The BitterSWEET End To Summer! School is back in session and one of my favourite things about going back to school was seeing what treats were in my lunch box every day! But because I’m not going back to school, I decided to get in the spirit and turn all of my favourite school snacks into mini cakes!
To make my Back To School mini cakes, I began by making 4lbs of my Ultimate Vanilla Cake, 4lbs of my Ultimate Chocolate Cake, and 4lbs of my Spiced Vanilla Cake. Each of the five mini cakes is completely inspired and flavoured by it’s respective lunch box treat. Beginning with Honey Buns, this mini cake features layers of honey buns within and is coated in a splatter of honey and cinnamon. Secondly, the Whipits cake features a coat of chocolate glaze as well as cut up Whipits within and digestive cookie chunks and strawberries all around. The Ah Caramel inspired cake features layers of the treat as well as mini marshmallows and is coated in a sweet caramel drizzle. The Passion Flakie cake is decorated with the snack as well as fresh berries to emulate the triple berry jam within. Lastly, the Cosmic Brownies cake is full of the brownies as well as rainbow bits for an extra chocolatey bite.
Cake
Icing
Decorations
To make these mini snack cakes, begin by making 4lbs of my Ultimate Vanilla Cake, 4lbs of my Ultimate Chocolate Cake, and 4lbs of my Spice Cake. Pour your vanilla batter into four 5” round pans lined with parchment paper and your spice batter into two 5” round pans then bake all six cakes for 45 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Lastly, pour your chocolate batter into four 5” round cake pans lined with parchment paper and bake for 50 minutes also at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Remove all your cakes from their pans then level each one. Once you have done so, remove the caramelization from the vanilla cakes and vanilla spices cakes. For the sides of the cakes, use your fingers to gently rub off the caramelization on the vanilla cakes but leave the sides of the vanilla spice cakes.
Cut each of your cakes into two even layers each making a total of 20 mini cakes.
Using Sir Squeeze-A-Lot, soak all of your layers with simple syrup then allow them to sit for a couple of minutes to absorb.
Each cake will be flavoured to taste like the snack they were inspired by beginning with the honey buns cake. In a bowl, combine some of your IMBC with honey and a dash of cinnamon then stir until it is all mixed together. Add in as much honey and cinnamon as you want until you are satisfied with the flavouring.
Take a layer of your vanilla cake and fill it with some of your honey buns buttercream. Now take two honey buns and cut them so that they fit as a layer of your mini cake. Add some more. IMBC on top then stack on another layer of vanilla cake. Spread on some more buttercream then continue to stack on another honey buns, IMBC, then vanilla spice cake.
Crumb coat your cake with some of your honey cinnamon buttercream then let it chill in the fridge.
Pipe a fence of IMBC on a layer of vanilla cake then spread a layer of triple berry jam within the fence. Cut your Passion Flakies up to fit within your layer then place them on top of the jam. Once you have done so, pipe on some more IMBC adding height to your original fence then dot on some more IMBC on top of the passion flakies and add another layer of vanilla cake on top. Repeat the same steps beginning with another fence of IMBC, jam, followed by passion flakies and topped off with a layer of vanilla cake.
TIP: When using a softer filling like jam or caramel, pipe a fence first so that it doesn’t run.
Crumb coat your passion flakie cake with IMBC then let it chill in the fridge.
Take a layer of vanilla cake then spread on some chocolate swiss meringue buttercream and pipe on a fence of more SMBC. Cut your Ah Caramels up then place them on your cake within your fence. Add some mini marshmallows to fill in the gaps between your Ah Caramels Pipe on another fence around your Ah Caramels then drizzle on caramel. Add another layer of vanilla cake and repeat the previous steps with more SMBC, marshmallows, caramel, and a final layer of vanilla cake.
Crumb coat your cake with SMBC then let it chill in the fridge.
Starting with a layer of chocolate cake, pipe on a fence of SMBC then spread some on IMBC within the fence. Place one full whipit in the centre then cut the rest in half and place them around the centre one creating a full layer of Whipits. Cut up some digestive cookies and add them to the whipits layer to fill in the gaps then drizzle on some triple berry jam. Pipe on another fence or two of SMBC to the height of your Whipits layer. Add on another layer of chocolate cake then repeat the previous steps and top it off with a final layer of chocolate cake.
Crumb coat your cake with some more SMBC or use the excess from the fence, then let it chill.
Divide some of your IMBC into three small bowls then using gel food colouring, dye each one a bright colour: yellow, pink, or orange.
Begin with a layer of chocolate cake then pipe on a fence of SMBC and spread some orange buttercream within the fence. Cut your cosmic brownies in half then into triangles and place them on top of your orange buttercream. Sprinkle in extra rainbow bits to fit into the gaps then pipe on another fence of SMBC and add more orange butter cream. Stack on another layer of chocolate cake then repeat the same steps as before but this time use your yellow buttercream instead.
Crumb coat your cosmic brownies cake with the excess SMBC then let it sit in the fridge to chill.
Ice all of your cakes with the same thing that you used to crumb coat each one.
Cut up some dark chocolate really fine then add it to a bowl with butter and corn syrup and microwave them until melted. Stir the glaze together then pour it onto the centre top of the Whipit cake while slowly turning the cake to get an even coat and allowing it to slowly drip down and glaze the entire cake.
TIP: Make sure that your Whipit cake is completely chilled before you pour the warm glaze on it.
Cut two passion flakies in half and stand them up on top of your cake and pipe a dollop of IMBC between each one. Add a raspberry to the top of each dollop then blueberries and sliced strawberries between each passion flakie. Cut two more passion flakies into guarters then add them around the bottom of the cake along with more berries. Place your cake in the fridge to chill.
NOTE: There is no specific way to decorate these cakes so feel free to take your own spin on each one!
Pour on the rest of your caramel to the top of your Ah Caramel cake and let it drip down the edges (use an offset spatula to help spread it towards the edges). Stack on some full and cut up your Ah Caramels with mini marshmallows scattered around. Complete the cake with a drizzle of caramel over the toppings and let it sit in the fridge to chill.
Cut up some more cosmic brownies in various triangular shapes then stack them on top and around the bottom of your cake in an abstract pattern. Pipe on some of the pink buttercream you made earlier and sprinkle on more rainbow bits.
Stack on six honey buns on the centre top of your cake then pipe on some of the honey cinnamon buttercream around the donuts. Next, splatter on some honey all over the cake then sprinkle on some cinnamon.
Place full whipits on the top of your cake with two full ones stacked on top of one another in the centre. Next, place cut-in-half whipits on top of the full ones so that the cut open side is facing outwards. Use some SMBC to stick a full strawberry on the top then cut up some more digestive cookies and scatter them around the bottom of the cake along with half-cut strawberries.