I have had a mini cupcake pan forever. I've used it to make mini brownies and peanut butter cup cookies, but I've never actually baked cupcakes in it! The backs of the cake mix boxes don't have directions on how to bake mini cupcakes so I searched the internet to find the following instructions. The cupcakes turned out pretty yummy (and so cute!).
Line the mini cupcake pan with mini cupcake liners (these are widely available at grocery or craft stores).
Mini cupcakes are about one-third the size of a regular cupcake. Since a regular cupcake typically has about 1/4 cup of batter, you will only want to use about 1 Tbsp. batter in a mini cupcake. Try to keep all of the wells filled with equal amounts of batter so the cupcakes will cook for the same length of time.
Cook the cupcakes for about 9 minutes. Test the cupcakes using the toothpick method. If they aren't done, continue cooking for about 30 seconds before checking again. You have to watch the mini cupcakes very carefully because they can easily overcook since they are so small.
Oreo Buttercream Frosting
This recipe is from the Life as a Lofthouse blog. I love it! This frosting is so good you could seriously eat it by itself.
1/2 C. (1 stick) butter, room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1-1/2 Tbsp. milk
2 C. powdered sugar
8 Oreo cookies, finely crushed
In a large bowl cream butter, vanilla, and milk. Slowly add in powdered sugar until creamy and fluffy. Mix in crushed oreos until well combined.
Notes: The recipe called for unsalted butter. I don't typically keep unsalted butter in my refrigerator so I just used regular (salted) butter. I thought it tasted fine and I bet the little bit of salt in the butter cuts through the sugary cookies to keep the frosting from being too sweet. The original recipe made too much frosting for what I needed so I halved the measurements. This is probably enough frosting to frost the top of a 9- x 13-inch cake or 12-18 cupcakes. If I was frosting an entire layer cake or 24 cupcakes, I would probably double the recipe. Crush the Oreo cookies (no need to separate the cookies from the filling) using either a food processor or blender because you really do need the cookies to be finely crushed. However, the cookies soften in the buttercream so a few chunky pieces are okay.
1/2 C. (1 stick) butter, room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1-1/2 Tbsp. milk
2 C. powdered sugar
8 Oreo cookies, finely crushed
In a large bowl cream butter, vanilla, and milk. Slowly add in powdered sugar until creamy and fluffy. Mix in crushed oreos until well combined.
Notes: The recipe called for unsalted butter. I don't typically keep unsalted butter in my refrigerator so I just used regular (salted) butter. I thought it tasted fine and I bet the little bit of salt in the butter cuts through the sugary cookies to keep the frosting from being too sweet. The original recipe made too much frosting for what I needed so I halved the measurements. This is probably enough frosting to frost the top of a 9- x 13-inch cake or 12-18 cupcakes. If I was frosting an entire layer cake or 24 cupcakes, I would probably double the recipe. Crush the Oreo cookies (no need to separate the cookies from the filling) using either a food processor or blender because you really do need the cookies to be finely crushed. However, the cookies soften in the buttercream so a few chunky pieces are okay.