What is a Mini Cupcake?

The first time I encountered a mini cupcake was at a friend's fundraiser for breast cancer. It was actually a funny encounter because my mini cupcake was an "A" cupcake; the next cupcake size up was a "B" cupcake, and so on.

My friend made larger and larger cupcakes up to a size "DD" and she did the same with the drink cups, a small drink was a size "A" and so on... I think you get the idea.

It was for a great cause and everyone found the humor in the names of the cupcakes and drinking cups!

A great use I have found for mini cupcakes is to use them as the class birthday cake. Often time’s parents want to bring a cake or cupcakes into their child's class to celebrate their child's birthday with the class.

With the focus on healthier eating choices many parents and teachers feel that even though, of course, some kids are going to eat more than one cupcake that the smaller cupcakes help set a better nutritional example than regular sized cupcakes, especially for those itty bitty kindergarteners.

On a side note, I have heard schools are starting to ban such practices as letting parents bring in food secondary to the fear of other allergic reactions if the parent didn't know a certain ingredient was in the cupcake or other item they bring in. I wonder if this is common!

My favorite way of doing a little mini cupcake decorating is via monogramming! Yep, I said it, I monogram my cupcakes. When I taking them over to someone's house for a get together or party, I feel the monogram adds a little personal touch. And even more importantly it is easy to do!

I love mini cupcakes and am very thankful that my regular grocery store always has mini cupcakes for sale, just look around the regular cupcakes. They usually don't come in as many varieties as the other cupcakes but they are great non-the-less.

My favorite thing about the mini cupcake is that because the cupcake is smaller I have a better cake to icing ratio with mini cupcakes!

I go to a farmers market every Saturday and there is a woman there who sells fancy and unusual cupcakes. At the front of her stand she has a big tray of free mini cupcakes that give a sense of all her different flavors. I have to admit, I've never bought one of her cupcakes but I have eaten a lot of those mini cupcakes. They are just so good and being free makes them taste even better.

I make mini cupcakes that are crunchy and not so sweet. I include big pieces of pecans and walnuts in the batter, so each cupcake is one bite sized crunch.

I add some nutmeg and cloves to the mix to give the cupcakes a harvest time flavor. I glaze the tops with dark chocolate sprinkled with a touch of chili powder.

I always warn my guests not to expect much sweetness when biting into one of these. To me, these mini cupcakes are a great alternative to the overly sugary desserts often offered at gatherings.

@lighth0se33 - That sounds delicious! I love making holiday-themed mini cupcakes for parties, though mine usually go best at Halloween.

My two favorite flavors are chocolate and orange together, so I mix up some orange cake batter. I make a small amount of both chocolate and orange frosting separately.

After baking the mini cupcakes and cooling them for about ten minutes, I use two small knives to spread one stripe of chocolate frosting on the top left side, one stripe of orange in the middle, and another chocolate stripe on the other side of that one. I finely chop some orange slice candies and sprinkle them on the frosting for an extra citrus kick.

My favorite mini cupcakes recipe is one that works best around Christmas. It involves peppermint and chocolate, two winter favorites.

The batter itself is rich chocolate. I use a food processor to finely chop up peppermint candies. Then, I pour them into the batter and stir them up well.

On top of each mini cupcake, I place one of those chocolate mint nonpareils. These fit onto the small, round surface perfectly.

These cupcakes are the perfect size for Christmas party refreshments. Often, people would not eat an entire big chocolate peppermint cupcake, because the flavor is strong, but they will always put these on their plates.

My ten-year-old neighbor had to have a cancerous tumor removed, and I decided to throw a massive bake sale to help her family out with the bills. I got the whole neighborhood involved, and mini cupcakes were one of the ways that we were able to sell a lot.

I made batches of many different flavored regular sized cupcakes and cakes, but I also made several mini cupcakes as samples. The samples were free, and they allowed customers to choose their favorite flavor. They felt confident buying a batch of big ones or a whole cake because the same batter was used to bake the mini cupcakes.

During the holidays I always do a lot of baking and try to make new things every year. Last year I added some mini brownie cupcakes to my list of goodies.

When I took an assortment of candy and cookies in to work, I was surprised at how quickly these mini brownies disappeared.

You don't think twice about picking up one of these mini cupcakes and eating it. But if you were trying to watch your calories, you would hesitate to pick up a bigger brownie because it has a lot more calories in it. You get the same great taste, but less guilt!

Once I started using silicone bakeware products I have not gone back to my metal baking sheets and muffin tins. Instead of using mini cupcake liners, I just use the mini silicone muffin cups and the process is a breeze.

Once the cupcakes are cool, they easily slip right out and then you can decorate them as you please. This also saves money on buying the liners and is less waste to get rid of.

I made mini cupcakes for my daughters birthday party and they were a big success. My mini cupcake recipe was the same one that I use when making regular cupcakes.

The fun part is in the decorating! What I liked best about making these for kids, is that it was much easier for them to handle with their small hands.

Also, because they are so much smaller, you were not throwing away a lot of half eaten cupcakes. With just a couple of bites, they were all gone and much less mess.

Mini cupcakes are a wonderfully versatile treat that can be made to match any holiday or event you are planning.

For my last Halloween party I decorated a huge stack of mini cupcakes to make up part of a giant pumpkin display. With all of the orange frost mini cupcakes available everyone had their fill and congratulated me on my ingenuity.

Some other great displays you can make include mini cupcake Christmas trees, cute bunny shaped displays for Easter and even something like a snowflake for wintertime. Pretty much the sky is the limit.

Does anyone have any other great display ideas for mini cupcakes?

Mini cupcakes are a great thing to make if you are hosting a children's party. Often kids like to try numerous different treats, and by keeping the portion size of your offerings down you are letting them snack while keeping an eye on their sugar intake levels.

What I love most about mini cupcakes as a party snack is that it is much easier to create large quantities. With traditional cupcakes you can maybe get two baking pans in the oven for a maximum of 48 cupcakes in an average sized oven. With mini cupcakes, depending on how small you go, you can easily double that.

@rugbygirl - That's funny! I love your idea of making jumbo cupcakes. I wonder if the labor involved in filling all those muffin cups is why those fancy premium cupcake places charge so much, even for a mini cupcake. (They're so tasty, though, they're almost worth it.)

I do have a suggestion, though. You can put your batter in a big ziplock bag and cut off one corner. Then you just squeeze the batter into each cup and even mini cupcake cups are no problem. It is much less messy than using a spoon or even an ice cream scoop, which I've also seen as a suggestion.

I thought the only thing better than red velvet cupcakes would be twice as many tiny red velvet cupcakes. I wasn't wrong, but I didn't fully appreciate how much work it would be! There were so very many cups, and they were so small. It took me forever to fill them and I made an enormous mess.

So I freecycled my mini muffin tin. Now, if I want to make muffins or cupcakes, I use the jumbo pan and make huge ones! Much easier and I can share someone.