Your Air Fryer Is The Answer To Delicious Small Batch Cupcakes

When the sweet tooth cravings hit and you need a baked dessert pronto, but don't want to commit to an entire cake for yourself, what's a sweet treat lover to do? Cupcakes, of course, are the logical low-commitment, high-reward answer — the baked good that feels a more bit more appropriate to whip up a random Wednesday night. 

To take the convenience and portion control even further, you could always embrace the single-serve mug cake craze of years past (who remembers?), or you could just whip a small batch of cupcakes in the air fryer. Small batch cupcakes are not quite as big a lift as a whole cake or even a baker's dozen of cupcakes, but they offer a bit more payoff than a mere single serving size. They're the perfect in-between sweet spot, if you will. Because anything a conventional appliance can do, your air fryer can probably do it better — and certainly, quicker. 

From creative air fryer hacks like using it to roast coffee beans (yes, really!) to standard baked goods like cupcakes, the countertop appliance's usefulness extends far beyond just the obvious go-tos like roasted veggies or potatoes. Using any favorite cupcake recipe or even a boxed cake mix, a small batch of sweet treats can be yours with less time, prep, and heat than a traditional oven would require.

The beauty of an air fryer is that there's typically no need to radically adjust a recipe when making it in this countertop appliance versus a standard oven. In the case of small-batch cupcakes, the important tips to keep in mind include not overcrowding the air fryer rack, and swapping out a typical muffin tray for individual silicone or paper baking cups. 

While easy for even the amateur baker to pull off, you may want to start with less ambitious recipes for your first batch of air fryer cupcakes. This probably isn't the time to experiment with a fancy cream-stuffed concoction. Start with a trusty basic recipe and half or quarter it since a small batch is the goal (and since your air fryer won't fit a full dozen regardless). Set your air fryer to its pre-set bake setting if it comes with one. If it doesn't, 325 degrees Fahrenheit is a good temp to start with (because air fryers are more petite than a full-sized oven, you'll notice lower temperatures are typically required across the board).

No need to use cooking spray — which can actually damage air fryers. Just pop the batter-filled silicone cups into the basket, bake for an easy breezy 10 to 15 minutes (checking for doneness as you would a standard recipe — with an inserted toothpick or knife), and pop out perfectly bouncy, risen treats ready to be cooled and iced.

In a basic sense, you can think of your air fryer as a mini version of a full-sized convection oven. The tech powering both are virtually the same — one is just portable and miniature-sized. Both standard convection ovens and air fryers cook food differently than a standard oven does, by circulating air around the inside of the appliance with a fan and exhaust system, the hot air heating and cooking the food through. This method is ideal for evenly and thoroughly cooking food, eliminating the need to worry about rack placement or rotating food, as you might with a traditional oven.

It may take a bit of trial and error at first to find the perfect cook time and temperature for your air fryer small batch treats, just to reliably get perfectly cooked batches to your liking each time. With a little effort, though, comes big rewards: The small but mighty air fryer requires much less pre-heat time, typically cooks food at lower heats and in less time. (For example, you can roast garlic in the air fryer in 20 minutes flat compared to the 40+ minutes a standard oven would need). Score. The air fryer also drains far less energy while doing so, and unlike a standard oven, it won't heat up your kitchen as you bake to your heart's content.