Mini Cake- Small Batch Baking!

And birthday season continues!  Today I want to share a mini birthday cake I made for my Auntie Judy.  I brought this to our family's Memorial Day/Auntie's birthday cookout.  After loads of grilled meats, veggies, salads and fresh corn on the cob, I knew a huge slab of cake wouldn't be on the top of everyone's dessert wish list...a nice bowl of fresh berries with cool whip was more like it!  But, what is a birthday without a little cake?!

For this cake, I didn't want to make a full batch of batter and frosting and have tons of leftovers, so I researched some recipes and adapted a couple from Country Living for this 'small batch' project and the result was perfect.

The following recipe makes a two-layer 4" cake and enough frosting to generously cover the mini-cake.  Both recipes follow steps that are different from what I typically do when baking, which made it fun.  The frosting comes out super creamy and light- I love it!  I didn't like the extra buttery flavor, so added in some vanilla and it was perfect.  I filled this mini-cake with raspberry preserves and it was the perfect summer cake to pair with Grammy's berries and cool whip.

For the finishing decorative touch, I covered the whole cake in old school multi-color sprinkles before piping a "J" for Judy on top. I just love the whimsy of white frosting, bright sprinkles and birthday candles.  Perfect!

Do you have any small-batch baking recipes?  Let me know in the comments below!

Mini vanilla cake (makes one two-layer, 4" cake)

Adapted from this Country Living Basic Vanilla Cake recipe

Need:

• 3/4 cup flour
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup skim milk

Do:

• Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees
• Spray two 4" cake pans with non-stick spray
• Mix flour, baking powder and salt in large mixing bowl
• Beat in the butter, one small spoonful at a time until the mixture looks like coarse sand
• Beat in the sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the mixture looks like fine, damp sand (NOTE- make sure to scrape down the bowl a few times, especially the bottom.)
• Beat in the egg
• Beat in the vanilla and milk on medium-high, until just blended.  Do not overmix!!
• Pour batter into prepared pans and bake for 30 minutes
• Cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then completely out of the pans.

Fluffy Butter Frosting - adapted from this recipe by Country Living

Need:

• 1/4 c. melted unsalted butter
• 1/4 c. cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 3/4 c. confectioner's sugar
• 1/4 tsp. kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 tsp. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Do:

• Beat the 1/4 c. melted butter with the confectioner's sugar, salt, milk, lemon juice and vanilla in a mixing bowl on medium-high. 
• Beat in the 1/4 c. cold butter, one small piece at a time, mixing well after each piece.
• Use immediately, or chill. If you put this in the fridge and use it later, let it sit out for 5-10 minutes, then whip with a little extra milk or vanilla to make it 'fluffy' before using.

Happy Birthday, Mum!

February marks the month of "birthday" season in my family.  From now through August, we have at least one birthday every month!  Birthday season = peak baking season, and I kicked it off with this cute little cake for one of my favorite ladies - my Mum!

Mom had asked for just pizza, no cake for her birthday party last night because she wanted to get dessert from Bova's after a few drinks downtown.  No cake? Yeah right!  Instead of doing no cake, I just did a little one.  And yes, we still got late night dessert from Bova's too...best cannoli and lobster tails in the city!

So for mom's mini cake, I decided to go with a yellow theme and tried to have the layers reflect a gradient in color.  The yellow food coloring didn't work out as well as I had hoped...the darker layers look very similar in color, but I think it still came out very pretty.

To match the simple whimsical decorating, I kept the flavors fairly basic- vanilla cake, Bailey's irish cream filling, and vanilla frosting.  Sweet treat for a sweet lady.  Happy Birthday, Mum! Love you!

PS - Yes, you read right...Bailey's Irish Cream filling....this is a little hint to a signature-Stacey treat that I'll detail in an upcoming post.  Get excited!!

Happy Birthday Carrot Cupcakes for my Dad

June 12 is a special day in our family...it's like a Father's Day warm-up.  It's Dad's birthday!  Nothing says June like searching for the perfect pair of "miracle socks" (aka polypropelene/COTTON FREE/hiking friendly), packet of Gu, or a classic Dad shirt.  You know, the kind you look at and say, "that is SO Dad." Bonus points from Dad if any of said items are made in the USA (note my festive cupcake liners just for him!)

This year I was in charge of making Dad the perfect dessert.  After some serious thought, I decided to do carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, AND one of Lindsay's famous Rhubarb Bakes.  My dad is definitely into the more healthy desserts, more fruity, less chocolatey, so I wanted to do something I knew he'd love.

I'm happy to report that both desserts were right on the money.  Look at this smile!!  I wonder if it has anything to do with the ridiculous cupcake toppers that I made just for him, hah!

In a fashion typical of my family, everyone had one or two cupcakes, one or two squares of rhubarb bake, AND we each had a scoop of ice cream- Brighams Coffee or Hood Moose Tracks were the two options Grammy decided to pull out of her freezer yesterday.  Don't worry, there were 3 others IN the freezer just in case. We are so unhealthy on birthdays and holidays.  But, I love it!

I used a carrot cupcake recipe from Smitten Kitchen and I *HIGHLY* recommend it.  The cake is incredibly soft and moist, and it's so easy to whip up!  I was a little nervous pre-bake, because the batter was very runny, but the result was a really decadent carrot cake.  Cream Cheese frosting recipe was from who else, Martha Stewart!

I have always avoided making carrot cake because I can't fathom the thought of turning these:

Into these:

However after some blog-hunting I learned that my second favorite kitchen appliance, my food processor, makes this a fast and easy job.  Recipes follow, happy baking!

Carrot Cupcakes adapted from a recipe by Smitten Kitchen
This made 36 smallish cupcakes

Need:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 1/4 cups canola oil
• 4 large eggs
• 3 cups grated peeled carrots
• You can also add 1 cup of walnuts and/or 1/2 cup of raisins if you'd like.  I left these out.

Do:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Line 24 cupcake molds with papers
• Blend flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger in a medium bowl
• In a stand mixer using the whisk attachment, mix together sugar and oil until well blended
• Whisk in eggs 1 at a time, mixing well between each egg
• Add flour mixture and stir until blended
• Stir in carrots (and raisins/nuts if you're using them)
• Bake cupcakes 14-18 minutes.  Smitten recommended leaving the cuppies in the pan for 5 minutes before putting them on a cooling rack and this worked well for me.
• Let cool completely before frosting- you don't want melty cream cheese frosting!

Cream Cheese Frosting adapted from a recipe by Martha Stewart

Makes 2 cups (I needed to make 2 batches of this to generously frost all of my cupcakes)

Need:

• 8 oz. cream cheese brick, room temperature
• 1 stick of butter, room temperature
• 1-2 cups confectioners sugar (start with one, add more to make it the consistency you want)
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Do:

• Put cream cheese and butter into the bowl of a stand mixer and beat with the paddle attachment until smooth
• Add in confectioners sugar, a little bit at a time until you reach your desired consistency
• Add in vanilla extract, beat well, frost cupcakes and enjoy!