the other day I had to do 16 mini cakes......easy enough right? wrong

those where the hardest cakes that i had to do ? they took forver.
1st i figured that i would make my sheet cake and use cookie cutter to make the different sizes i wanted them 3 tall .... they were too close in size and looked weird so i had to take out my middle layer. then i wanted to cover them in white choclate ganche and they were translucent i sued strawberry cake. and bumpy. then i tried to crumb coat .....
what a waste of my time. they looked the same. and hard since they were so small.....after all that I decided to cover in fondant. i was not happy with them but the customer was pleased. I used my broder and flowers to cover my flaws....

ans after all this rambling because it is 2 in the am. I was just wondering if anyone had anytips so that next time someone asks me to do them i dont say heck no!!!!!!!!!!


i know they has to be an easier way?

Those turned out lovely.

And yes, they are serious pain in the you know what

You can do what grocery store bakeries do and freeze their "slabs" of cake (you would only need to for a few hours) then cut them to size. This prevents those darn little crumbs from getting all over. Also, this way you're not working with a cake at room-temp that is probably too soft to work with. Just a suggestion.

Crumb coating can be a waste of time for these little guys.

A more expensive option, but feasable for someone who gets a lot of orders is to buy SEVERAL minipans...

I'd love to hear other suggestions too.

I bought two sets of pans and it does make it easier at baking time...but that is the only thing that is easier! These are so cute, but so difficult and time consuming, as you well know.

Freezing helps with the crumbs. One of the problems I have is that my hands are large, and my nails stay pretty long, and while I'm working in one area I mess up another one because there isn't enough room! That top layer (2") is hardly big enough to fool with in my opinion!

I have started making a 5" size for my base and then use the mini pans on top of that and leave off the smallest one, (all it is good for is a taster) helps a little! Janice

Never Again more than a doze or so. Last summer I bought the 2 of the wedding cake pans (the one with 6 wells in it) and baked and decorated 200 of them in basketweave WHAT WAS I THINKING It took a special kind of stupid is what I think. Between those and the main cake I decorated for 30 hours straight. Never again for more than a dozen or so. I dont even offer these as an option to my brides. My hands hurt for 3 weeks and I have rheumatoid arthritis, stupid stupid stupid. Them memory is almost as painful.

I have to agree, Heather, what were you thinking?
I'm not sure I'd agree to do these in multiples at all, and I'm sure that customers think these will be cheap because they are so small...wrong!

I can sympathize with the pain in your hands, mine isn't rhymatoid arthritis, but the regular kind, still hurts like you know what!

I've done both BC and MMF, and for these small ones I think the MMF is the way to go...still not easy, but you don't have to fight the crumbs so much! Janice

I think you did a great job! I also try to stay away from mini cakes and petite fours. Too time consuming!
traci

Couldn't you just bake cup cakes, turn them upside down and decorate it like a mini cake topper????
That's what I would do... leve the bottoms so they would sit flat...
Just a thought..
Happy mini baking,
cakegal

true...that's a quick and painless way to make a smaller tier. good thinking!

Mini cake nightmares!! I worked in a huge banquet pastry department a few years ago. We had to make 220 of the 3 tier mini cakes for a wedding...WHAT a nightmare!! It took 4 of us 3 days to ice them all with smooth buttercream, pipe all the tiny pearl buttercream borders and decorate with fresh mini edible flowers.

One thing that did help though, we used a moist almond poundcake instead of a soft spongecake. It did help...but try to ice 220 top tiers that are only 1.5" wide...and you'll cry for days!!! There's no weight to them.

And NO...they aren't cheaper! This banquet hall charged over $15 per plate for the finished cakes.

wow ..........220 i dont think that i would be brave enough........

do they sell the mini cavaties pan for regular round pans or only in shapes I ve seen the dora, flowers etc.... are these what your speaking of.....

A couple of suggestions.
Yeppers freezing is always a big crumbsaver as was suggested.
Two tiers, well large and medium size or medium and small sized muffin tins.
Also, crumbs an issue? Well, this is a good reason to try out the thinned apricot glaze crumbcoat. I use this for cupcakes too, very simple fast way to crumbcoat.
You did a wonderful job, the cakes look lovely!
Hugs Squirrelly Cakes

being the nice cousin that i am.. last year 2 of my cousins got married and for each of their showers i did the individual 2 tier cakes.. 85 for each shower.. for FREE. They were 2" and 4" double layer, with a filling, fondant covered, decorated with either a bow or small fondant flowers. I have no idea what i was thinking! I had noone helpin me and i was up to 5 am each time finishing them!.. lol .. $15 for those is cheap compared to the bakery i was working at... they charged $25 each!

WOW!! that was a lot of work for sure .. I do hope they appreciated your doing that for them!

I am sure you will get a lot of ideas, here are a few things I find help. I have tendonitis in my fingers and rather small hands that tire easily. I have some nerve damage in my left hand from breaking my shoulder a year ago.
First of all make your icing thinner, except of course for roses. You would be surprised that many decorations and borders can me made with much thinner icing that the consistency usually recommended.
Never fill your icing bag more than half full, this really does make it easier to pipe with.
I used to use disposable bags and have tried various brands of icing bags, but I find the Wilton Featherweight the easiest on your hands to work with, they don't harden up the way others do.
Use the smaller bags, don't use more than an 8 inch, 10 if you have to.
Some folks swear by the Wilton decorator gloves, other folks say they are a waste of money, I think it would be worth giving them a try.
Switch to making fondant or gumpaste decorations, these are a lot easier on your hands, at least in my opinion.
Keep your nails really short, you put a lot of strain on the wrong parts of your fingers if you work with long or artificial nails.
Space out your baking and icing more so. I usually make up my icing one day, bake my cakes another and ice and decorate another. Sometimes I freeze some of the cakes if there are lots to do. That way you can take them out of the freezer, defrost and ice and decorate without having to do them all the same day, like for a wedding cake.
Hugs Squirrelly Cakes

Thanks for all the good info SquirrellyCakes .. my mini pans should be coming in any day now .. I hope to try them out soon

Misdawn, gilpnh, I am using a gadget for decorating called an Easy Icer. It is made in England, and I got mine from almondart.com, if you want to take a look at it. Sometimes they show up on eBay (my son got my second set there for me for Mother's Day.)

This is a cartridge system, and it can be operated with your thumb or with your fingers. My worst pain is in my thumb and wrist, so I use my fingers, helps a whole lot, not having to maintain pressure and twist an icing bag!

As Squirrelly says, it helps to bake one day, and decorate another, even then it has to be in stages with lots of rest breaks (my arthritis is also in my knees!) You have to really love to do something that hurts so much, but it is so satisfying to bake and decorate a cake for someone's pleasure.
Janice