This Just Might Be the Best Use for Costco Muffins We’ve Ever Seen

Abigail Abesamis Demarest
Abigail Abesamis Demarest
Abigail Abesamis Demarest is a freelance contributor for Apartment Therapy and The Kitchn. When she’s not writing she’s reading up on the latest wellness trends, teaching Zumba classes, or reading a book on the beach.
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published Jul 26, 2022
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batch of chocolate muffins in muffin tin
Credit: Patty Catalano
I Tried What’s Gaby Cooking’s Costco-Style Double Chocolate Chip Muffins and My World Has Flipped Upside-Down

If you love the massive muffins they sell at Costco as much as I do and you’re looking for something to do with them besides freeze them or give them away — 12 muffins is a lot! —you may be happy to learn that you can turn them into a little cake. In an Instagram Reel, Amy Droubay of neuroticmom shows us how to do it. 

The no-bake recipe is for a smash cake, which is technically for a baby’s birthday. The idea behind the smash cake, if you’re not familiar, is to allow your baby to demolish their birthday cake. And if that’s the plan, there’s no point in baking something from scratch, right? Hence this easy hack.

But hey, what’s good for a baby is darn well good enough for me, too. I don’t need an excuse to eat cake! The hack requires two Costco muffins and follows a similar technique that I’ve seen to make a mini layered cake out of cupcakes.

In the Reel, Droubay cuts the tops off of the double chocolate chip muffins so that they are flat — similar to how you level cake layers. She places one muffin on a revolving cake stand, spreads some frosting on top using an offset spatula, creates a ring of frosting on top, and fills it with what looks like strawberry preserves.

Next she places the second muffin on top, cut-side down, and flattens it slightly. Droubay inserts some dowels for stability, then gets to work frosting the sides and top of the cake. Once the frosting is nice and smooth, she removes the dowels and covers the cake in rainbow sprinkles, pipes some colorful swirls on top of the cake, and adds a few maraschino cherries to finish. 

When Droubay cuts into the cake, you can barely tell that it was made using muffins. I think this is a great way to make a custom cake without having to go through the trouble of actually baking, and it’s also an opportunity to practice your cake decorating skills.

Would you try making this at home?

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