Would these work well as cupcakes?

There isn't any reason why you could not bake this in cupcake form rather than in 8 inch cake pans. You'd want to use muffin liners, and it would be worth spraying them with non-stick spray first. They will also take less time to bake, so you will want to watch them carefully. If you make the full recipe, I hope you are prepared for a lot of cupcakes. I estimate you are going to have somewhere around 36 of them to eat.