I wanted to share something I came across recently. Maybe most of you already know about it, but it was new to me...

I was in Michael's craft store a few weeks ago, in the cake decorating section ....and saw these little tiny cake pans, about 3 inches in diameter. I thought they were so cute that I bought them. I had some batter left over from another cake I was baking soon after that, and so I baked several little layers.

Then...I put two together and iced and decorated the little cake with buttercream, and added lattice and rosebuds around the sides, and roses on the top. In fact, I made 3 tiny little decorated cakes that day. So cute! I put them in very small cake boxes, and tied a ribbon around the boxes, and gave them away. It was so fun! I love to decorate any kind of cake just for the pleasure of it...but these were especially cute and fun to do and give.

Anyway, just wanted to share that. Maybe some of you would like to make a miniature decorated cake. (Actually maybe some of you have already done it )

Linda in NC

I have seen these in several catalogs. They look so cute. One of these days I am going to get a set. I'll have to look next time I'm at Michael's. I hate to pay shipping charges if I can find them when I'm already out. I was actually there today, but didn't notice them. I"ll have to keep my eye out. Thanks.

I have the pan...got it from Wal-Mart. It is the springform pan.

The mini cake in my photos with blue roses on top and around the bottom was done with this pan.

It is so cute and gets alot of use at my house.

I recently saw a cute tiered mini cake (2,3 & 4 inch rounds) & was tempted to buy the pans I saw on ebay for $16 + $15 S&H... decided against it though due to cost. Then my SIL (who is very creative I think) suggested baking a sheet cake & use washed out tin cans that are those dimensions to cut the shapes out. Haven't tried it yet but I will be trying it next week & I hope it works as well as it sounds like it should.....

I too love doing mini cakes, and they can be very challenging!

I've seen the Springform pans like that. I was wondering how well they baked. Glad to hear they turned out well. The idea of putting them in little cake boxes and tying them with a ribbon sounds like so much fun...you've persuaded me to go buy a couple! Thanks Linda!

Steph

Thanks for sharing! These little cakes would also be nice sample wedding cakes.

One more thing about the little cakes...Michaels has several tiny pans--the springform, a bundt, and round ones. I used the round ones, that come 3 in a package. Three layers, but I only used 2 layers, as I thought 3 layers looked too tall and skinny. Michaels also has the little cake boxes. Also, when using such little cake boxes, I found that the inside flap kept falling on the cake, so I taped it together, and to keep the cake circle from sliding inside the box, I put circles of tape on the bottom and stuck the cake board circle to the box. So the recipient could not lift it out, but had to cut away the box to get the cake out.

And just one more thing--I learned the hard way that it's best to put icing on the cake board first, and stick the cake to the icing to keep it from sliding around. Maybe you all do that anyway, but as I said, I learned it the hard way. And I found it a little messy and a tiny bit challenging to ice such little cakes...but once the icing was on them and smooth...I found it very fun to decorate them. I'm going to be making one or two more this coming week. I'm thinking I will use basketweave for the sides and put flowers all over the top. I'm thinking Spring!

So that's about it from me, about these cute little mini cakes.

I love doing the little mini cakes too! Here's a link that someone shared with me in another thread, you'll enjoy looking at the mini cakes in their gallery.
http://www.justfab.com/listings/products.asp?cat=6

I just bought a little pan today at my local cake supply shop, it is a 3" and 2" tier together. I have the 4" pan already. Up until now, my minis have been 6", 4" and a mini bundt cupcake. Then on my last one, I made an extra 4" cake and trimmed it down tracing around a 1/3 measuring cup so that it was about 2" instead of using the cupcake. That worked pretty well, but there were more crumbs to deal with. I plopped it in the freezer for about 20 minutes after I cut it down to size, and that helped alot. I also found that thinning my frosting just a little bit more than usual helped too, since it is pretty hard to keep hold of these little guys!