In the pursuit of cuteness, I made us a mini ombre cake. If you’re new to the word ‘ombre,’ you’ve been spared horrible hair dye jobs (lucky you!). Ombre is when a color fades from dark to light. In this case, dark pink frosting on the bottom of the cake fades to a plain white vanilla buttercream on top. Are you with me? Doing an ombre job on a mini cake was, um, challenging. Our little 6" cakes only bake up to be about 2" high, so how much room do we really have to get our ombré on? Answer: not much. But we persevere and swirl a little strawberry jam into our icing with big mini ombre cake dreams.
Before we get too far, let’s talk about mini cake pans. I have always used a 6" cake pan with 2" high sides. This is the exact pan I use. Last year, I started seeing 6" cake pan with 3" sides. Don’t buy those! The extra inch of pan will create more heat in the oven and make your cake sink. (And nothing makes me sadder than sunken cakes). Speaking of, I just created a new SHOP so you can peep exactly which bakeware I use when making small batch desserts. I’m really excited to share it with you!
I should confess, I made this cake for another reason. My site was lacking a mini vanilla cake recipe. I mean, can you freaking believe that? Seven (SEVEN) years of blogging, and I’ve never posted a vanilla cake recipe. And vanilla is my flavor of choice, ahead of chocolate. I should mention that my cookbook, Sweet & Simple has a very vanilla cake in it, and I very much love it. But this one went a slightly different direction without vanilla bean…and with strawberry jam.
If you’re looking at this mini ombre cake and thinking the vanilla icing part looks a little yellow, it’s because I used my favorite Kerrygold butter. It’s a richer yellow color than regular butter, and tends to dye my frostings a bit yellow. I’m not complaining one bit, because you know how I love my Kerrygold. This mini cake recipe makes 6 mini slices of cake, or 4 bigger slices. Personally, I can eat a quarter of this cake at a time without any hesitations. I won’t hedge any bets about how many slices you can eat a time. That’s between you and your fork, no one else.
I’m auditioning cakes for Camille’s second birthday in May, and you better believe this one just landed on the top of the list. Though, I’d have to use blackberry jam instead of strawberry jam for her, because purple is her favorite color. Regardless, cake testing for a little girl’s birthday party is my favorite part of being a Mom so far.
But you guys don’t really think I’ll give her a cake made with real sugar, do you? You know how I am. (See: maple syrup cupcakes, heh).
SaveSave *Since this cake is made with butter, it will dry out quickly if left uncovered. Either serve immediately, or cover tightly in plastic wrap. The frosting will help keep it moist for a few hours, though.
