How to Make Air Fryer Cupcakes

Air fryer cupcakes are a great way to bake dessert in a small batch. NO need to heat up your house and oven, baking in an air fryer rocks.

Ninja Foodi Cupcakes

It doesn’t matter what brand of machine you have on your countertop. I have 3 actually and use them for different reasons. First we started with these air fryer muffins and they turned out so well that the idea went everywhere from there.

Yes, air fryer cake is fun but much more labor intensive than just using a boxed mix. If you don’t want to make all 18 I will also explain how to make a small batch of cupcakes.

Cupcakes in Air Fryer

This is just one of our boxed cake mix recipes. We love tweaking things to make just a few, brownies out of it, and of course these babies as a quick treat. It doesn’t matter what flavor is your favorite.

If you have been in a baking aisle recently you know that there are TONS of options. Pick your favorite box and let’s go with this shall we?

1. Choose your favorite cake mix in a box
   1. or this is how to make cake mix that is chocolate
   2. homemade yellow cake mix directions are here
2. Then refer to the back of the box as far as what other ingredients are needed to make it into a batter. Typically it is water, oil and eggs.
3. You’ll need these silicone baking cups to bake batter in

Typically each of these will yield 18-24 total. You will have to work in batches of course since you will only be able to fit about 8-10 at a time.

Larger machines will allow for more at once but 2-3 rounds will be necessary. Don’t want that many, no worries. I gotcha’ 😉

Small Batch Cupcakes

Most of the time we only want to make enough for 1 or 2 a person. There are four of us at home now so this is how to make 6 cupcakes at a time.

• Yes you can still use a boxed mix, you just use a few cups out of it. Then roll the top up and keep for the next go around. We figured this out years ago and hardly ever make the whole box now.

You can totally make boxed cake mix better though. What I mean is it is all about the add ins and toppings with kids. There are tons of things you can fold into the batter to make it prettier and add a bit of texture. Sprinkles are used the most often but you could use mini chocolate chips or crushed nuts too.

When we use carrot cake mix sometimes I will add a handful of raisins inside too. Then when it comes to frosting and decorations on top the options are endless.

Air Fryer Cupcakes From Mix

I would use a bit of non stick cooking spray in each cup so they slide out really easily if you have some on hand. You will want to make sure that you preheat the air fryer first so the inside temperature is the same from start to finish. With baking that is really important as you know.

If you want to make sure they come out as round as possible, lay the air fryer basket flat on a counter when pouring in the batter. Give them just a bit of space in between each one too so you don’t get a flat area on one end where they’re touching.

Always allow the cake to cool completely, outside of the basket, before frosting or it will melt and slide off. If you are baking with kids just use a tub of ready made and have them spread with the back of a spoon. That is much easier than them trying to maneuver a knife around the top.

Small Batch Chocolate Cupcakes

Make air fryer chocolate cupcakes, red velvet, vanilla, carrot, or your fave one. Here is a quick look at how we did them. If you are already ready for baking in the air fryer basket you can jump to recipe below.

I have an option to print recipe to keep on hand or just come back to “see us” again and again. 😉

• Start by mixing together dry ingredients from the box and needed wet listed on the back into a cake batter.
  • Preheat the air fryer to 275 degrees F for 5 minutes.
• Pull basket out and lay flat, place silicone cupcake cups into basket without overlapping. Use a large spoon or a 1/4 c. measuring cup to fill each cup 3/4 of the way full, no more.
• Close basket and air fry for about 12 minutes. They should be light and fluffy at this point.
  • Open and use toothpick to ensure middle is cooked thru, if not cook for 1 more minute at a time and check again.
• Remove cupcake muffins in the air fryer basket and set on a cooling rack.

Once completely cooled feel free to frost the tops as you wish or really decorate them like our ladybug cupcakes my daughters love.

If you are using an air fryer oven that is quite large these may take a few extra minutes. Just keep an eye on them because from one minute to the next they can over-bake very quickly. Once you do it once in your machine you’ll then know the minutes that are perfect for your particular model.

Love making other muffin tin recipes? Us too! You know you can make meatloaf balls this same way for dinner so everything is the same “shape” and makes dinnertime fun. 😉