From one, many???

October 23, 2023 5:58 AM

Can I make a torta del re recipe in a muffin tin instead of a springform pan?

I'm visiting a friend who is a celiac and going through some other, unrelated health challenges right now. She requested some of my baking. I have a long history of baking for her and navigating the ins and outs of her very limited safe ingredient list. One of the favourites is a torta del re, though this time I wanted to make a bunch of mini cakes for her instead of one big one so she can freeze them and pull out a treat at any time.

I usually use this recipe but am considering trying this chocolate version as well.

BUT, I've only ever made this in a 9" springform pan. Will I be able to bake it in a muffin tin? Can you just tell me if this is a dumb idea now so my brain stops pursuing it? I think the biggest issue is that I can't use cooking spray to grease the tins because it's not celiac-friendly, and while I can butter the tins I obviously can't flour them for proper non-stick protection. Though if I were to make the chocolate version I suppose I could use cocoa powder?

posted by Mrs. Rattery to Food & Drink (5 answers total)

I think this should work as long as you adjust the baking time. If you can find parchment baking cups, those are a godsend for baking things in muffin tins. You could also use a little gluten-free flour to dust the cups after you’ve buttered them.
posted by corey flood at 6:19 AM on October 23, 2023 [2 favorites]

Do you have time to buy some new equipment? Because I would seriously consider picking up a mini-cheesecake pan instead of a muffin pan. Then if they stick, you can use a knife to loop out the edges, push the cakes out and then use the knife to cut them off the bottom, as well.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:20 AM on October 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Seconding the mini-cheesecake pan idea mainly for ease of extraction, but yeah, you can make this in a muffin tin.

There are a few online calculators/converters where you plug in the size of the original cake pan and the recipe details, and then you tell it what size pan you want to use and it will tell you how to scale things down (it isn't always as straightforward). So if you do scale down with a smaller cheesecake pan, try running things through that. But if you just want to use the original recipe and make multiple muffin-tin-size things, you probably could - if your original cake is about 8-9 inches, you'd probably get just about a dozen muffin-tin-size. Just REALLY keep an eye on them while they're baking, I'd even consider checking them about 15 minutes earlier than usual.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:31 AM on October 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

Parchment paper is like magic, you can cut a little circle for the bottom and grease the side of each tin. Do a test bake but it should slide right out. Or buy or construct an entire parchment paper cupcake liner.
posted by muddgirl at 6:39 AM on October 23, 2023 [2 favorites]

Different idea: Why don't you bake the cake as usual, then cut it into slices as usual and freeze the individual slices?
posted by amf at 10:56 AM on October 23, 2023 [3 favorites]