How to Make Mini Cupcakes from a Cake Mix

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Here are the instructions for making cute mini cupcakes from a cake mix, because they never seem to put them on the box. Check out a couple of simple ways to decorate them while you’re here!

Little cupcakes are so much fun! They are a perfect way satisfy your sweet tooth with just a little something or a fabulous way to get to taste multiple mini desserts.

You can dress them up for special events or make the cute for birthday parties. The great thing is they are so easy to make and the bake time is really short.

Today I’ll share how to make them quick and easy from a cake mix.  Plus I’ll show you a couple super cute and fast ways to decorate them.

Little Dude’s birthday has really been a drawn out affair this year.  He had a socially distant parade on the day of and several rounds of birthday treats along the way.

We were finally able to have his birthday party at the gymnastics center recently. We kept it small to close friends and family… but of course that meant more birthday treats.

He requested mini cupcakes for this adventure, lemon and vanilla.  Usually I would have whipped something up from scratch but with everything going on it seemed simpler to reach for a cake mix.

They never think to put the mini cupcake bake times on the box! It’s really a shame too, because they are super cute and perfect for so many reasons!

So I thought I would share the directions with you to make it easier for you to whip some up. Plus I’ll show you how I decorated them.

What you’ll need

• A cake mix and the ingredients the box calls for.
• A mini cupcake tin or 3. A box of cake mix will make 72 cupcakes.
• Mini cupcake liners
• A small cookie scoop
• Sprinkles!

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 F
• Line your mini muffin tin with cupcake papers
• Make the cake mix according to the directions on the box
• Use a small cookie scoop to transfer 1 Tablespoon of cupcake batter into each liner. Each well should be about 2/3 full.
• Bake for 15 minutes. (If you are baking multiple trays at once or you have a hotspot in your oven, you’ll want to rotate them half way through.) The tops should spring back when lightly touched with a finger.
• If you don’t have enough trays to bake them all at once, cover the remaining batter with plastic wrap and refrigerate until you’re ready to use it.
• Cool completely before frosting. You can decorate them as soon as they are cool, or store them in an airtight container at room temperature until you are ready to finish them.

Decorating Your Mini Cupcakes

The sprinkle filled mini vanilla cupcakes needed a fun colorful finish. So I whipped up some simple crusting buttercream and went to work.

You can either scoop or pipe the frosting on and then dunk them in nonpareils. The final look is super cute and it doesn’t take very long to whip through the whole batch.

For the mini lemon cupcakes I used lemon sweetened condensed milk buttercream. That lemon frosting recipe is super popular so I knew it would be a hit.

You can easily use these instructions to make red velvet cupcakes topped with cream cheese frosting. Or make mini chocolate cupcakes with a dollop of peanut butter buttercream.

I just used a large open star tip and let it do the work for me. Hold the tip straight up and down over the cupcake with about a half inch of clearance between the cake and the tip.

Apply even pressure until the frosting blob is the size you want.  Release pressure before pulling up on the piping bag. Easy peasy!

Frequently Asked Questions

If you are looking for another fun bite sized cupcake recipe, try making mini apple butter cupcakes as well!

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