These easy-to-make pizza cupcakes are a fun appetizer for parties or as a game-day snack.
I made these on a whim this weekend and they were a huge hit with FH and my brother. I love how they look and they taste just as yummy.
Technically it’s not really a cupcake. It’s a savory muffin with mini pepperonis and mozzarella cheese inside. But FH took one look at them as said “Hey, it’s Pizza Cupcakes” and I didn’t have the heart to correct him. When I finished baking them, they tasted good but didn’t look so pretty. So then I got the idea to top them with more mozzarella cheese and pepperonis for a more finished appearance like adding streusel to a muffin or frosting to a cupcake.
I think these would make great party food. And they are super easy to make.
Please find an updated version of this recipe here.
Here is also a video I made when making the updated version:
Pizza cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tbsp white sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1 egg
- 1/3 cup +2 tbsp low-fat milk
- 1/2 cup mini pepperonis
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
For the Topping
- 1/3 cup mini pepperonis
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a 12 cupcake pan with liners (see note).
- In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Add in vegetable oil, egg, and 1/3 cup milk into flour mixture and stir until batter is smooth. It will be sticky. (Add in another 2 tbsp milk if desired.) Fold/stir in cheese and pepperoni. Fill muffin cups about 2/3 full.
- Bake for about 18 minutes until muffins turn out golden and a knife inserted comes out clean. Right before eating, top muffins with more cheese and about five slices of mini pepperoni and bake for 4-5 minutes at 350°F until cheese is melted. Serve immediately.
Notes
Nutrition
The nutrition information provided are only estimates based on an online nutritional calculator. I am not a certified nutritionist. Please consult a professional nutritionist or doctor for accurate information and any dietary restrictions and concerns you may have.
omg, I MUST MAKE THESE!!!!! great idea with having the “toppings” for the cupcakes. it does make it look aesthetically pleasing…
Hehe. Yes make them! I want to make them again soon.
But what about the sauce??!!
I didn’t really miss the sauce, but you could definitely do a side of marinara and spread it on when eating. I wouldn’t recommend putting it on the muffin though as it would get messy and soggy
I must make these! They looks so delcious. What a great idea!
yes check it out!
Awesome! it’s look so original and delicious!
What a great idea! You can pretty much turn anything into a cupcake. This looks absolutely delicious
Will one big pepperoni per cupcake work? I can’t find minis.
Hmm, do you mean for the inside or outside? For the inside if you are using big pepperonis, I advice you chop them up so you get pepperoni bits in every bite. For the outside, I would do the same. Chop up maybe 1 into a few pieces and spread them out on the surface. I think I put about 5-6 mini ones on top of each one.
This is amazingly easy and yields delicious results!
I found these pizza cupcake/muffins really tend to stick to the paper liners. Peeling off a paper liner caused some of the muffin to go with it. For a second attempt I’ll axe the liners and simply spray the pan and see if that helps.
The only thing I missed with these was the flavor of some tomato sauce. I’m looking forward to experimenting with that, as tough as it may be. I was thinking maybe adding a light spread of it along with the addition of extra mozzarella and pepperonis to the top. (although muffins would get soggy…) Or maybe a more adventurous attempt of injecting some into the middle of the muffin.
All things aside this is a great idea one you have to try!
I didn’t personally miss the tomato sauce but now I am curious as to how I can incorporate it in also. I’ll have to experiment with it. Or you can have it as a side for dipping. I’m glad you liked it though!
I made these tonight. I thought the recipe was okay. It was very easy to make, but when I ate them, I could really taste the baking powder. I’m going to try to make these again and use only one teaspoon of baking powder.
I haven’t had that problem with tasting the baking powder..I’m not sure why you had that issue. Perhaps it didn’t get completely sifted with the flour?
To get the marinara taste…
1. Mix 1 16oz cream cheese with tomato paste and pizza herbs (basil, oregano, thyme, marjorum). Add 1 tsp of sugar. Blend well.
You can also add chopped sundried tomatoes.
2. Add a little muffin mixture to the pan (about 1/4 full).
3. Scoop in about 1 TB or less of the tomato cream cheese mixture to each muffin
4. Cover with rest of batter.
5. Bake and enjoy
If you have leftover cream cheese, add 2-4 eggs and add in vegetables (chopped onions, broccoli, cauliflower, celery etc) with salt and pepper. Mix well. Add to muffin tins and bake for mini-quiches that will heat up well in the microwave
For the tomato sauce flavor, maybe you could think about incorporating either adding a thin layer of tomato paste under the cheese on top or adding diced sun dried tomatoes to the batter?
I was actually just thinking about adding the thin layer of tomato paste at the end before adding the melted cheese and pepperoni. Since it would only be added after the muffin is finished baking and only a few minutes, I don’t think it would make the muffin mushy.
Ok, so the recipe turned out great, but I made a few mods to get it there. First, grease and flour your muffin pans, don’t use the paper, the pepperoni causes way too much grease to use the liners. Second, after you mix wet and dry ingredients, add another splash of milk to get it the right stickiness, then fold in your cheese and pepperoni. Expect more of a sticky pizza dough than a batter and use your hands to put dough in each muffin hole. I doubled the recipe and got exactly 24 muffins. Also, I recommend popping those suckers out of the muffin tins and rebake the last bit on a cookie sheet, cause otherwise it’ll be a hot sticky mess to get them out to serve!
Thanks for sharing your mods!
I think a bit of chopped sundried tomato would do the trick. Either incorporate into the batter or add to topping. Will have to give it a try. Mini muffins would be great appetizers.
I’m not a big fan of sundried tomatoes. I don’t know why. But yes, I think it could work.
what do you mean Fold in cheese and pepperoni? put it inside the dough? i am making this tomorrow for lunch…
Yes put it into the dough and mix it in. It’s called folding because you sort of keep folding the dough batter on top to mix it.
I made these for my kids tonight because hubby and I are low carb right now. The other commenters are right….I didn’t use muffin liners, just sprayed the pan. I also had to add a splash of milk after they were alll mixed up, otherwise would have been too dry, although this could be an altitude thing….I am in Oregon. I served with a side of pizza sauce for the kids to dip them in. My kids thought they were the greatest thing ever! Thanks!
I will need to try without the muffin liners next time. I like that the muffin liners make these less messy, but I do agree there is batter that ends up sticking to the liners, so maybe it is better to have it baked directly into the pan.
THANK YOU!
You’re welcome!
Simply BRILLIANT! I am a huge pizza lover! I can’t wait to make these! Going out to purchase products for it now!
I hope you like them!
I added the oregano, thyme, marjoram, and basil to the dry ingredients then 8tbs of tomato sauce to the wet ingredients. then did not put in the extra 2tbs of milk. They turned out Fantabulous! you get the full flavor of pizza 🙂
Hi, I’ve made them today and they were gorgeous. I’ve added 1,5 sundried tomatoe and instead of regular vegetable oil I’ve added oil from those sundried tomatoes’ jar- you should try it, it’s awesome! I don’t like tomatoes either, but if you chop them into small pieces like I did, it should work
Thanks for letting me know what you did with the sundried tomatoes!
Mine are in the oven right now.. I hope i made them right…. yours look so delicious!
Got them out.. it’s amazing!! I did put a little bit of black pepper and oregano on top of the cheese, it added a more pizza’ish flavor
Yay! Happy to hear you like them!
on my next try, i’ll replace the pepperoni with bacon, and i’ll put a little less sugar and more salt, it’s a bit too sweet for me.
I’m definitely going to try these…they look and sound yummy…and so easy too….i”m likin that….thanks for sharing these…
I really liked them; I hope you do also!
These look SO GOOD. I can’t wait to try them!
Made these tonight for dinner. So easy and absolutely delicious. I added 1 tablespoon of Italian seasoning to the dry ingredients before adding the oil, milk,and egg to give the muffins a more savory taste. They turned out lovely. I dipped mine in pizza sauce and my boyfriend dipped his in ranch but we both agreed that they were delicious even without the dipping sauce. Thanks for the recipe 🙂
So glad you enjoyed. I am definitely going to add Italian seasoning next time. I think that is a great idea.
I’m making these and am going to try using the foil muffin liners. With other recipes hardly anything sticks to them.
I’ll be curious how that turns out. I haven’t used foil muffin liners before.
oh!!?look delicious!
I think we should use bacon for the cupcake liners instead. Bacon wrapped pizza cupcakes!
Mmm..sounds good.
Our local Savory Spice shop in Santa Rosa, Calif sells tomato powder. Add that to the batter to create the marinara flavor. Use silicone cupcake liners to prevent stcking or spray a non stick cupcake pan with vegelene. Manja!
I made these the other day, they were great! I have already passed the recipe on to 4 people.
I added a little Italian seasoning and used foil muffin liners sprayed with a bit of Pam, there was no stickage.
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for sharing your experience! I definitely am adding Italian seasoning next time and I like the idea of foil muffin liners.
Could you tell me please what color is your baking powder? here in Spain where I live we have 2 types of baking powder with SAME name. One is white which you usually use together with lemon juice for sweet cakes and another one is light grey-brown color which is for making bread. I really liked pictures and I would like to make same 🙂 Thank you!
My baking powder is white. Hope that helps!
Just reaffirming the rest of the commenters — these cupcakes are fantastic! Made a batch (no liners) for a kids’ sleepover birthday party. Didn’t change a thing, and they were a huge hit! Might be interesting to try the marinara filling suggested above, but not for awhile–I ate waay too many the first time.
I’m happy they came out well for you!
can you use whole wheat flour instead of all purpose….and can I prep these a day ahead and leave them in the fridge…
I’ve never made them with wheat flour. I imagine it won’t be exactly the same. I’m sure a version can be done with wheat flour but I don’t know if other ingredients would need to be adjusted. I also haven’t tried leaving the batter in the fridge. My concern would be that the batter may get dry or hard.
Se ven Riquisimos los voy intentar hacer para mis chicos, Tambien los publique en mi pagina de facebook de Mommys Cupcakes y en el Blog de Mommyscupcakesmore.blogspot.com
Did anyone try making them and freezing them? I’m making them for my son’s birthday party so will need a lot and I don’t want to be doing them all last minute. I just wonderednhow they would turn out. Thanks!
I am going to make for a pool party , I really liked the cream cheese tomato paste idea (Steves idea) I will try that in my recipe. Thanks for the recipes. let ya know how they turn out.
Made them last evening. I found I needed some kind of sauce to spread on or dip in. After my first one, I tried one with some Wholly Guacamole; not bad. Next I used Hidden Valley Ranch; also not bad. That’s what I had around, so that’s what I tried. I used foil liners, but they stuck a little, so next time I’ll do without. I look forward to trying this again and incorporating some of the other folks suggestions. Thanks for posting this recipe.
For everyone having issues with liners sticking, simply spray the paper liners with cooking spray. The paper liners will look really wet, but it works perfect. I’ve made them several times this way with no sticking problems. : )
Thanks for the tip!
Has anyone tried them cold? I’m thinking these would be awesome to pack in my daughter’s school lunch, which will obviously be either cold or room temp by lunchtime.
Forget the pizza cupcakes–give me some zucchini pizzas! Harvest a huge gigantic overgrown zucchini from the vege garden, slice it into quarter inch thick discs, press them between paper towels to remove some moisture, then add the pizza sauce and toppings! Put in the toaster oven until the zucchini is cooked but still firm and the cheese is golden! Yummm! And healthy!
I agree making vegetable based pizzas are great. I did a mushroom one recently, using them to hold the cheese and pepperoni. Though I don’t think we should forget about these cupcakes. They still are pleasing to the the eye and make a nice party treat.
Thank you for such a great pizza cupcake recipe…I did never taste of this one….but I will try…
People — you can spray paper liners! Makes them easy to remove from the muffin, and less messy to clean up.
good tip!
Had for dinner tonight. It was super easy and quick which says a lot cuz I had a 5 yo and 3 yo helping make it. They were very excited. Everyone …including 16 yo & hubby loved it. We had sauce on the side. I used turkey pepperoni. 1 batch with sprayed liners and 1 w/out liners and we had no sticking. This will be a staple & I look forward to trying variations (ie Veges, diff cheeses etc). Posting a link to you with our own pics to FB highly recommending this recipe.
So happy to hear your family enjoyed these =)
Do you think self rising flour will work for the ap,salt,and baking powder. It’s all I have and I want to try these with my kids. Thanks
Hmm, I think it should work. The measurement conversions are about the same
Omg can I use one of your pictures as my Facebook profile picture? I’ll put a link up to the page s2g
Hi, thank you for your interest. Unfortunately, I cannot grant you permission to use my photo for your FB profile. There is quite a high rate of copyright and photo stealing and even though you may put a link to it, it will likely lead to someone else using it, and then others, etc. I hope you understand. I’ve seen my photos ends up on company’s product labels, without my permission, which gets very frustrating.
Going to make these today! Hope they turn out GREAT! Using a side of pizza sauce for dipping, maybe ????
Side of pizza sauce is great. A lot of people have done that
I know these will be a hit at our monthly family get-together. Has anyone tried the mini muffin tins? I’m thinking bite-size would be easier for the littlest grandchildren to handle.
I dont know of anyone who has done a mini version. Mini sounds great!, You just need to make sure not to overbake and make sure each one gets pepperoni.
Hi, I’m going to try your recipe as those cupcakes really look great! What kind of milk did you use? Thanks in advance. 🙂
I used fat free, but you can also use low fat or whole milk.
I don’t eat eggs. Could you suggest any alternative?
sorry i dont have one
Back again a year and a half later to say these are still delicious and a easy loved go to qk dinner—tonight I made them into mini loaves to offer larger serving size ????
wow, mini loaves. I’ve never tried that.