Keep Your Dessert Bar Organized With A Muffin Pan Topping Station

Does anybody else remember the sheer joy you experienced as a child walking into a restaurant with a build-your-own sundae bar? With seemingly endless ice cream flavors, sauces, and toppings available, it felt like you were the most powerful person in the world as you built your very own personalized dessert featuring all of your favorite fixings.

Unfortunately, reliving those childhood memories is difficult unless you happen to stumble across a frozen yogurt shop. Who says you have to go out to have all of that fun, though? Whether it's ice cream, apples, cupcakes, or cookies in the spotlight, an at-home dessert bar is perfect for bringing together family and friends of all ages. With the help of a muffin pan, the activity can stay fairly clean and organized as well.

Just fill each cup with toppings like crushed Oreos, mini M&M's, sprinkles, or chocolate chips. Depending on what you're decorating, participants in the DIY dessert night can then use a spoon or their hands to sprinkle the toppings on their treat. If you're dressing up something like caramel apples, you can put them on a stick and dunk the fruit right into the muffin cup to get the fixings to adhere. Another pro tip for these occasions: pull out your crockpot, fill it halfway with water, and turn it on high. Then, place your jars of hot fudge, marshmallow, and caramel sauce inside to keep them in a liquid state and warm as you put together your sugary creation.

You probably already know that muffin pans can be used for more than just muffins and cupcakes (try using yours for copycat Starbucks egg bites next time you're looking to jazz things up at breakfast time). Now you know that they can be used as an organized topping station for your next dessert bar, as well, but the sweetest course of your meal is hardly the only time this piece of bakeware comes in handy. In addition to acting as a one-stop topping station for DIY sweet treats, muffin pans can also hold toppings for tacos or burgers, salad fixings for an at-home salad bar, and even become a full-on crudité platter with each individual cup acting as a holder for veggies, dressings, and dips.

When you think about it, a muffin tray is also kind of like a snackle box without a lid. The next time you're having a movie night, swap out your massive popcorn bowl for the bakeware so you can munch on a variety of snacks during your flick. The best part of using the muffin pan method? You only have one single dish to clean up at the end of the night instead of a bunch of little tiny bowls that fit awkwardly in your dishwasher. Score!