Cupcake papers let cupcakes get stale

[MacShop]

We freeze our cupcakes after baking, and then frost and put into the showcase as needed. The cake gets dry/stale and the cupcakes have to be discarded, when the frostings are still fine.
The size we need is 2" bottom with 1.25" walls.
Has anyone who freezes quantity and then frosts as needed, then sells the cupcakes from a refrigerated showcase found a cupcake paper (pan liner) that really works well?
Thank you,
MacShop

 

[Becky]

Welcome to the forum I've never had a problem with freezing cupcakes at home, how are you storing yours? I always put mine into an airtight container before freezing them.

 

[MacShop]

Welcome to the forum I've never had a problem with freezing cupcakes at home, how are you storing yours? I always put mine into an airtight container before freezing them.

Thank you, Becky! I have a bakery and we bake half a rack of chocolate and vanilla cupcakes. Some customers actually buy them frozen and unfrosted bc they ice them at home with something they make. In the freezer, we use disposable plastic rack covers (they are like a 6 foot baggie) to keep the walk-in freezer air circulation from dying them out. When the decorator takes out a sheet pan full of cupcakes and frosts them , they go into a smaller, more accessible freezer. From here we fill the display trays in the showcase, and customers purchase from there. We make our butter cream and fudge frosting from scratch, and the cupcakes are delicious and affordable bc they are not huge. The problem is the cupcake papers we bake in. I can't find a better quality, more moisture-proof type that would keep the cupcake bottoms from losing moisture and seeming dry/stale. They aren't stale, they have just lost moisture, and I think it happens in the refrigerator display cases. The waxy cupcake papers aren't making a moisture-proof barrier and the cake dries out. I joined the forum thinking I might hear from others who have to bake in quantity and have found an effective paper product. I think the small size I need is as problem, (2"bottom, 1.25" walls), because fancier papers are for bigger cupcakes. Thank you so much for replying to my question!

 

[Becky]

There are a few professional bakers on here, so hopefully someone will be able to advise on how they do things. If you want a cupcake case that doesn't let any moisture out then I think you might struggle - most of them are semi-permeable. However there may be things you can do to mitigate the moisture loss.

All this talk of cupcakes is making me hungry

 

[MacShop]

Becky, now you have me thinking. Other items in this particular showcase also dry out, like the carrot cake squares, lemon squares, and cheesecake squares, so we leave some of these in the case to show customers what we offer, but serve them from the back 3-door Trawlson fridge so the customers get perfectly moist product. Now I'm going to investigate ways to moisturize the air in that display case. The cakes are fine because they are sealed in buttercream or fudge, but cut items do dry out. Thank you for zeroing in on my real problem!
MacShop

 

[Norcalbaker59]

It’s not the cupcake liners, it the refrigerated case. Refrigerated cases by design require evaporators to prevent condensation. That evaporator will dry out all food, not just cupcakes.

You mentioned that you bake the cupcakes from scratch. I assume you aren’t adding commercial preservatives like mono and diglycerides. If you look at the ingredients on a box of retail cake mix, or a 50 lb sack of commercial cake mix it will likely list mono and diglycerides. These are the most common emulsifiers used in cake mixes. They provide several benefits including slowing staling.

If you do not want to use a preservative, then your only alternative is to adjust your production schedule and only bake to customer demand.