How to Make Homemade Cupcake Liners

I was inspired today by Bonnie at House of Grace's post on her date night in with her husband. She made an amazing cheese and cracker plate that was beautiful. Now, at this time I can't spare anything else than the 5 minutes to blog let alone a whole evening for a date night. But, I did show the post to my husband and we decided that once all of these wedding and portrait sessions are wrapped up and delivered to clients that we're going to duplicate her idea using some sparkling cider and have a (or a few ;) ) nice date nights in before Tony comes.

But, I felt kind of bad that I couldn't do something like that for my husband at this point. So, I decided to make him his favorite cupcakes today! And that brings us to the bulk of this post... how to make cupcake liners. Did you know that there is a difference between a cupcake liner and a cupcake wrapper, even though they're often used interchangeably? A liner is smaller and used just to prevent sticking and messy fingers. A wrapper is bigger and serves more of a decorative purpose. Now you know. I didn't have any of these on hand and didn't feel like running the store to buy some - especially since they were going to be thrown away anyway. So Audrey and I made some.

First things first, get an assistant. They may not do much help, but they look darn cute trying. Next, gather your tools.

You'll need paper (I made 12 cupcake liners, so I had three pages stacked here), a 1/4 cup measuring cup (it's the size of the bottom of the cupcake pan. Trust me... or go check... but, either way it is), a cup ( if I had to do it again, I'd pick a little bit bigger of a cup), scissors, and a bottle that fits perfectly into the 1/4 cup. I also used a pen, but my assistant was using it while this picture was taken.

Trace your cup into circles on the paper and cut them out.

You'll end up with a bunch of circles - almost there!

Have your assistant check them out.

Your assistant may or may not think that it is more helpful to put the circles back in their holes. My assistant lives for puzzles, so we took a brief almost-finished-cupcake-liner-puzzle break.

When your assistant is done with a couple of them, place the circle as evenly as you can on top of the measuring cup.

Use your perfectly fitting bottle and put it inside on top of the liner. I used the vitamin jar. Yes, I know that it's better for kids to get their nutrients from healthy foods, but these are really for me. lol The prenatal vitamins make me too sick to take them since I STILL have morning sickness. So Audrey and I share our organic whole food derived jungle animal vitamins between us every morning. She loves them so much, she kept trying to take the vitamin jar away and open it coz she wanted them. I figure that's not a bad problem to have. Anyway... back to the making...

It'll look like this when it's done.

Have your assistant check them out. You may need to repress them if your assistant is like mine and tried to make them flat circles again.

Put them in your cupcake tin. I never could get the store bought liners to stay straight, so I'm not all too concerned that they didn't lay evenly. Once you pour batter, they stay, and that's all that matters.

Ours had a hidden message on the bottoms for my husband to find.

That stand was a gift we received at our wedding shower. In all the years we've been married, it had never even been taken out of the box. I figured rather than just putting the cupcakes in Tupperware or on a plate, I'd arrange them on here to make it a little more special. It's no romantic tablescape, but I think it gives it a little something extra (said in my best Elle Woods voice).

Bake, ice and decorate as you normally would. The liners serve the same function. The only caveat is that they will take the color of the mix your baking. Mine were red velvet, which is my husband's favorite flavor. They're iced with cream cheese frosting and topped with sprinkles that Audrey picked out just for her Honey. I also wrote out a little poem and put blanks for him to put the letters into as he eats the cupcakes to figure out the message. A little food and a little fun all in one!

My husband was ecstatic when he came home and saw his special cupcakes. He was intrigued at the game and wrote his first letter - "o" - on the paper at the bottom. Once he gets all the letters he'll try to put them in their proper place. Then we hurried up and made dinner and rushed out to prayer meeting. But, he very much appreciated them and felt very loved. That's all I care about anyway.

I forgot to mention earlier that you might need to bribe your assistant with sprinkles to get them to not try and eat the cupcakes on the holder. This will only lead to a mild sugar rush and is temporary. :)

Happy baking!