Cupcakes are a wonderful treat for any day and people of any age, aren’t they? The only issue arises when a late-night sweet wants dessert and the cupboard is equipped with all of the ingredients for the little cakes but a cupcake pan.
Don’t worry, all the essential equipment is usually present in most kitchens, and even bakers may easily swap cupcake liners in the cupcake recipes without affecting taste or baking time. In this article, you will find out about possible swap choices you can make.
Top 6 options for baking cupcakes without a cupcake pan
Option 1: paper cupcake liners
Without the help of a cupcake pan, a single paper cupcake liner is just not sturdy enough to support your cupcake batter. The batter goes everywhere and the edges collapse, making a huge mess. However, there is a solution you may apply in this situation if all you have are paper liners.
Create stronger liners by getting them stacked.
This makes it easier for them to retain batter firmly.
Therefore, place some cupcake mix gently within at least three stacks of paper cupcake liners on a cupcake tray. If 3 are insufficient to hold it, try 4 or 5 instead.
Use a smaller baking tray and keep your cupcake liners near together to support each other to assist avoid them from collapsing.
Option 2: parchment paper
The best and most suggested material for making cupcakes without a cupcake pan is parchment paper. The stiffer the paper you use, the more stable process of making cupcakes becomes.
Use a ruler and a measured square to cut a square out of parchment paper. Measure it at 6 inches by 6 inches. Make sure to cut out enough squares since you’ll need to double or triple-stack them to provide a sturdy base for your cupcake filling.
Though it may not be precisely the same, look for a cup whose base is the same size as the cupcake liner. It is sufficient if the bottom diameter is more or less 2 inches.
Put the parchment you’ve cut out over the bottom of the cup in the center. Turn your cup so that the bottom is facing up to achieve this. Place the square-cut cupcake liner on the bottom of the cup, being careful to position the corners equally.
Each corner of the cupcake liner should be folded. This will assist you in creating a mold of the cup’s base. When you are finished, make sure your folds are precise and tidy.
Option 3: aluminum foil
Aluminum foil cupcake liners are another popular solution, however, parchment cupcake liners are increasingly more widely available.
You can always buy a metal cupcake tray, which suggests that aluminum is excellent for baking.
Aluminum foil is glossy and metallic in appearance. Because of its already thick and firm structure, it will give your batter a strong, secure grip.
In general, paper separators are placed within aluminum foil liners to avoid sticking, negating the need for grease. But if you are using aluminum foil to make your foil liners, give it a little baking spray mist.
The fact that aluminum foil liners can stand up straight on their own is another fantastic feature. You may stack the two together for more stability and assurance of this. You’ll be done after placing cupcake liners on a baking sheet about an inch apart from one another.
Although these cupcake liners are typically single-use, they may get very expensive if you prepare a lot of cupcakes. Put a paper liner inside each one to make them into reusable molds. After baking, the paper lining supporting the cupcake will simply come off, revealing a foil lining that may be reused repeatedly.
Option 4: mason jar lids
Using mason jar lids as cupcake liners is one of several ways to bake cupcakes without a cupcake pan. You might not be familiar with this, but it is doable! Consider that there is still a use for the empty mason jars that are now in your kitchen, unopened and stashed someplace.
However, you just need the rings, not the whole mason jar.
First, collect all the mason jar rings you have access to. When you have a good number of mason jar rings, you can now begin arranging them on a baking tray, spacing them approximately two inches apart. Due to its structure and form, it seems to be a real cupcake pan.
Additionally, proceed by inserting cupcake liners into the metal rings of the mason jars. If the cupcake batter does not bake correctly, the metal ring from the mason jar will act as a support for the paper liners. Consequently, it will stand erect, just as if you had used real, normal-sized cupcake pans.
Option 5: round cookie cutter
Cupcakes are just a more compact form of circular cakes that are wrapped in a paper liner and always covered in icing. However, even with only a circular cookie cutter, it is still feasible. Here is a way to bake cupcakes without a cupcake pan.
In a sheet cake or cake pan of standard size, begin baking a thick, flat cake. But be careful not to overdo it. Just bake the ideal quantity and height of the cake, which should be around the same thickness as a typical cupcake.
It should ideally be between two and three inches tall.
Prepare your cutter and slice the cooked cake into a shape that resembles a standard-sized cupcake. You may begin putting the cupcakes into the paper liner after cutting the cake into smaller round shapes to give it a cupcake appearance.
Finish it off by putting frosting on the top of your baked treats as the final step.
Option 6: mugs
This could be the answer for making perfect cupcakes if, like me, you have a bizarre passion for collecting many ceramic mugs. Simply arrange as many mugs as will fit on the regular baking tray, line each with a piece of paper, and then fill each with a cupcake mix.
Be careful not to overdo it, since you are still attempting to build a cupcake and don’t want to be overflowing your mug. Always leave about 2/3 of the space in each liner empty to allow for expansion.
Frequently asked questions
How to make cupcakes without a pan?
There are numerous options for you to choose from when you decided to bake cupcakes but lack a cupcake pan. Here is a brief overview of some of them.
cupcake liners
This eliminates the requirement for a pan. To prevent them from melting or burning, you must put these liners on a baking tray rather than an oven rack.
Liners must be stacked on top of one another. If you use foil cupcake liners or parchment paper liners, though, you might not even need to stack them.
mugs
Mugs are not only a great cupcake pan alternative. They may be left in the oven for a very long period without the food becoming stale.
Gather the desired cups and put them on a tray. Pour the batter into the prepared foil, or cupcake wrappers. Cook the cakes. After they have cooled, you may take them out of the cups while still in their wrappers.
cookie cutter
Another great way to bake cupcakes without a pan is by using a sheet cake and a circle cutter. You must first make a cake that closely resembles the height and thickness of a cupcake.
After baking the cake on a sheet pan, cut it into the desired number of pieces with a circular cutter. When done, put each of these “cupcakes” inside its appropriate wrapping before serving. They need to resemble cupcakes when finished, especially with icing.
Note: make sure to find out which materials you choose to use is oven safe. For example, if you think about parchment paper cups, they are a suitable swap for a cupcake pan. On the other hand, regular paper cups for drinking, for instance, may not be oven safe!
Can you put cupcake batter in the pan without the liners?
In a nutshell, yes, you can create cupcakes without cupcake liners.
If you decide to go this path, there are a few things to bear in mind.
Make sure to fully oil your cupcake pan with a pastry brush or cooking spray before you begin. This will lessen sticking and make removal much simpler for the cupcakes.
Also, keep in mind that without liners, your cupcakes might not bake as evenly. This is due to the role of the cupcake liner as a heat-insulating barrier between the hot pan and the batter. In the end, using cupcake liners could be a good idea if you want properly baked cupcakes.
Can you make cupcakes in a muffin pan?
Yes, you can. Although muffin and cupcake pans can be used interchangeably, they nevertheless differ significantly. In a typical muffin tin, the distance between the cups is broader.
When muffins are baked without liners, the non-stick surface of the muffin tin also keeps them from sticking. Unlike normal muffin pans, which have shallow cups, muffin pans feature deep, straight cups.
The distances between the cups of a typical muffin tin are wider. Furthermore, because it is nonstick, muffins baked without liners do not stick to them. A muffin pan features deep, straight cups as opposed to a typical muffin tin’s shallow cups.
It is essential to keep those differences in mind before making cupcakes.
Conclusion
Although it’s essential to have the necessary instruments when creating anything, much alone baking, you may still try without them and produce something that can be as excellent. All you need to do is take care to carefully complete each stage and make specific modifications.
Now go ahead, take a measuring cup and some liners, and bake delicious little cakes to satisfy all of your cravings!
