I really recommend the Vegan Cupcakes Take the World book (or something like that). These are by far the best results I've had with cupcakes - light, fluffy, moist and not overly sweet or rich.

I find if I put a box of pudding mix in with my cake mix that my cake comes out very very moist and yummy.

For chocolate cupcakes, the most moist ones I ever made were the "soda" version... I know it is weird but I make a dessert every week for work and people request these!

If you go with the boxed cake mixes (e.g. Duncan Hines, Betty Crocker), you'll notice most of them call for 1/3 cup of vegetable oil. Try using only a tablespoon of oil instead and you'll find your cakes and cupcakes will be much lighter and fluffier and not so oily and heavy.

tsp of meringue powder for baking at altitude keeps them from falling (or worse, being concave, which can happen at 8,000').

I highly recommend Martha Stewart cupcake recipes. They have never failed me.

I baked ~200 cupcakes for my wedding, and tried around 10-12 recipes before I found the one that was far and above the rest - it's Amy Berman's (Vanilla Bakery in LA) basic vanilla cupcake recipe - search the Martha Stewart site for "meyer lemon raspberry cupcakes" to find it. It's a little fussy, but the result is so so amazing - super moist and fluffy with great vanilla flavor.

Vegan cupcakes really are the way to go, even if you aren't vegan. I have also had great luck using non-vegan ingredients with some recipes. This is the absolute hands down best ever:
http://www.chow.com/recipes/10794-basic-vegan-chocolate-cupcake People FLIP when I make them.

For fluffy, I would go with a Chiffon cupcake which are usually lighter and not too sweet. For moist, choose a butter-based cupcake recipe like Billy's Vanilla Vanilla. I also agree that vegan cupcakes are generally on the lighter side and can be very, very good, especially chocolate ones.

Try this vegan recipe
http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/vegan/recipe-vegan-chocolate-ginger-orange-cupcakes-110949
Sometimes I use jam for filling. It keeps them moist and done one day before eating gives a lot of flavour and moist.

Stout and brown sugar for chocolate cupcakes! Trust me on this one!

Again, vegan chocolate cupcakes are the best cupcakes I've ever had. Almost anything from the book "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World" is going to be amazing.

ribbon, ribbon, ribbon! always ribbon your eggs sugar first when you make a cupcake batter it really adds lift, volume and lightness. this extra never fails and was taught to me by an amazing pastry chef. works like a charm.

I've had great success adding applesauce or sometimes, very finely grated zucchini.

Freeze your cupcakes for a day or two, then defrost on the kitchen counter before frosting. I do this with cakes also (if I have the time) and I don't know why, but the cake is just better!

beat the butter and sugar for longer.

Hi all! Am hopeless at baking! Tried innumerable times to bake a cake well , which jus won't happen! Here are my queries-
I don have a convententional oven.
I need to bake in microwave.
Can I bake a cake in microwave? If yes- Wat r the recommended settings?