A cupcake pan seems like an important part of cupcake baking as it gives its shape; thus, you should ensure you use the pan during baking. What do you do when hosting a party which requires extensive cupcake baking or when you want to enjoy the delicacy without the pan?
So, can you bake cupcakes in paper cups without a pan? Yes, you can use paper cups and other pans for baking cupcakes; read on to learn how to bake with alternative baking methods.
You can bake the pancakes with paper cups without a pan, but you will need liners which makes the paper cup stronger.
The cupcake liners can create more durable paper cups than the regular baking trays. You can stack the paper cups to increase durability and prevent crumbling.
However, you don’t have the cupcake liners, and you can create them with square parchment, square pieces folded, and a cup.
How to Bake Cupcakes with the Paper?
Method 1: Incorporate the paper cups with A Mason jar lid
You can use the Mason jar lids, as they are great for folding the cupcake liners. Set the cupcake liners on a baking sheet two inches apart, and use the Mason jar rings to hold the paper liners firmly.
Then arrange the paper cups in the baking sheet, stick a liner in each paper cup, pour the batter, and bake. The Mason jaw rims create a barrier that holds the paper cups to achieve perfectly shaped cupcakes.
Method 2: Use foil liners with cupcake paper
You can use the foil liners with the cupcake pan, but you can use them alone to bake the cupcakes if you don’t have the pan. You can fold the foil to form a thick cupcake cup and create a silver liner for effective baking.
You can leave the white paper in and unwrap the foil once down, baking the cupcakes to match the other cupcake liners.
Method 3: Make studier paper liners
If you don’t have the cupcake pans, you can make the liners sturdier and use them for baking the cupcakes. You can mold studier liners using glass, and you can make them sturdy with two layers and parchment paper inside.
You can line the mold with parchment paper to make it stand on its own while maintaining the non-stick layer.
How to Create the Paper Cups?
Step 1: Cut the parchment into squares
Use a ruler to measure the parchment paper for precision and cut it into 6×6 squares using scissors. You can double the parchment papers to make them strong for baking.
Step 2: use a cup with a similar base as the cupcake liner
You should wrap the parchment paper around a glass similar to the cupcake liner to create similar-sized cupcakes cups. You can achieve the desired cupcake cup size by placing the parchment paper in the circular bottom. You can align the paper to create equal cupcake cups to make the cupcakes uniform after baking.
Step 3: Press the paper to create folds
You can make folds between each paper corner to create the cup’s mold. You can press the folds close to the cup and run your fingers on the edge of the liner. You can form a strong edge by pressing the fingers along the edge.
What Can You Use If I Don’t Have A Cupcake Pan?
Use a circle cutter to shape a sheet cake:
A cake is considered a cupcake due to the small and round shape with the top frosting; thus, you can convert a sheet cake into many cupcakes.
You should bake a sheet cake in the normal pan and use the circle cutters to create smaller cupcakes. Any thick flat cake will create cupcakes with proper trimming skills. The cookie-cutter should be the same size as the normal cupcakes.
After cutting the circular cakes from the sheet cake, you can place them in cupcake wrappers and add your favorite frosting, and you will be ready to enjoy the cupcakes.
Use silver liners
If you have not seen the shiny silver cupcakes that are thick, you should head to the stores to buy them. These thick and silver papers can work as cupcake pans due to their thickness and metallic properties.
You will line the cupcake wrappers with foil and place them on a sheet tray before placing them in the oven; the silver linings are made from thick heavy paper lined with a silver metal that holds shape well without collapsing.
Stack the paper liners
Instead of using one paper liner for a single cupcake, you can stack the paper liners to create a strong cup that can bake the cupcakes. Five paper liners can easily hold the batter and bake the cake giving it the desired shape.
Once done, you can remove the extra papers before frosting. Although you might need so many paper liners from the process, they are effective when you need more cupcakes quickly.
Ramekins
The ramekins can make fantastic cupcakes that are not portable, and they are effective for party cupcakes that can be placed on a single tray. However, you can serve the cupcakes on the plate and eat them with a fork , making them more of a regular cake than a cupcake due to the lack of paper wraps.
However, if you want to create a cupcake appearance, you can fit the tiny cakes into wraps.
Even if you serve the small cakes without the wraps, they will smell and look like cupcakes; however, you should ensure the ramekins are oven-safe. To prevent the cake from sticking on the surface, you can grease and flour each ramen.
Then scoop the cupcake batter into the ramen and bake. You can remove the cake from the ramen and fit it into the wrappers before adding the frosting or add the frosting with the cake still in the ramen and scoop with a fork to enjoy the delicacy.
Ceramic mugs
The ceramic mugs can bake cupcakes as they are oven-safe; moreover, the size of the regular ceramic cup is almost the same size as the cupcake. The cupcake gets its name due to its comparison to the mug.
Therefore, you can grease the mug and flour it before adding the batter. Then place several ceramic cups in the oven to create the cupcakes. However, the batter should be half the cup to avoid getting tall cupcakes.
Ceramic cups are easy to use and readily available; moreover, you can bake as many cakes as you want with the mugs. Thus if there is an upcoming party and you don’t have enough cupcake pans, you can use the mugs to increase efficiency in the kitchen.
Since the ceramic cups are used to drink coffee, you should clean them properly after baking. You don’t want to have grease in the next coffee cup.
Thus, you should soak the mugs in warm soapy water to remove grease, then use baking soda to clean off the debris and grime effectively.
If the mugs are white, they might be stained by the chocolate, velvet, and colored cupcakes, and you might need to bleach the mugs to restore the color.
Can You Put Paper Baking Cups In The Oven?
Yes, you can put the baking cups in the oven; this would be the more suitable method to bake the cupcakes when you don’t have the pans.
You can stack about five cupcake cups to improve stability and create the cupcake shape.
You can remove the extra cupcake cups once done baking the cupcakes to remain with one cupcake cup before adding the frost cream and sprinkles to the cupcakes.
How To Care For The Cupcake Pan?
Some cupcake pans have crevices, making them hard to clean; thankfully, most manufacturers provide a cleaning manual for them. First, you can remove the cake-on grime by soaking the cupcake pans in warm soapy water.
Then use a soft cloth on the cupcake pans to remove grime and grease. Finally, you can use clean water to rinse the cupcake pans. Some cupcake pans are made of silicon, and you would scrub with dish soap and soak in baking soda to remove stubborn spots.
You should ensure the cupcake pans are dry before storing them to prevent them from smelling good. You can let the cupcake pans air dry or dry with a clean cloth before applying oil to keep off the rust.
You can bake the cupcake cup in the oven to dry before storing it. You can stack the cupcake pans together to maximize on your kitchen storage.
Opinion
Baking cupcakes by yourself can be challenging when you don’t have the right pans. However, you can bake the cupcakes without the cupcake pan; firstly, you can stick the liners to form a sturdy cup that can bake the cupcakes.
Alternatively, you can use ceramic mugs, silver liners, and ramekins to bake the cupcakes. Sometimes you can bake the regular sheet cake and cut it with a circular cutter to create several cupcake-sized cakes and decorate them with cupcake frost, sprinkles, and line with the paper cups.
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