Ever need a bunch of little bowls in the kitchen and not have enough. Yeah, that was me a couple of weeks ago when I was trying to get Grace’s Rainbow Cake done. I need to sort the jelly beans by color. I knew I had like 6 or 8 glass bowls but I also have SIX little hands in the house that grab stuff from the table as they desire. I dashed around the kitchen for an instant and remembered the muffin tin that I just saw when I put the cool rack away under the stove. 12 little cups … more than I needed. I then delegated … umm, asked nicely who was willing to help me sort colors. My 5 and 3.5 year old were ALL over this. Matthew even was trying his best little two year old effort of matching colors. In no time flat, I had jelly beans sorted …
I made the cake and left the muffin tin on the table. The next thing I knew the parents were asking if they could eat them. Sure. So I went and grabbed a bag of pretzel M&Ms and added to the empty spaces.
The muffin tin was just about cleaned out (minus the black!) at the end of the party from all of the hands grabbing the candy that I had to restock for the pictures … and then the hands were at it again.
Now my muffin tins are well abused … and loved. They show that I use them! So no pretty display but you know what, no one cared. They were thrilled to pick out their favorite color and not dig through plus the kids had so much fun color matching!
A cake post is to come but here was the Rainbow Cake that I needed the jelly beans sorted for …
What have you used your muffin tin for? I know people use them for kid’s lunches sometimes but there have to be some other ideas out there. Leave me a comment and let me know!
how creative!! I love it. and so have to use it when we have another bday party which is like in 3 weeks
That’s so creative! And it’s definitely a good learning experience for your kids too. 🙂
Cute idea!
I’d never thought of using my muffin tins as sorters, but you can bet I’ll be doing it now!
Wow that cake is adorable. We love using muffin tins for sorters. Actually I think I’m going to buy some jelly beans and do the color counting game with my daughter.
The cake looks awesome! Stopping by from the blog hop and now following your blog thru GFC, RSS Reader and Facebook. I would love a follow back on all three of those when you get the chance. Thanks so much for your help and have a great week!
Mary@http://www.mmbearcupoftea.com
What an awesome and creative idea!! I wish I could say that I had this level of creativity but like I tell my daughter & mom, it must’ve skipped a generation 🙁 I’ll keep this in mind in the future though!!
Thanks,
Kelly Burroughs Crowell
kjb1977@live dot com
Muffin Tins? !!! They have to be one of the most versatile items that most of us already have on hand. And unless you are big on baking cupcakes and muffins…
From a cooks standpoint – the regular and even extra large “tins” are great for making individual entrees (meatloaves, quiches/frittatas, mac & cheese cups, molded salads – just use your imagination – and your odd & end leftovers!)
The mini-muffin tins are fabulous for making bite-sized appetizers: we press wonton wrappers into molds and then fill them with any kind of filling (taco fillings, are great and bake until hot and crispy or just cook them empty will golden crisp cool and will with a scoop of chicken or tuna salad – anything that sound good to you in easy to eat cups/finger food!
Beyond cooking and the kitchen – I have used them for years to hold/organize jewelry – especially earrings, rings, brooches, even earrings.
For crafters and jewelry makers – they are fabulous for sorting and organzing small pieces and parts.
So simple and i never would have thought of it. I was seoerating m&m’s a few weeks ago. this would have come in handy
That rainbow cake is so cute! Very creative!
I love this idea, it’s a great use for a muffin tin that I never would have thought of. Also, super cute cake!
This is a great idea! You could use this to sort so many things from beads to jewelry. I can also see kids using this with things like M&M’s to learn colors and math.
We used to use our old muffing tins to make crayons, just melted the ones that were broke or down to nothing, my kids loved doing this.