what's up with this anatomy cupcakes picture? OK, I meant to post this entry about our new switch to souffle cups ages ago but time just wasn't on my side everytime I wanted to do it. So when one of our customers Shieda asked me about it, then I thought perhaps I should clear things up once and for all and explain it here so everyone would understand. Thanks Shieda for popping out the question :-)
you see (sigh!).. we're having problems with our usual paperliner cups these days. We've been using it ever since we started our cupcake business and trust me, these cups gave us a lot of headache compared to other aspect of the business (huhu..). Some of the reasons of our headache are:
#1 : they tend to peel off once they're baked and taken out from the oven. it makes decorating so difficult and time consuming. Plus the fact that it looks ugly when it peels off.
#2: they are inconsistent in terms of its opening diameter (surface diameter or its roundness), some could be big and some small.
#3: wastage. We produced dozens of rejected cupcakes due to the problems mentioned earlier and thus affected our cost and labour!
this is what I meant by the paperline cup 'peeling off'... (sorry for the blurry pic, I suck at photography)
as much as I don't like to change anything about Eda Cupcakes, we just had to take some measurement to reduce our cost and labour when it comes to our cups. And the most important part is, to please you our dear customers.
So I took the plunge and started our own experiment in the kitchen. You have no idea how much time we've spent just to get things right. We wanted everything to be perfect. Each and every cupcakes was labelled, baked and then weighed, just so we could get the standardized amount of cupcakes worthy of every single RM you spend and your satisfaction.
here's the endless baking and weighing...
to be fair, we tried 3 most common cups we could find from the supplier. At this point, we had no single favourite. Every cups are given the same treatment - merits if they pass our lil test, and scrutiny if they fail to meet our standard (SIRIM pun kalah, hehe...)
first one on our test, the 2oz souffle cup. Here you can see that after it is baked, it weighs approximately 31gm on our digital weighing scale.
observation: bottom diameter a bit small but it's taller (about 1.4 inches in height)
and now move on to our signature cups we've been using all this while, the paperliner cups. here it weighs approx 32gm. The back of the cupcake was actually peeled off a lil bit here (but you can't see it from this pic).
observation: wide diameter but too short (about 1.0 inches in height)
finally the 2.5oz souffle cups. here it weighs almost 40gm per cupcake. Approx 7gm difference compared to the other 2 I've mentioned earlier. That's quite a hefty size which means we might have to revise our price (which I'm reluctant to).
and from my research (observation on other locally made cupcakes, internet and word of mouth), this cup normally has around RM2.60 - RM2.80 price tag based on market price. Currently our cupcakes priced at RM2.50 for 16pc and RM2.20 for 25pc. Hmm... you do your own math...
So after giving it so much thought, we've decided to switch to 2oz souffle cups. As you can see, the weight is not much different from our previous paperliner cups (a mere 1gm difference only). It certainly spares us a lot of time and effort, and best part is, we don't have to mark up the price! We'll stay the same, only better! With the new souffle cups. Other advantage is:
#1 : baking is so much easier for us. Almost no rejected cupcakes. Thus production is increased.
#2 : cupcakes look more professional, standardized and conform to our benchmark.
#3 : we're able to stay within our price range. In fact other cupcakers here also charge the same price for this type of cups.
There you have it.
Now some people may have different preferences. For me, I like big cupcakes but my hb liked the older medium version. Some people like larger cupcakes and don't mind if we revise the price but some may prefer if we stick to the old ones. Like I said, we can't please everybody. So how bout you, which one YOU prefer?
Whatever it is, please remember that the cupcake price you're paying also includes the price of our art. Cupcakes have relatively smaller production cost but the exclusive design gives it a little bit of edge compared to other products. Anybody can bake cupcakes but not everybody can decorate it. Even local bakery doesn't do such fine art on their cupcakes. That's the specialty of homemade cupcakes. Cupcakes are specially handcrafted with so much love, creativity and fine details you won't find anywhere else :-)
I really hope I've given you enough info and insight as to why we have to make this change. You can also read more under our older post (pre-raya) to find out about pros and cons of both types of cups. We appreciate your understanding on this matter. And we welcome any feedback you may have regarding this entry. Feel free to share your tips and experience as well!
XOXO
~ Eda Cupcakes ~
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