(Image credit: Future / Camilla Sharman)
During this scorching heat, what’s a home baker to do? Having the oven switched on to satisfy a craving for sponge cake will have your air conditioning on overdrive, or your fan blowing around powdered sugar. But I won’t let the high temperatures stop me from baking, so I put aside my reservations and tried to make some cupcakes in an air fryer.Could this countertop appliance that I rely on for crisping fries and grilling burgers bake a decent cake? The answer is a resounding yes, but you will have to make some changes.Here’s exactly what happened when I baked a batch of lemon cupcakes in my air fryer, along with expert advice on mastering the countertop bake.How I made lemon cupcakes in an air fryer
(Image credit: Future / Camilla Sharman)Lemon cupcakes are the ultimate refreshing summer treat and happen to be one of my family’s favorite go-to sweet treats.I often search online for recipes, and I found an Easy lemon muffin recipe at BBC Good Food. What’s brilliant about this particular recipe is that all of the batter ingredients can be tipped into a single bowl and mixed in one go. You can do this by hand or with one of the best stand mixers; either way, as long as your butter is soft, you won’t break a sweat.The recipe calls for a muffin tray, which is a non-starter for my compact Cuisinart Clearview Air Fryer. To improvise, I doubled up my paper cupcake liners for extra stability. Luckily, they held up well when I spooned in the batter.After preheating the air fryer to 200°C (390°F) for four minutes, I then carefully placed the cupcake cases into the glass basket, but I could only bake five at a time.Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips.Knowing that air fryers run hotter and faster than conventional ovens, I selected ‘Bake’ mode, at 160°C (320°F) for 15 minutes — 20°C lower and 15 minutes shorter than the original bake time.
