How to Keep Cupcake Pans Looking New

These easy tips will help keep your cupcake pans looking new while preventing rust and stubborn baked-on stains that are tough to remove.

A clean cupcake pan filled with white liners that have been lightly sprayed with nonstick cooking spray, ready for baking.

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Problem #1
Problem #2
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If you’ve ever had issues with your cupcake pans turning out like this (see image below), there are a few reasons it can happen.

Problem #1

Rust

If you’re washing cupcake pans in the dishwasher, if not dried completely, they can just sit in there without properly drying and depending on what kind of pan you’re using, that can cause rust.

Now, some of the newer pans are rust resistance, so you may not have that issue, but it’s something to think about.

A used cupcake pan with rust and baked-on stains, lined with clean white paper cupcake liners.

How to fix it:

If your pans already have rust on them, it might be too late. Iv’e tried all kinds of things to clean rusted pans, but honestly none of them worked super well.

You can however prevent it if you hand wash your pans and dry them off afterwards. Yes, I know this takes more time, but when I started handwashing all of my baking pans, they 100% last longer and look better.

Problem #2

Baked on non-stick spray

To me, this is usually the culprit. If you use baking spray to spray your cupcake liners, it’s also getting all over the pan, then it’s getting baked onto that pan when you bake your cupcakes.

A hand sprays nonstick cooking spray into white paper liners arranged in a rust-stained cupcake pan, with white roses in the background.

How to fix it

If you already have the baked-on spray, it’s really hard to remove. I’ve never been able to fully remove it. It happened to multiple pans before I realized what was causing it.

Once it’s baked on, it forms this gummy consistency. It just won’t come clean enough.

The solution isn’t giving up on using baking spray, it’s just using it a bit differently.

If you add cupcake liners to the cupcake pan first and then spray the baking spray onto the liners, well you’re going to get overspray onto the pan, then it will get baked on.

The solution is to spray each individual cupcake liner before you add it to the pan.

I know it sounds cumbersome and time consuming, but it really does not take that much more time and it’s worth it in my opinion.

What I do is to just put all the cupcake liners into the cupcake pan, but then move over to the sink and pick up each individual cupcake liner and spray it, holding it over the sink (not over the pan), then pop the liner back into the cupcake pan. This way no overspray gets on to the top of the pan.

A hand holds a white cupcake liner while spraying it with nonstick cooking spray, with white roses and lace decor in the background.

Now, you could just spray all the liners while they’re sitting in the pan and then take a wash cloth or paper towel and wipe up any overspray, but to me, that seems like it would take more time, but to each their own.

A clean cupcake pan lined with white paper liners that have been lightly sprayed with nonstick cooking spray, with decorative plates and lace in the background.

Now if you don’t have an issue with your cupcake pans getting dingy, well then that is awesome for you and you don’t have to worry about this.

If you’re like me though and have struggled with this, then this is what I’ve found to actually work and I’ve been able to keep my cupcake pans looking new by handwashing them and drying them off and by not letting baking spray even touch them.

How to Keep Cupcake Pans Looking New

Problem #1