Fun Shapes Baking Cups - a great way to liven up plain cakes and make them fun for kids to eat!

Kids often demand frosting to eat plain cakes because a simple cake is not fun enough and I try to bake healthy, often substituting applesauce in lieu of oil to reduce the fat content and add some more vitamins.

But Reynolds used to make Fun Shapes, which were aluminum foil baking cups that came in a variety of shapes. Shapes available have included ghosts, which are perfect for Halloween parties. But you could also by stars, which work yearround, or hearts, which are perfect around Valentine's Day. The price was usually around $10 for a set of 24 cups. I hate to use the past tense because I do not believe that Reynolds is making them anymore, which is a real shame because I used to use them all the time for parties to generate individual cakes of adult portions. The seasonal ones were great for holiday parties. Now I have been using regular baking forms out of metal to generate individual cakes, but the Fun Shapes were in my opinion better because you could leave the cake in the form and simply serve it like you serve a cupcake.

copyright Durhamonthecheap - a star-shaped plain cake looks so much better than a simple slice!

copyright Durhamonthecheap - mom must have worked forever cutting these perfect stars out of the sheet cake!

I have some of the Reynolds Fun Shapes at home and so yesterday for a party I decided to splurge and tap into my precious reservoir of Fun Shapes. I used the star shapes to make a plain lemon cake more exciting for a party and people were commenting on the fun idea to make individual cakes for get-togethers. The baking time is identical to regular cupcakes or muffin pans. It is just recommended that you put the Fun Shapes on a baking sheet because they are regular foil and so not very sturdy. But I loved using them for parties because it was nice to serve individual cakes and the Fun Shapes were a nice change from the usual cupcakes, plus gave a more adult portion to serve. So I hope Reynolds reconsiders and will come up with a substitute for these Fun Shapes because the star shaped cake looks so much better than simple cupcake or a slice of lemon cake.