Bogota, NJ
We were asked to make 150 of these beautiful mini-cakes for a wedding. Tiny cakes such as these take much more effort than a standard wedding cake to feed 150.
The cakes are made using the following frangipane recipe:
8 oz sugar
1 lb almond paste
8 oz softened butter (approximately 65 degrees F)
12 fluid oz egg whites
5 oz AP flour
1) Cream together the sugar and almond paste until fully mixed. Add the softened butter and mix until the texture appears light and fluffy (this aids in incorporating air to help in rising).
2) Add the eggs and mix until incorporated. Add the flour and mix until just incorporated - don't overmix else you'll over-develop the gluten resulting in a less tender cake.
3) Prepare a full sheet pan by spraying with non-stick baking spray and placing a sheet of parchment on the pan. Pour the batter into the pan and spread evenly (this is an important step as your batter needs to be completely level for your cakes to look perfect!). Bake for 15 minutes at 375.
4) Cool cakes
To assemble the cakes:
1) Divide the cake into three equal portions. Spread a thin layer of apricot preserves on two of the layers (note: you may also use other jams, for example, using raspberry jam is quite nice and will add a little more acidic taste to the cakes).
2) Sandwich the layers on top of each other. Cut out your desired shapes. For the mini-cake above we used a 2.5" round petits fours cutter.
3) To cover the cakes either used poured fondant or rolled fondant (for our cakes we used rolled fondant). If you use rolled fondant, be sure to apply a light coating of your jam to make the fondant stick. We also added a 'ribbon' of fondant to our cake and piped a small snail trail border with royal icing.
4) Apply a small amount of royal icing on your cake board and position the mini-cake where desired. We used 4.5" squares of foamcore, covered with rolled fondant, and glued a ribbon around the edges.
5) Pipe a snail trail of royal icing around the bottom border of the mini-cake.
6) Decorate your board and mini-cake as desired. We added gumpaste flowers and leaves to the board and a chocolate butterfly painted with cocoa butter and luster dust on the cake.
