Here’s the thing about cupcake cravings: sometimes you want the cake, but you don’t want the guilt of a giant dessert. Enter the mini cupcake! Surrounded by a cute paper liner and topped with a perfect swirl of frosting, suddenly that tiny treat tastes divinely ooey gooey all over again.
It’s the perfect solution for when you need a little something sweet. This is a treat that’s easy enough for a weeknight and cute enough for a party. Here are 13 mini cupcake recipes that prove good things really do come in small packages.
1. Mini Brownie Cupcakes
This one goes out to everyone who can’t decide between cupcakes and brownies. Why choose? Seriously. This is for you.
The cupcake part is made with a fudgy brownie batter, and then each one gets topped with a simple but totally luscious chocolate ganache frosting. With just nine ingredients, these are always a massive hit.
I’m not even kidding, whenever I bring these to a party, they are gone in about 10 minutes flat. A total showstopper.
2. Mini Oreo Cupcakes
These little guys are just so good. The batter is this dense and crumbly Oreo cookies and cream dream. Then comes the thick, sugary frosting made with butter, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, cream, salt, and even more Oreos.
If you’re feeling it, you can stick half an Oreo on top to make them look extra festive. With or without the garnish, people go absolutely wild for these little cupcakes.
3. Dark Chocolate Mini Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Frosting
Calling all my salty-sweet people! This one is for you. If you like a little bit of salt with your sweets, these dark chocolate and salted caramel cupcakes are the perfect dessert.
Each cupcake is so light and moist, packed with a rich, premium dark chocolate flavor. That gets topped off with the sweet taste of caramel and a good amount of coarse sea salt to create that unbeatable sweet and salty combination. Plus, they look absolutely stunning.
4. Mini Rainbow Cupcakes
Just look at these beauties! All you’ll need are your standard pantry ingredients and a lot of gel food coloring to dye the gorgeous rainbow layers. Despite their striking, multicolored look, they taste like sweet, classic vanilla cupcakes.
And that vanilla cloud frosting on top? Oh my gosh, 100% drool-worthy! These are perfect for pride celebrations, birthday parties, or even St. Paddy’s Day.
Don’t worry; they aren’t a lot of work. You can easily whip up 24 of them in under an hour. That’s a win.
5. Mini Cheesecake Cupcakes
Okay, these might not look like your conventional cupcake, and that’s part of why I’m so obsessed with them. They’re unique and gorgeous enough to turn heads.
The bottom layer is a tiny graham cracker pie crust made from crumbs, butter, and sugar. The next layer is that sweet and tangy cheesecake filling, which you’ll make with cream cheese, sugar, sour cream, eggs, and vanilla extract.
You can top each one with homemade strawberry or caramel sauce to suit your tastes. Sticking half a strawberry on each one makes them look extra fancy and creates one yummy sweet treat.
6. Easy Carrot Cake Cupcakes
Here’s one of my favorite theories: If you can make a cake out of it, it can be made into a cupcake, too. And these delightful, spiced carrot cake cupcakes are proof.
They have everything that makes carrot cake so yummy, like cinnamon, nutmeg, applesauce, brown sugar, vanilla extract, carrots, and cream cheese frosting. But they’re so much smaller and easier to eat.
Plus, don’t forget my other rule. Nobody really knows how many calories are in these mini treats, so those calories just don’t count.
7. Mini Lemon Cupcakes
If you’re hoping to whip up a batch of minis that are just as tart and tangy as they are sweet, you have to try this recipe. The cupcake part is made with everyday baking ingredients plus both lemon zest and lemon juice, which makes them unbelievably moist and gives them a bit of a kick.
The lemon buttercream icing builds on that kick with even more freshly squeezed lemon juice and zest. These may be small, but they pack a gigantic wallop of lemon flavor.
8. Mini Chocolate Cupcakes
These are for the chocolate lovers in your life; each one is a triple dose of chocolatey yumminess. You’ll use both dark chocolate and cocoa powder in the cupcakes themselves.
Then, you’ll ice each one with a rich, decadent buttercream frosting made from heavy cream, butter, vanilla extract, powdered sugar, and cocoa powder.
If you like, you can add even more chocolate by topping each one with chocolate sprinkles! It’s a chocolate dream.
9. Mini Pumpkin Cupcakes
I always get so excited when fall gets here because it means I can start rolling out the pumpkin, cinnamon, and other traditional fall flavors. These mini pumpkin cupcakes are the true embodiment of my favorite season.
Everything from the pumpkin pie spice blend and canned pumpkin puree to the cinnamon cream cheese frosting just screams autumnal bliss. The recipe makes two dozen, but you might want to double it, because once you start eating them, it’s really tough to stop.
10. Mini Red Velvet Cupcakes
Whether you’re looking for the ideal Valentine’s Day treat or are just craving red velvet, these minis are an excellent answer. They have all the flavor of a red velvet cake and vanilla cream cheese frosting packed into each tiny, two-bite cupcake.
Best of all, you’ll make them entirely from scratch, and it will still only take 30 minutes to bake nearly four dozen cupcakes. That’s hard to beat.
11. Mini Vanilla Cupcakes
Another great thing about mini cupcakes is that you can usually make a ton of them in very little time. For example, you can bake four dozen of these little vanilla cupcakes in just 25 minutes!
You’ll make them just like regularly sized vanilla cupcakes, and they have the same sweet, old-fashioned vanilla flavor. The only difference is that they’re tiny, and there are a lot more of them.
12. Mini Cupcakes Using Cake Mix
We all know that making homemade cupcakes is the way to go if you want the best taste and softest texture. But sometimes, they’re just too much work. That’s where boxed cake mix comes in handy.
You can easily make mini cupcakes by following the instructions on the mix and pouring the batter into mini muffin tins. Then, ice them and decorate them however you like for any occasion. The whole process shouldn’t take more than half an hour, tops.
13. Mini Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream
Here’s another easy-to-follow recipe for standard vanilla mini cupcakes, but for this one, you’ll top them with a smooth and super sweet chocolate buttercream frosting.
And don’t let the homemade buttercream scare you; it’s much easier to make than most people realize and requires only five simple ingredients. Even though you’ll create these from scratch, it should only take about 22 minutes to make them from start to finish.
