I feel so silly asking, but I don't bake cupcakes very often. I would like to try those cute little mini guys, but am not sure I'll make them often enough to justify buying the mini-cupcake pans.
Are cupcakes (reg or mini-sized) something that you can bake in the cups only, without the cupcake pans? Or am I just being cheap?

Now I'm curious too! That seems like it would work. I mean, the batter wouldn't weigh that much, right? I hope someone who's tried it chimes in. I'm cheap, too, and hate buying pans if I don't have to!

I use a muffin tin to cook my cupcakes, i find that if i just use the cases they rise outwards and look flat but i do cook mine at a lower temp for a flatter top.

If you try it use the foil liners or good quality paper liners. I bought some colored ones that are thin and would stretch when I pulled them apart. On the regular size foil liners it says not pan needed . So I dont see why they wouldnt work for Minis.

Aside from some high-quality liners you can get silicone cupcake cups. Reusable, dishwasher safe, etc

They look like paper liners but ar silicone strong enough to stand on the own.

I have several sizes and shapes you just spray a little grease in them add your batter and bake on a cookie sheet.

As far as i know the use of paper wrappers in them wont work very well (just wouldn't fit easily, since the silicone cup is similar in size to your typical paper cup)....If you like you cupcakes to have wrappers a regular pan might be needed

This is not silly question since it means more while baking cupcakes. You can use nonstick muffin pans or small cups and the only thing you should do while using small cups is, you have to spray the cups with PAM so that you can deal with your cupcakes softly.

I tried doing this before for mini cupcakes I put the cases in a baking tray and they cooked but they ended up square! They were pretty cheap foil cases I was using but they really didnt support the cakes or keep their shape and just spread to fill the space available. For what I was doing it didnt matter they ended up square (and my colleagues eat anything!) but if you need them circular definitely try good quality cases and try doubling them up for baking.

You should doing a cost analysis and see how much it would cost to purchase cheap mini liners AND mini baking pans vs. expensive/stand-on-their-own liners.

I'll bet the least expensive option is the purchase cheapo paper or grease-resistant mini liners AND the baking pans.

Stand-alone liners are expensive.