Cupcake Craft Studio
Our Story
Cupcake Craft Studio started in a small kitchen in São Paulo, Brazil, with a single question: Why do my cupcakes keep sinking?
That was 2018. Mariana Costa Oliveira had just baked her fourth failed batch of chocolate cupcakes for her niece’s birthday party. The batter looked perfect. The oven was preheated. But twelve sad, sunken cupcakes later, she realized that reading recipes online and actually baking them were two very different things.
What began as a personal notebook of recipe notes, temperature fixes, and frosting disasters slowly grew into something bigger. By 2020, Mariana had filled three notebooks with tested recipes, equipment reviews, and decorating techniques that actually worked in a real home kitchen — not a professional bakery with industrial ovens and pastry chefs.
In 2022, she launched Cupcake Craft Studio to share those notebooks with the world.
What We Do
This site is a practical resource for home bakers who want real results, not perfect Instagram photos.
Every article on Cupcake Craft Studio is built from hands-on testing:
- Recipes are tested at least three times in a standard home oven before publication
- Equipment reviews come from actual use — we buy, test, and sometimes return the gadgets
- Decorating techniques are photographed step-by-step by someone who learned them through trial and error, not culinary school
We cover what works, what fails, and why. No vague advice. No “just bake until done” instructions. Specific temperatures, exact measurements, and honest notes about what went wrong in Test #1 and Test #2.
Who Writes Here
Mariana Costa Oliveira is the founder, recipe developer, and primary author. She is a home baker with no culinary degree — just years of stubborn kitchen experiments, a growing collection of muffin pans, and a digital scale she finally learned to use correctly in 2021.
Mariana handles recipe testing, photography, and most of the writing. Occasionally, she collaborates with local bakers in São Paulo for specialized techniques (sugar flowers, advanced piping, gluten-free substitutions).
You can reach her directly at contact@cupcakeku.com.
Our Standards
Table
| What We Do | What We Don’t Do |
|---|---|
| Test every recipe in a home kitchen | Publish untested or copied recipes |
| We use high-quality stock photography to illustrate our recipes | Use AI-generated food photos |
| Share failures and fixes | Pretend every batch turns out perfect |
| Measure ingredients by weight and volume | Give vague “to taste” instructions for baking chemistry |
| Update articles when techniques improve | Leave outdated content unchanged |
Advertising & Partnerships
Cupcake Craft Studio participates in affiliate programs and may display advertising through Google AdSense and other networks. These partnerships help cover the costs of ingredients, equipment, and hosting — because testing twenty batches of vanilla cupcakes to find the perfect one is not cheap.
We only recommend products we have personally tested or researched thoroughly. Affiliate links are clearly disclosed. Advertising does not influence our recipe testing or reviews.
For partnership inquiries, please contact contact@cupcakeku.com with the subject line “Partnership Inquiry.”
Contact Us
- Email:contact@cupcakeku.com
- Response time: 24–48 hours on business days
- Location: São Paulo, Brazil
We read every message. Whether you have a question about a recipe, a photo of your own cupcake disaster to share, or a suggestion for what we should test next — we want to hear it.
A Note to New Visitors
If you are looking for perfect, magazine-cover cupcakes with zero effort, this is probably not your site.
If you are looking for recipes that work in real kitchens, honest reviews of whether that $80 stand mixer is worth it, and decorating techniques explained by someone who has scraped failed buttercream off the counter more times than she can count — you are in the right place.
Welcome to the kitchen..
Last updated: June 2026