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Walking into a home where something delicious is baking is one of those classic comforting experiences, making you feel warm and cozy as you breathe in the enticing aromas. Whether it’s espresso chocolate or banana muffins for mid-morning tea, or cheesy pizza pinwheels baked in muffin tins for the perfect shape, baking is a rewarding experience all round. The problem with the muffin tins used to bake these types of goodies is that they can take up quite a bit of space, usually having 6 or 12 cups per tin, which is especially challenging if you live in an apartment or have a small kitchen. If you’re baking just for yourself and your partner, you don’t always want 12 of the baked items as they cannot always keep, so there’s money down the drain and less enticement to bake. Luckily, we found a nifty hack that will give you more freedom to bake the exact amounts that you need, plus save you stacks of space in the kitchen.
The Dollar Tree 6- or 12-cup muffin pan is made from a lightweight aluminum material that holds the six cups in their individual frames. The cups are secured (not too tightly) in their little frames, so with a twist and a few wiggles, you can pop each individual cup out of its frame. Voila, you’ll go from a 13.75-inch long, 10.5-inch wide 12-cup muffin pan (or roughly half that size for the 6-cup pan), to 2-inch diameter cups that can be stacked into each other.
Not just space-saving, but cost-saving too
This is such a great way to maximize the storage space in your kitchen. They’re also much easier to wash individually than cleaning a whole pan, making them more user-friendly and easily reusable. It’s not just baking that these individual cups can be used for though — if you’ve made a big pot of soup or stew, or cooked too much rice for dinner, you can freeze individual portions in the muffin tins to pull out on those days when you’re strapped for time to prepare lunch or dinner. They take up minimal space in the freezer and deliver perfect portion sizes to make up a satisfying plate of food.
You might ask yourself: These are made from solid metal, so wouldn’t individual silicone cups save you even more space in your kitchen, being bendy and flexible? Yes, they probably would, but if you’re a thrifty homeowner who wants to save space but also has to do so on a budget, you’ll need to consider the costs of each. The 6-cup Dollar Tree muffin pans will cost you $1.25 with the 12-cup pan taking you up to around $5. In comparison, it’s harder to get hold of only six silicone cups, with the starting number usually being 12. The average price for 12 standard-size silicone cups can range in the area of $6.49 to $8.98 and above, depending on quality and make. So we definitely favor the Dollar Tree deconstructible muffin pans to save space while saving money, but either version will do!
