My New Challenge 4" Mini Cakes
Decorating By notjustcake Updated 13 Nov 2006 , 1:29am by babynewyear
Hi I have just volunteered myself to donate some mini cakes for a school event's bake sale. I know they mostly prefer cookies and brownies BUT that's probably only cause no one has been crazy enough to make mini cakes, so the challenge I find is icing these I can barely ice a regular cake let alone a 4" cake so should I cover them in fondant? The only thing is these will be sold to families and kids I think don't like fondant only mine!!! Should I or should I stick to buttercream? Any tips and ideas welcome too I have been looking through a lot of cakes and I think I some I would like to try that would look good in small versions simple but cute and a lot of decorations with fondant since it could be made in advance thanks
I did 119 of those little cakes last year for a school. This is what I did....I froze the cakes as they came out of the oven, used a coupler with no tip to fill them and run the icing around the cake, then I smoothed with the small spatula. Let me emphasize something...ICE THEM FROZEN...it works much easier. I never torted them because they are so small. Anyway, that's what I did and what I would suggest as it worked very nicely. I did about 30 of them before I figured this out! Good Luck!!
I made some mini cakes covered in mmf (my first batch ever and I used too much powd sugar, so it was kinda hard) anyway, they are in my photos if you wanna look. They were a big pain and took a long time to make!!! 2"X2"X2". Not sure if it would be easier to ice in bc--if you do, thin it out so it's easier to spread!
You know I thought I could make 4" cakes and ordered a few pans. They were so hard to frost I never use the pans anymore. I MUCH prefer to make the 6". They are so much easier and will serve 4 people one slice. That is the size I make my tasting cakes too. I am afraid I know of no shortcuts when it comes to a 4"!
try rolled buttercream it is similar to fondant but tastes like buttercream. Yuuuummmmy! It's a bit less mat than fondant and has a bit of a shine to it but i'v used it and it looke great and tastes great. Thats just me though. The recepie is in the recipes section.
HTH
I'm making 12 of these little 4 inch boogers right now!!! I have to fill with preserves and then ice and decorate to look like a snowflake on top (of all things 
) I just put 4 in the freezer so I could tort them easier, and the last 2 are in the oven. I'm crumb coating them and then using my big icer tip for the sides to save on time.
I would stick with buttercream.
I found it easiest to fill, freeze, ice.
When icing, I found it best to ice sides first while holding uniced top down then icing the top followed by final smoothing.
royal icing loops for puff-like bows. royal icing music notes, two-loop bows, daisies, roses....wafer paper butterflies...
I hope you have as much fun as my daughter and I did!
Jeanne
rolled buttercream I have never tried that!! thanks for the tips
They are all helpful tips I am so in love with buttercream dream I would use nothing else I better check that recipe for rolled bc and do some trial runs and try the freezing tips I will not fill them they better be glad they are getting a cake period. I can't believe some of you have made so many of these at once!!!!!!!! I thought I was crazy for trying eight!!!!!
I just read the recipe for rolled bc but it says you have to use the paddle attachment not the wire beater but can you use the dough hooks? I only have a Sunbeam my dh doesn't want me to replace til it dies!!!
I made 10 mini cakes last night. I used a 12x18 lemon sheet cake and a circle cookie cutter to cut out the cakes. Which I had made the cake earlier so that I would have had time to chill it so that the circles would have been less crumbly. I used tip 21 and quickly frosted in an up/down manner all around the perimeter and then put a dollop of lemon filling on top and then added more frosting. They were a hit.
i only use my mixer (i have the dimky sunbeam to) for the first of the ingrediance then i use my big wooden paddle spoon thimgy when that gets too tuff i use my hands (i use gloves) turns out good. i make my fondant by hand to cuz my mixer would never be able to handle it so ive had to learn. HTH 
starrchaser i so glad you told me that!!!!!!!!!
All4cakes. I love those little cakes. looks like it would have taken forever.
Were they hard to price? Looks like they would take as long to decorate as some large cakes.
Good luck with yours cakedecor!
Thank you very much babynewyear!
I don't think they were too difficult. Between my 16 y/o daughter that I talked into helping me and myself, it took us a total of 5 days.
1 to some of the deocrations.
1 1/2 to bake and make the frostings.
2 1/2 to decorate and package.
I would definitely want to take off from work should I ever decide to do that again. Makes for some rough days trying to do both!
Wow sounds like a lot of work well I am only making 8
all4cake
Wow sounds like alot of time went into them. But alot of fun!
cakedecor
Have fun with yours batch. Hope you post the pictures. 
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