For parties and events, I’ll typically make big cakes, but it’s also fun to make mini-cakes so each person can have one! Even though I call them “mini-cakes,” they’re 4″ in diameter, and most people prefer to eat half and take the other half home. Not everyone, though!
Nordic Ware and Wilton are my two favorite manufacturers of quality baking pans. The companies have been in business for a long time – Wilton for 93 years, and Nordic Ware for 76 years – and bakers have been singing their praises and making gorgeous cakes in their pans for generations.
For one such gathering, I made 26 mini-cakes in two varieties, and while it was a bit of work, I loved seeing people’s faces as we enjoyed the cakes! Making them was much more time intensive than just an afternoon, and I recall two sunsets occurring during the process.
But, it was worth the effort and time, and I was happy with how they turned out both in look and taste.
One type was a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting and decorated with red dragees. The other was a chocolate chip cake with dark chocolate ganache poured on top and then decorated with chocolate frosting swirls and a strawberry (the only healthy item to be found in the entire lot!).
If you haven’t baked little mini-cakes, I encourage you to try them. Your creative imagination will run wild with all the flavor and decoration options, and your guests surely will enjoy eating them.
And who doesn’t like having your own little cake?!
Getting Ready
Making 26 mini-cakes in two varieties required a lot of stuff – ingredients, pans, and tools. Assembling everything so you can keep it all straight in your mind is a necessary first step!
Red Velvet Mini-Cakes with Cream Cheese Frosting and Red Dragees
The red velvet cakes were funny to make – if I hadn’t known that sugar went into them, I would have thought at one point they looked like hamburger patties!
After baking the mini-cakes in their fancy mini-bundt-cake pans, next up was the frosting decorations done with a piping bag. Cream cheese frosting is one of my favorites, and it really sets off a red velvet cake.
Then to top everything off, each frosted cake was decorated with red dragees, hand set with kitchen tweezers, for a pop of (red) color on the red velvet cakes.
Chocolate Chip Mini-Cakes with Chocolate Ganache Drizzle, Chocolate Frosting, and Strawberries
The chocolate chip cakes started from a delicious buttermilk batter, with the chocolate chips folded in.
And, going on the theory there never can be too much chocolate, I made a rich chocolate ganache (warmed heavy cream poured over chocolate pieces for melting) to drizzle over the mini-cakes. Previously I posted about how to avoid a disaster when making your chocolate ganache, and if you haven’t made it before, I encourage you to learn from my trial and error!
Slowly pouring silky ganache over cakes is something to behold! It’s a delicious and beautiful way to top a dessert. But, it wasn’t enough to finish these – so next I made a chocolate frosting; piped it into each of the mini-bundt cakes; and placed a strawberry on top.
All Together Now!
The party guests had their choice of which type of mini-cake to enjoy – and some people partnered to share a half of one kind and a half of the other kind!
Transporting your finished baked goods requires extra care so things stay intact and untouched, and these cake carriers (with lots of bubble wrap) did a great job of keeping all the mini-cakes in good form on their drive to the party!
Do you bake mini-cakes? What cake flavor and frosting combinations do you use? Please comment below!
