use paper portion cups instead of cupcake liners to make your cupcakes? I started using the 3.25 oz size, they are a little larger than your standard cupcake (about 2 bites more) and no need for the muffin/cupcake pans. The only drawback that I have seen so far is the removal of the paper when eating. But, I haven't had any complaints, just my own experience when eating one. What I generally do is pull out away from the cupcake then pop sideways to open the cup more, once you get it going it is easy to open fully and the cupcakes look beautiful when fully removed. The overall presentation looks nicer in these as well. They don't bleed through as much as a cupcake liner does, and they cause the baking to happen a bit more evenly. The only thing is when I did put them in a cupcake tin they cooked too quickly on the outside and bottom and trying to do the domed top in the cupcake tin didn't work. I have had much success placing them on a regular baking sheet. A full sheet can hold 48 (just like it's cupcake tin counterpart) and a half sheet pan 24.

Just wondering how many others of you are using this method?

One other thing to add. The portion cups never peel away from the cupcake when cooling as cupcake wrappers often do, especially if you freeze them, cupcake wrappers don't do so well.

I have thought about it but....they have been way more expensive than regular cupcake liners. If I could find them wholesale that would make a difference. Have you tried them with cupcake wrappers, how do they work with them?

Thanks for the info though.

No actually they aren't! Mine that I ordered came out to less than one penny each! Or you can buy from Costco or a restaurant supply store in smaller quantities (250) and they are about 1 1/2 cents each. Cupcake wrappers are WAY too expensive, and I don't have a cricut to make my own. I use the Solo brand.

I just checked the price on the 500 cupcake liners I purchased several months ago (before discovering the portion cups). I paid 9.69 for them so that made them almost 2 cents each (1.9 cents to be exact). I got 250 3.25 oz Solo portion cups at my local warehouse store (called Supplize) for $3.75 which is 1.5 cents each. Not a substantial difference but the portion cups are actually cheaper in bulk. And if you are buying the Wilton ones instead of bulk liners you end up paying over 2 cents each because there are only 75 in the bag. The reason I discovered these is because I tried the new Wilton ruffled cups and I thought how much they looked like a paper portion cup. The use of those even getting them wholesale from Wilton was still 10 cents a liner. That was just too expensive to even consider except for a wedding that might want that cup choice (I show different liners when doing wedding cupcake consults, and the price of those are added into the cost per cupcake).

I use the portion cups sometimes... I finally found them for sale in bulk (but not 5000 cups like online retailers) in the same size as a regular cupcake. I've done some fun things with them, you can decorate the cup, etc. For the most part though, I only use them when someone asks for them, because in general when you give someone one of those, they act like they don't have a third grade education. They are actually quite simple to open, (just pull out the pleats) but people act like they just can't quite understand. But they do also have a larger size that's like a jumbo cupcake and people certainly do get a smile when they see those! The only thing better than a cupcake is a bigger cupcake, right?

I haven't used them but I've thought about it. What would happen if after baking you clipped the top rolled edge like two or three times to facilitate peeling off later? One would go quietly insane huh. Too much extra work. But it might be worth it to get to use the nice straight sides on the off times you need the nice straight so much easier to decorate sides?

Can you post a pic. I don't know what these are. Or I do and don't know them by that name.

Here is a link to Webstaurant.com's image. They sell them a bit more expensive than what I purchased them for. Still pretty inexpensive though.

http://www.webstaurantstore.com/solo-325-2050-3-25-oz-white-paper-souffle-portion-cup-250-box/99950SOU.html

You aren't stuck by the size of the muffin pan... for example, in my smaller over I can only get a 12 count muffin pan and a 6 count next to it, due to the size of my oven. But I can take the largest size cookie sheet that I can fit into my oven and put about 38 of the cups on it. So, I'm baking twice as many cupcakes in the same amount of time, with the same amount of electricity. (roughly) It's a time and energy saver. Plus, as mentioned, you can decorate the outside of the cup.

Ahh, that makes sense. When you say decorate, do mean with edible markers, etc?

Souffle cups, google that. I only use souffle cups, I don't like the look of those crinkly boring liners. Also, if you want to avoid the hassle of the peeling part, but want the look, then keep using your regular crinkly liners and just pop them into the souffle cup after they bake. Kind of like a pretty jacket.

Not nut cups, people are going to think of the Wilton cups at Michael's/Joans. You need to get the paper ones that aren't waxed, like you would find at a restaurant supply store. There are several sizes, all in increments of ounces.

Yep Karma that is why I love them! So many sizes to choose from. I use the 3.25 oz because it is slightly larger than a standard sized cupcake. The 2.5 oz is the exact size of a standard cupcake, the minis are the 1.5 oz for me and the jumbo is the 4 oz. You can go as small as the 1 oz which is really cute. I love the fact that they don't peel away from the cake during the cooling process (I use my freezing method as I do for my cakes, never worked well with other cupcake papers). AND like Mel said, you can get so many on a sheet pan and ditch the cupcake pan.

And as others have said these are NOT nut cups. Nut cups are waxed...these are not. Nut cups will smoke in an oven due to the wax coating.

This is very interesting, but my problem would be that the brides I serve usually want colors to match their wedding colors.
How do you decorate them? I can tell you I'm NOT wrapping ribbon around each one. But I do like that they would be much more sturdy and I can save some time. Try baking 400 cupcakes with 4 cupcake pans and you'll know insanity.

Yeah but how many times do you actually get that pretty cupcake wrapper look? You don't. The grease from the cake bleeds through and if you are doing red velvet cupcakes the bleed through is really bad.

If you use the size that equates to the standard cupcakes (2.5 oz) they fit quite nicey in a cupcake liner to give that clean pristine look and it is the liner they want. I know that if a bride chooses a special colored liner then I will bake the cuppies in the portion cup (souffle cup) and put the finished product in the cupcake liner they chose.

Now I am going to run out and see if they have any at my local restaurant supply store!!! I see a change on the horizon... LOL

Are you taking the baked cupcake that is still in the portion cup, then dropping it in a regular cupcake paper for the decoration?

-Debbie B.

I do cut a small notch in each one after baking to facilitate with the removal of the wrapper.

awesome idea.

Wow those are cool! I like the ones with the wings too.

I went to my local restaurant supply and the largest that they had were the 2 oz. I will have to try at another one because I am very interested in them!!!

Try ordering on-line...... it's so convenient.