September 18, 2017
Mini Chocolate Cakes!
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A delicious, light, and moreish version of one of my favourites – mini chocolate cakes! Chocolate sponge, chocolate buttercream, chocolate drizzles!
Mini chocolate cakes
So after making and posting my mini Victoria sponge cakes the other week, I knew I had to post the chocolate version. In all honesty I baked them on the same day as the mini Victoria sponge cakes as these were also part of a mini Afternoon Tea I baked for, but I didn’t want to post them on the same day.
I am quite a fan of mini cakes now after these two recipes, and all I want to do is bake in mini. Literally I want EVERYTHING in mini! I decided to base this recipe on my chocolate cupcakes recipe as its a classic, and it always bakes perfectly for me.
These mini cakes when baked into the special tin, can sometimes take a little less time to bake in comparison to baking in cupcake cases. I’m not sure why, but they’ve always baked a little quicker for me! I do love these tins though. They’re perfect for mini cakes, cheesecakes, and more.
Decoration
I decided to drizzle over some chocolate as I wasn’t too sure how to decorate these cakes. I usually decorate cupcakes with buttercream on top, and then a chocolate bar of sorts for example.
However, with these, I didn’t want to put buttercream on top as well as I thought it would be too much. You will probably still have some buttercream left over so be warned! (If in doubt, buttercream does freeze well!)
Cocoa powder
You can use any cocoa powder you like in chocolate cakes, but supermarket wise Bournville is my favourite! It gives such a lovely chocolate taste. The one I buy from Makro/Online is the Cacao Barry Extra Brute one and its delightful.
Yes, it is quite expensive, but its a big bag and its definitely my favourite cocoa powder ever! The lucky thing is though, these recipes are so adaptable it honestly doesn’t matter too much! Either way, I hope you love this recipe as much as I and my friends did! Enjoy! x
Mini Chocolate Cakes!
Ingredients
Mini Chocolate Cakes
- 175 g unsalted butter/baking spread
- 175 g light brown sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 135 g self raising flour
- 40 g cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
- 125 g unsalted butter (room temp)
- 225 g icing sugar
- 25 g cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Decoration
- 50 g milk chocolate (melted)
- 50 g white chocolate (melted)
- Sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 170C/160CFan and grease and flour, or cut mini circles and line the bottoms of your cups in your 12-hole mini sandwich tin!
- Cream together the butter/spread and light brown sugar with an electric beater until smooth – add in the beaten eggs, flour, cocoa powder and vanilla and beat again for about about 20-30 seconds on a medium speed – it really doesn’t take too long, you don’t want to overbeat it!.
- Spoon into your tin evenly per cup and bake in the oven for 16-18 minutes or until cooked through! Leave to cool on a wire rack.
- Once the cakes are cool, make the frosting – beat the softened butter until smooth – this can take a couple of minutes. Add in the icing sugar and cocoa powder 1/3 at a time, making sure the sugar is fully incorporated each time until moving on! I use my KitchenAid for frostings as the machine can make it so much lighter and fluffier!
- Keep on beating the frosting but add the vanilla, and then add 1 tbsp of boiling water at a time till you reach your desired consistency! I usually use about 1-2 spoonfuls!
- Cut each cake in half carefully – using a piping bag, pipe on some buttercream for each cake and then add the other half of each mini cake on top!
- Decorate your cupcakes how you like – I melted over some white chocolate, milk chocolate and then some sprinkles! ENJOY!
Notes
- I use this 12-hole mini sandwich tin tin for this recipe! You can easily use cupcake cases instead, and take them out and cut them that way, but it doesn’t look nearly as good!
- These Mini Cakes will last in an airtight container for 2-3 days!
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J x
© Jane’s Patisserie. All images & content are copyright protected. Do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words and credit me, or link back to this post for the recipe.
Could I make the cakes and freeze them, I want to use them for Easter but I’m moving house the week I need them, I would be able to decorate them but not cook them??
Hiya, yes absolutely you can freeze these before decorating! Hope this helps! x
Hi, could I use ramekins to bake these in instead?
Made these today and swapped the vanilla extract for peppermint extract and omg they’re sensational! Thank you for the recipe x
Ooo this sounds lovely!! You are very welcome x
I just made these and they taste amazing! So glad I tried this recipe and I’m looking forward to try more! xx
Hi Jane – Great recipe!! I’m wanting to make the buttercream with Nutella – how much should I use? and I assume I wouldn’t need the cocoa powder or vanilla extract? – I’m even tempted to cover them all in Nutella buttercream to create mini cakes in that sense what portions of buttercream ingredients would you recommend? Double? thank you 🙂
Hello! Thank you so much. You could use 100g of Nutella, you can leave the cocoa powder and vanilla extract in or take them out its up to you! Double the buttercream to make sure there is enough and you can then freeze anything you have left over x
Hi Jane, I am just going to make these beautiful mini cakes but I was wondering whether once they are cooked through would you recommend leaving them to cool fully in the tin or out the tin ? xx
I generally find leaving them at least 10-15 minutes is okay, and then removing! x
Made these today but used dark brown sugar by mistake, omg taste sensation, my daughter absolutely loved them. Thank you
Hi Jane,
I have recently made these mini cake and I absolutely love them! I was wondering, could these be made in a coffee version? X
Yes, add in 1tbsp of coffee into 1-2tbsp of boiling water and cool completely before adding in! If you don’t want it chocolate, remove for more flour! x
Hi Jane I’ve made both these and the Victoria’s, so yummy! How would I make these red velvet? X
I would have a look at my red velvet cupcake recipe, and use that as a base – it should easily make 10-12 (depending on your mini cake tin) x
Hi Jane love your recipes , I wanted to make some miniature cakes in lemon and was wondering if measurements would be the same as lemon and poppy seed for example. Thanks Amanda x
Have a look at my mini victoria sponge cakes, and then add lemon to those! x
These along with the mini victoria sponge cakes are so pretty. I can not wait to try these for my friends engagement party! Although i do have a question.. which nozzle did you use to pipe out the buttercream?
A small closed star nozzle x
Do these need to be kept in an airtight container in the fridge to last?
No, never keep cake in the fridge as it dries it out. Very few cakes should be in the fridge.
These look absolutely beautiful and full of chocolatey deliciousness. Congratulations on your new site. It’s clean, easy to navigate and full of your yummy recipes. X
Thank you! ☺️ x
This looks so pretty, I am excited to make this.
These look so cute and fun! I love mini desserts and mini cakes are no exception!
Hi, Jane how much mix would u recommend putting in the tin, about 3/4 s ?
Thanks
Adele
I split the mixture evenly between the 12 cakes, so whatever that is!
Jane these look adorable and so yummy! I definitely want to try making these over the next couple of weeks! Also, I didn’t realise that you have a Sweet Treats book available?! This actually makes me so happy – I can’t wait to have a look through your recipes!
Carolyn x
http://faithfullycarolyn.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/autumnal.html