Difficulty – Easy
These delightful mini cakes would make a lovely little Mother’s Day gift. They have a vanilla sponge, with an apricot jam centre, and they are topped with a vanilla buttercream and a sugar paste butterfly. They are light and fluffy, perfect little sweet cakes. They are not only a great Mother’s Day gift, they are a great easy bake for any occasion.
Cooks Notes
Gluten free self-raising flour – The gluten free flour that I have used contains xanthan gum. Xanthan gum mimics the gluten in wheat flour and it helps give structure and moisture to a gluten free cake. If your flour does not contain any xanthan gum, then you can add 1/4 of a teaspoon to the dry ingredients (Step 4 of the instructions) for this recipe.
Ground almonds / Almond flour – Gluten free cakes tend to become dry much quicker than cakes made with wheat flour. So to help prevent this I have added ground almonds which keep the cake moist for longer.
Soured cream – This also adds moisture to the cake, which also helps to keep the cake from become dry too quickly.
Tip: When you have cut out the mini cakes you will find you have some cake pieces left. You can freeze these and use them for another recipe, such as cake popsicles or for putting an outer crumb coating on a cake. Alternatively you can simply have them as a snack.
Mini Vanilla and Apricot Cakes
Equipment
- 3 Piping Bags
- 1 Free standing electric mixer or handheld whisk.
- 1 2⅝ – 68mm Round Cutter
- 1 30 x 21mm butterfly Cutter
- 1 Wilton 2D Pipping Nozzle
- 1 9 inches x 12 inches x 1.5 inches deep Baking Tray
- Baking Paper
- 3 Piping Bags
Ingredients
- 250 grams Gluten Free Self Raising Flour
- 150 grams Unsalted Butter
- 275 grams Caster Sugar
- 100 ml Soured Cream
- 30 grams Ground Almonds
- 3 Large Eggs
- 2 tsps Vanilla Extract
- 1½ tsps Baking Powder
- ¼ tsp Salt
Vanilla Buttercream
- 250 grams Icing Sugar
- 200 grams Unsalted Butter
- 30 ml Soured Cream
- 2 tsps Vanilla Extract
Apricot Filling
- 90 grams Apricot Jam
Butterflies
- 50 grams Sugar Paste
- Blue food colouring
- 20 grams Icing sugar
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 150℃ fan, gas mark 2, 300℉ and line the baking tray with baking paper/parchment.
- Cream together 275 grams of caster sugar and 150 grams of unsalted butter in a free standing mixer (with the paddle attachment) or with a handheld whisk. Cream until lighter in colour.
- Add 30 grams of ground almonds, and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract and mix until combined.
- In a separate bowl measure 250 grams of gluten free self raising flour and add ¼ tsp of salt, 1½ teaspoons of baking powder. Stir so the salt and baking powder is mixed into the flour.
- Add ⅓ of the flour mix to the wet ingredients and mix until combined.
- Add 1 egg and mix again.
- Repeat steps 4 and 5 until all of the eggs and flour are mixed into the batter.
- Pour the cake batter into the prepared baking tray and spread the batter evenly.
- Place in the oven and bake for 20-22minutes. Or until a light golden colour and if you poke the cake with a skewer/knife it comes out clean.
- Leave to rest in the baking tray for 10 minutes. Then place on a cooling rack and leave it to cool completely.
Butterflies
- While the cake is cooling take 50 grams of sugar paste and divide it in two.
- Take one of the sugar paste pieces and add a little blue food colouring to it, and knead it in until it is an even blue colour. (You can add a little more if you want a darker colour, but don't add too much as it can make the sugar paste too soft and difficult to work with).
- Sprinkle some icing sugar on a flat surface (to prevent the sugar paste from sticking) and roll out the blue sugar paste so it has a depth of approximately 3mm.
- Using a butterfly cutter cut out three blue butterflies and set aside.
- Repeat steps three and four with the white sugar paste.
Vanilla buttercream
- Add 200 grams of unsalted butter and 250 grams of icing sugar to a free standing electric mixer and beat with a paddle attachment for five minutes. This should make the buttercream lighter in colour.
- Then add 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract (for flavour) and 30ml of soured cream (to loosen the buttercream) and mix until combined.
Putting the cakes together.
- Take a piping bag and fit the 2D piping nozzle to it, fill it with buttercream. *See notes.
- Take another piping bag and fill it 1/2 full with buttercream. Cut the tip of the piping bag so you have a hole with a diameter of approximately 1 cm.
- Fill a third piping bag with 100ml of apricot jam and cut a 1cm hole in the tip of the piping bag.
- Set the prepared piping bags aside.
- Using the 68mm round cutter cut 12 mini cake pieces out.
- Then take one cake and using the piping bag that is filled 1/2 full with buttercream, pipe buttercream around the edge of the mini cake.
- Then take the piping bag filled with apricot jam and pipe in the middle of the buttercream. (You may need to use a knife to spread it out evenly).
- Take another mini cake and place on top of the buttercream and apricot jam. This will make your first cake.
- Repeat steps six and seven so you end up with six mini cakes.
Decorating the mini cakes
- Using the piping bag with the 2D nozzle fitted start piping from the centre and circle round until you get to the edge. This should form a rose.
- Place one of the butterflies where you finished piping.
- Repeat steps one and two until you have decorated all six mini cakes.
- Store the mini cakes in an airtight container and consume within three days.