Chocolate Mini Cakes
My favorite chocolate cake, baked in a larger sheet pan and cut out into little circles, to make easy mini chocolate cakes.
I needed a recipe that was easy to make several mini little cakes so I used my vanilla cake recipe to make vanilla mini cakes SO OF COURSE we needed a chocolate version. Thus I baked my favorite and famous black cocoa cake recipe in a sheet pan to cut out little mini cakes.
These are so fun to make and convenient to make for when you want to serve individual cakes at parties, or even smash cakes or gifts to friends/family. Each cake can be individually customized without having to make so many batches.
My favorite part is that you can frost these cakes in any way. I used Mascarpone Cream here but of course you could also use Chantilly Cream, Swiss Meringue Buttercream or French buttercream. They can all easily be flavored with whatever your heart desires – some examples are blueberry frosting, caramel pecan filling, or white chocolate frosting.
How To Make Mini Chocolate Cakes
I found it easiest to bake a large sheet pan cake and then use biscuit cutters to out the mini cakes into any size desired. You can use any type of frosting for them, customize the fillings, etc. and you can leave them naked for have them fully frosted (although I will say, it is much more difficult to get a nice finish of frosting on a mini cake than it is on a larger cake). I kept mine unfrosted here so they look like little tea cakes because I used them at a tea party dinner.
Ingredients & Substitutions
- Flour: I use all purpose flour in most of my recipes BUT sometimes you just cannot beat the texture of cake flour. I highly recommend King Arthur’s Cake Flour. It is far superior to some alternatives in the grocery stores.
- I have used the “homemade cake flour” trick by replacing 1 tablespoon of all-purpose flour with cornstarch.
- I HIGHLY recommend using a digital scale, as flour is so often over measured.
- Baking Powder: to leaven the cake. I haven’t tested this with baking soda but it should work fine with ½ tsp.
- Sugar: I used granulated sugar in the cake and I don’t recommend cutting any out as it contributes a lot to texture and it’s not overly sweet… it’s actually not very sweet at all (even though it seems like a lot).
- I also used powdered sugar in the frosting and don’t recommend cutting any out.
- Oil: I like oil in chocolate cake recipes – any neutral oil, like avocado, canola, etc. is fine.
- Eggs: I use large eggs, make sure they’re room temperature. If not, then just place it in a cup of hot water for 10 minutes before using it.
- Sour Cream: I’ve used greek yogurt and sour cream in this recipe and they both work well. You can also use plain yogurt.
- Coffee: I use hot coffee in this recipe. I usually use Americanos but fresh brewed coffee is fine too. If you don’t want to use coffee, hot water will work as well, the flavor will just be a little less intense… The acid from the coffee also helps make it a little more tender and it’s not a noticeable coffee flavor so I do recommend the coffee.
- Vanilla: I like using vanilla extract for cakes and vanilla beans for frosting. Vanilla bean paste works for both as well.
- Mascarpone: I tested this with different brands of mascarpone, they all worked however, some of the mascarpone’s held a little more water than others. My favorite was BelGioioso Mascarpone but if you find something with an even higher fat content, use that. The cheese should be smooth and creamy (not wet and certainly not like cottage cheese or ricotta).
- If you use another brand and you see water in it (usually at the bottom) , drain the cheese to avoid adding extra liquid to the cream but I recommend just finding a mascarpone with a thicker consistency.
- Make sure the mascarpone is cold, straight from the fridge when using.
- Heavy Whipping Cream: I recommend using the cream with the highest fat you can find and make sure it’s cold when adding it to the mascarpone.
- When you do add it in, you’ll notice the frosting getting softer first, just keep beating at full speed for a few minutes and the cream will “whip up”, stiffening the frosting. Once it’s holding good peaks, stop beating so you don’t over-whip the cream.
- Jam: for this particular recipe I made a mixed berry jam using my raspberry cake filling recipe but with frozen mixed berries. Any homemade or store bought jam works fine 🙂
Step-by-Step Instructions
Black Cake
- Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt until they’re evenly distributed.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the oil, sugar, eggs and sour cream until they’re well combined and smooth.
- Sift the dry ingredients over the wet and whisk just a little – about halfway.
- Pour in the hot coffee and whisk until the batter is completely smooth.
- Scrape the edge of the bowl and give it a good mix. Pour into the prepared cake pan.
- Bake for 15-20ish minutes, until the center of the cake springs back when you press on it. If you’re hesitant, give it another minute or so.
- Let the cake cool completely before cutting out the circles.
Mascarpone Frosting
- Beat together the cold mascarpone with the powdered sugar until it’s completely smooth.
- Add the vanilla bean paste and turn the mixer to medium speed.
- Stream in the cold heavy whipping cream in 3-4 increments, stopping to scrape the edge of the bowl each time. Once all the heavy whipping cream is added, it may seem soft so turn the mixer up to full speed and it should thicken and hold peaks within a couple of minutes. Don’t over-beat once you’ve reached this stage.
- Spread the cream on top of the first layer of cake, swirl in some dollops of jam and repeat for the next two layers.
Expert tips on getting perfect little mini cakes
- Don’t swap ingredients unless I mentioned them in the ingredient section above.
- Don’t reduce the sugar. I know a lot of people do that for some recipes but not this one.
- Weigh your ingredients with a digital scale
- Weigh the batter for each cake tin to get even layers.
- Make sure to measure your pan accurately and map out your cut outs before making the first cut into the cake.
- Make sure the mascarpone and heavy cream are cold before making the frosting.
FAQs
You can technically bake any chocolate cake recipe in a sheet pan to do this however not all recipes are created equally. This particular recipe bakes so nice and flat in the 11×15” sheet pan so it’s perfect for cutting out equal size circles.
It depends on the size pan you use and the size of the circles you cut out. I used an 11×15” sheet pan and I cut out 12 circles with a 3 inch biscuit cutter. I had to stagger the circles just a bit to squeeze out 12 so it is tight. I then layered three circles per cake so that gave me four total mini cakes.
SO GLAD YOU ASKED! Most people will tell you to make cake pops or cakesicles with cake scraps, however I find those to be so tedious and not worth my time so I make cake scrap boxes or cakes in a jar!
You just layer all the scraps in a jar or a to-go box/container with the fillings and frostings and give them to friends or sell them for cheaper if you’re a bakery.
How to store mini cakes
If the cake(s) are not frosted, you can keep them airtight at room temperature for a couple of days. If it’s frosted, store it airtight in the fridge for up to a week.
The cake also freezes well. Just wrap the whole cake in plastic wrap and then foil and freeze. Or place slices in an airtight container and then place the container in a freezer bag, squeezing out all the excess air. Bring back to room temperature by thawing at room temperature for a few hours before serving or refrigerate overnight.
Thanks so much for reading today’s post, if you have any questions just comment down below. If you make these chocolate mini cakes, I’d love it if you left a 5-star rating or a review for me!
As always, have a blessed day and happy baking!
Love, B
