Cupcakes have started gaining spotlight in the dessert world. Following the explosion in popularity of Sprinkles Cupcakes, Cupcake Wars from Food Network continued to new fad of cupcakes. I personally love cupcakes, I think they are a great way to get a single serving of cake in. I’d like to take some time to talk about cupcakes and making them with any regular cake recipe.

With that being said, mini cupcakes are my personal favorite type of cupcakes. For some they are bite-sized, others just the right size. I find that with mini cupcakes, people can mix and match their favorite flavors and get a variety of deliciousness at one party.

To make cupcakes, start with a cake recipe, any that you like. After you have cake batter, line muffin tins, regular or mini sized, with liners. I, generally speaking, always use liners because it helps make cleanup so much faster and it also adds to the aesthetic value of the cupcake.

My favorite method of filling cupcake tins is with a plastic bag. I fill a gallon-sized Ziplock bag with the batter, twist, and pipe the batter in. I’ve found that by doing so, my cupcakes are less messy (no ladling) and I have more control over how much batter is put into the tins. In addition, its one less piece of kitchenware I have to worry about cleaning afterwards.

To make cupcakes: one box of cake mix makes approximately 24 cupcakes filled about 2/3 full. In terms of cake recipes, it would be a single recipe for a 2-layered cake. The baking temperature is the same and time is reduced to about 22 minutes.

To make mini cupcakes you can get about 2 and a half cupcakes for each regular-sized cupcake. What that means is that you actually end up with about 60 mini cupcakes. In practice, however, I’ve been able to make anywhere from 60 to 72 cupcakes. In regards to cooking time, I’ve found it best to reduce both the temperature and time. I bake my mini cupcakes at 325 for 18 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

I hope that this helps out anyone who’s had a recipe they wanted to transform into cupcakes! As always, feel free to leave any comments or questions below.