A Tiny Cake For Your Valentine

This weekend I'm having some girlfriends over for a little Valentine's Day lunch (or Galentine's Day, really), since all the pink, red and hearts of Valentine's Day are more fun for girls anyway. Looking for a special treat to end the meal, I decided to make miniature cakes for everyone.



There's a little extra effort involved in frosting such a tiny little cake, so they definitely say love more than a cupcake or a box of chocolates, I think. They'd be a sweet way to end a homemade Valentine's Day dinner date.



Especially if you go ahead and gild the lily by making a simple chocolate ganache to pour on top.







There are two ways to make these tiny cakes, each with their advantages and disadvantages. If your local big box store carries 4 inch cake pans, that's the easiest way to make these cakes, especially if you're just making two small cakes (use the leftover batter to make cupcakes and freeze them). Advantages: easier to frost. Disadvantages: more oven time, since they'll have to be baked in shifts.

I only have one small cake pan, so it would have taken me forever to bake each layer one by one. Instead, I poured the batter into a sheet pan with a 1 inch rim and baked it. Once the cake had cooled, I used my largest biscuit cutter (or a larger circular cookie cutter) to cut each individual layer. Advantage: saves on baking time. Disadvantage: a crumb-y mess to frost.

Either way, the result is a cute little treat perfect for celebrating love, friends, or both :)