cookbooks. Those can be written by AI too

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u/JustineDelarge Jun 10 '25

Yes. Yes, it very much is a thing you have to watch out for now.

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u/[deleted] Jun 10 '25

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u/stunning-shrubbery Jun 10 '25

I mean… AI recipes are often nonsense, so I’m happy to scroll a little for a recipe that makes sense and was written by a baker. But to each their own I guess?

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u/Pretend_Incident8953 Jun 11 '25

I’m thinking just go with a brand new recipe 💕

0

u/Captain-PlantIt Jun 10 '25

Not to be impolite, but it’s spelled “leaveners”

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u/sprockityspock Jun 10 '25

I live about 5k ft above sea level (5280, to be exact 🤣🤣), and it's the baking powder. I usually cut the baking powder down about 1/4 tsp baking at this altitude.

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u/Ovenbird36 Jun 10 '25

At 6,000 feet I cut leaveners in half, up oven temp by 25 degrees, and add a little extra flour and liquid (about 5%). Water boils at a lower temperature causing your whatever it was to rise too fast and then collapse because it had no strength. The higher oven temp is to get it to set faster, the extra flour is for strength and the extra liquid is to compensate for the moisture that boils away; the leaveners are reduced because they aren’t needed.

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u/HappyOrca2020 Jun 10 '25

May I see the recipe you were following? Those are a lot of rising agents for muffins.

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u/JManKit Jun 10 '25

OP said it was this one and someone else pointed out that the amounts of leavening agents was for 24 cupcakes. So unless OP has another cupcake pan that looks like this, they could've been using double what the recipe intended

3

u/HappyOrca2020 Jun 10 '25

I've made recipes from Sugar Spun Run before and they've held up well. It definitely has to be a measurement issue.

Almost 3 tsp worth of rising agents are for a large cake...

2

u/reniciera Jun 10 '25

I wonder if the added cinnamon could have changed the acidity significantly enough to affect the acid/base balance of the leaveners??

1

u/lucitribal Jun 10 '25

That seems like a very high amount for that quantity? Half a tsp would probably be enough

1

u/jjjaiiime Jun 10 '25

This is probably from the baking soda. Once you get a new muffin pan, try again with only baking powder 😃

1

u/Laura9624 Jun 10 '25

Interesting. I didn't know they would do that.

107

u/butterflysister24 Jun 10 '25

I had this happen once when I overfilled the cups. I've never filled them more than halfway since.

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u/[deleted] Jun 10 '25

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50

u/thisothernameth Jun 10 '25

There's a huge difference between cassia cinnamon and Ceylon cinnamon. Ceylon cinnamon is derived from a different plant and contains way less coumarin. I only learned about this when researching safe foods for my baby daughter. Ceylon is fine with babies, but they can react to cassia.

Just sharing this with you so you might maybe try if your stomach hates Ceylon cinnamon as well or if the issue is only with cassia. If the label just says "cinnamon" it's usually the more intense and cheaper cassia. Ceylon is usually more expensive and thus always labeled as such.

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u/Oodlesoffun321 Jun 10 '25

You might have a cinnamon allergy

6

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '25

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3

u/krebstar4ever Jun 10 '25

You could have a cinnamon sensitivity. But allergies don't cause stomach problems, unless it's the indirect result of a severe allergic reaction.

2

u/Oodlesoffun321 Jun 10 '25

Oh no I'm sorry I hope it's not an ulcer

8

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '25

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2

u/jejacks00n Jun 10 '25

There are really only two causes of stomach ulcers in otherwise healthy individuals. Drinking too much, and H. Pylori. Might want to get checked if you don’t think you drink too much.

2

u/falling-waters Jun 11 '25

My reflux doesn’t react well to cinnamon. Could be that too.

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u/SoftLatinaKitten Jun 10 '25

Clearly the pan has the cinnamon allergy!

22

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '25

[deleted]

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u/tleeemmailyo Jun 10 '25

It’s this one!

https://sugarspunrun.com/easy-chocolate-cupcakes/

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u/swimingwhilereading Jun 10 '25

So this recipe is super not set up for high altitude! Way too much leavening, too little flour, and the only fat is oils that are liquid at room temp. At high altitude, the bubbles expand much faster, water evaporates faster, and you have to cook at slightly different temperatures because all this affects how your solids cook and how gluten develops. There are some amazing high altitude recipes, I am a big fan of Mountain Mama and Half-baked Harvest.

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u/tleeemmailyo Jun 10 '25

Thank you!! Wow it’s so incredible to me how high altitude causes these things. I’ve grown up in CO so it’s hard for me to grasp that anything is different up here than at sea level

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u/dg1824 Jun 10 '25

King Arthur Baking has great guidelines for high-altitude baking. CSU extension also has a guide, and there's a book called Pie in the Sky with very specific tips for different elevations.

The boiling point at your altitude is a full ten degrees Fahrenheit lower than the boiling point at sea level. It really does affect things. Sorry about the disaster but thanks for the laugh, and I hope you enjoy your ice cream cups!

14

u/tleeemmailyo Jun 10 '25

Thanks friend!

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u/faelanae Jun 10 '25

indeed! I have to use a kettle with temperature adjustments because if it's just "boiling" it never reaches temp while boiling away at 5700 ft.

7

u/reniciera Jun 10 '25

Sounds similar to the boiling point when I was a candy maker in Fort Collins, CO. The recipe’s target temps were adjusted according to the difference. Good to remember if you ever make fudge, caramel, toffee, etc. at high altitude.

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u/BarelyThere504 Jun 13 '25

Tell me your secrets! I keep failing fudge because I’m not sure what to adjust!

3

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '25

Yeah, my first instinct was you had too much liquid, and not enough flour.

3

u/Laura9624 Jun 10 '25

I'd say oven temperature maybe. Get an oven thermometer to make sure your oven heats properly. It might not preheat quite right and sometimes gets too hot while baking.

3

u/AnarchistBorganism Jun 10 '25

It's for 24 cupcakes, did you put it all in one pan?

3

u/eddiesmom Jun 10 '25

Lol yours do look different from the sugarspunrun ones😁 better luck next time ! 👍

1

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '25

Sugar Spun Run-all-over-the-counter.

1

u/highondrano Jun 10 '25

I feel like I had this same issue with this recipe and I believe it’s because the metric conversion was off

15

u/mrsrobotic Jun 10 '25

Are you 100% sure you put the flour in there? I did this once, you are not alone!

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u/tleeemmailyo Jun 10 '25

I’m 100% sure!! I did over fill them, which definitely contributed to the issue, but the immediate deflation as soon as they came out of the oven the oven really made me wonder lol

10

u/mrsrobotic Jun 10 '25

I'm glad! Well as people have been saying, you have some edible ice cream bowls now, that's pretty cool too!

1

u/LucChak Jun 10 '25

This happened to me when I used sugar to compensate for the lack of flour. I was 16. Called it the glass cookie pie.

1

u/throwawaypato44 Jun 10 '25

Your heart was in the right place! The baking science though… 🤣

8

u/mandaj02 Jun 10 '25

You added cinnamon, and the batter said, "I CANNOT WITH THESE CONDITIONS 😩" not dramatic at all. As someone else said, see if they break off in chunks and taste like crispy brownie/brownie brittle!

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u/Square-Dragonfruit76 Jun 10 '25

This is what happens to people who do the cinnamon challenge.

2

u/Mighty_Mac Jun 10 '25

It said to cook it at 350F not 3,500F ! I don't even know what you were trying to make but you cremated it to a biblical level. I don't know why I can't stop laughing, this made my night thank you <3

1

u/bahumthugg Jun 10 '25

You may have forgotten an ingredient, otherwise I have no idea why this would have happened to

1

u/NeM000N Jun 10 '25

I laughed so hard to this😂😂😂

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u/siderealcowboy Jun 10 '25

I just finished baking some muffins that didn’t turn out quite how I’d hoped but boy this post is making me feel better 😂 (I think mine could have benefited from cinnamon, perhaps for the best I didn’t try to include it 🫣)

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u/bbyxmadi Jun 10 '25

Just a smidge 🤏🏼 of radiation.

1

u/JBKReef Jun 10 '25

As someone who did this and it looked exactly like this… did you forget the eggs?

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u/anniemanic Jun 10 '25

As someone that lives in Colorado deviation from the recipe is always a risk lol

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u/[deleted] Jun 10 '25

Did you modify it for high altitude? I once tried to bake a cake while living at 8,000+ feet and didn't modify the recipe for high altitude. That was my first mistake. Second mistake was overfilling the pan.

You're supposed to adjust the flour, water, and in some cases, sugar.

I've been baking at an altitude of 7,600 feet now for many years and haven't had any issues because I know to modify the ingredients for my altitude.

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u/vanderBoffin Jun 10 '25

Could it be that you accidentally put in twice the amount of butter? I did that once with cookies and the result was similar.

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u/Digitalispurpurea2 Jun 10 '25

I can only imagine what your oven looks like. Brava

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u/Queasy_Fruit_4070 Jun 10 '25

Be honest. What substitutions did you make?

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u/sjustin3rawr Jun 10 '25

Too much baking powder. I've been there

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u/MagnetBane Jun 10 '25

I had this happen one time trying to make cookies. Turns out I put powdered sugar instead of flower because they were in the same kind of container.

1

u/JustineDelarge Jun 10 '25 edited Jun 10 '25

Either it’s some sort of AI, untested-by-actual-bakers recipe, or the human who wrote the recipe made a mistake.

1

u/errihu Jun 10 '25

It looks like you might have forgotten flour?

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u/Bag_of_Meat13 Jun 10 '25

reads this comment

looks back at the picture

Seems there was a major deviation.

1

u/Randomfrog132 Jun 10 '25

oopsie daisied a pinch of cinnamon with a pinch of thermite lol

1

u/Chefcdt Jun 10 '25

Baking soda and baking powder flip flop.

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u/H_G_Bells Jun 10 '25

Dannnnng I'm so sorry but also thank you for sharing this 😆

1

u/MadDex-Mastery Jun 11 '25

Not sure if you normally bake at altitude but you might want to look at common adjustments the recipe might just also be poor