Air Fryer Cupcakes

We made air fryer cupcakes with cake mix this weekend and it was a great way to bake in a small batch. No need to heat up your house and oven anymore. Using silicone baking cups you can make a few or a dozen in no time.

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. With this brand you will use the lid that is attached, the rest is a no brainer.

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

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?

Ingredient Notes

Choose your favorite cake mix in a box or make homemade yellow cake mix. Then refer to the back of the box or recipe instructions as far as what other ingredients are needed to make it into a batter. Typically it is water, oil and eggs.

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’ 😉

How Long to Air Fry 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. The 10-12 minute cook time will remain the same however no matter how many you make.

This way however you can 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.

Tips to Follow

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.

If you are making cupcakes with cake mix in an air fryer oven that is quite large, they 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 know how to bake cupcakes with cake mix perfectly for your particular model.

Always allow 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.

Once completely cooled feel free to frost the tops as you wish or really decorate them like our ladybug cupcakes my daughters love. Love making other muffin tin recipes? Us too! Those take about the same amount of time and you use the same cups seen here to do so.