Hi there

This is my first post as I have just joined the forum.  Hello to you all.  I hope I have put this question in the right area - apologies if not.

My conversion - I bought Rose’s The Cake Bible a few months ago.  It is amazing - for the first time my family ate my cake because they wanted to and not our of duty!! I have been making the All Occasion Downy Yellow Cake, 9 inch size exactly as per The Cake Bible.  Rose is fabulous.

I want to do something a bit different for a friend’s birthday cake. I have seen those multi mini cake tins advertised - you know the ones which look like one large square tin but are divided into 16 separate square sections (they also do round noes).  I would then ice these individually and put them on a stand…so everyone gets lots of icing!  However I’m a bit worried that they may turn out like my old cakes used to…heavy, dry, crusty, uneven tops. At the moment I am using a Silverwood 9” cake tins with Magic Cake Strips and the cakes come out risen and even.  However with these individual cakes, I’m not sure if I can use the Magic Cake strips, I suppose I could join two or three Magic Cake Strips together around the whole outer edge of the cake tin…but would this ensure they all baked evenly, even the ones in the middle. 

Has anyone tried Rose’s recipes with one of these tins - if so how did they turn out? Any advice re baking times as well. In the 9"cake tins they take 26 mins in my oven at 180C.

Many many thanks if anyone can help…or even direct me to another post on this if they know where it is.

Hello! I’m not sure which tins to which you refer? Do you have a link you could post? As for making “smaller” versions of desserts, it’s my favorite thing to do!! Unfortunately, I haven’t found a rule of thumb that tells you if it will work or not, you just have to try sometimes. It really depends on the structure and if it can hold up in a smaller-form. It will always taste good, though! No need to lower the temperature, but definitely begin taking a peek at the product at about 50% of the originally-scheduled baking time.

If you could, I’d love to see the tins. And do let us know the results!

I think this is the pan smilesarefree is referring to.

http://www.alansilverwood.co.uk/id53.html

The only thing I know about mini cakes is that you must leave yourself MOUNTAINS of time to frost them! Much more than you might imagine or else your heart will be pounding the whole time you’re decorating as you try to meet your deadline. It makes sense when you think of how you would devote the same care to each one that you would to a single cake made with the same amount of batter.

SAF - Hi… I’ve never seen tins like you described.  Something to think about…  individual sized cakes are kind of hard to frost because the cake ins’t heavy enough to stay in place when your trying apply the buttercream.  Have you thought about Poured Fondant instead of buttercream?

Hi all, Thanks for your comments. This forum is great!  Kitchennut - Rozanne has given the link to exactly the pans I was meaning.  I think it may be just a question of try and try again with the timings.  I never really thought how long it would take to ice all of them, Carol makes a good point that it will be time-consuming. Thanks Patricia - I never even thought of the fact that it will be harder as they will not have the weight to hold the cream.  I’m a real newbie to baking and only ever tried buttercream, so I’ll have a look to see if there are any posts on poured fondant…is that something you can make yourself or is it something you buy readymade?
Thanks again

Rose has a recipe for Poured Fondant in The Cake Bible .

Patrincia - 13 April 2008 06:18 AM

Rose has a recipe for Poured Fondant in The Cake Bible .

Thanks Patrincia ...will give it a look!

Honestly, I have never liked those types of mini-cake pans. There is not enough space between them for the cakes to bake evenly. The cakes on the perimeter always burn before the interior cakes are done.

I prefer to use a square cupcake pan (also known as a mini crumb cake pan), and Chicago Metalic makes a good one.

I don’t fill mini-cakes, but rather ice the outsides with buttercream and glaze them with ganache.

Hi Roxanne..I never thought of that problem re the uneven baking.  I had a quick google for Chicago Metallic square cupcake tins but couldn’t see them, do you know of a link where I can see them or a distributor.  I live in Scotland, but hopefully they might export.

I think these mini-cakes look really cool and would love to be able to make a success of this. Thanks for your help.

SAF

Available on Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/Chicago-Metallic-12-cup-Serve-Crumb/dp/B000LQF4Y0

Williams-Sonoma also has similar pan.

Have you baked with any Alan Silverwood pans/tins. If so, would be interested to know what you think of them.

Hi geejay - thanks for the link that’s brilliant!  I bought the Alan Silverwood Sandwich tins 9” and 1 and 1/2” deep for my cakes and they cooked really really well.  They seem to get good reviews for their tins. If you ever make brownies - they have designed a tin where the bottom slides out for easy removal, they call them eyecatcher pans.

Roxanne - have you tried both the square cupcakes as per geejay’s link and also the alan silverwood multi-mini tins.  I’m trying to decide between one or the other.  Wouldn’t the baking of the ones in the middle and ones at the outside still be uneven with the square cupcake tins or does the fact that they are each separated from the other make the difference?

Chicago Metallic are quite heavy duty and bake really well. I am curious as to how thick a gauge the Silverwood tins are in comparison. When I’m in London in a couple of months I will definitely check them out. I think the fact that the CM pan wells are separated probably gives a more even bake.

However, the Silverwood pans also have a lot of metal in between and Patrincia has said that she uses a flower nail in the middle of a large cake to help conduct heat. Others use a heat core. I would have thought that this same principle would apply to the Silverwood pans.

On the other hand, if Roxanne has had first hand experience with the Silverwood pans…......

The Silverwood pans aren’t that thick in material but they seem to be made of a special anodised metal. Have a look at the alan silverwood website and you’ll see how they describe how they make it. Can certainly give full marks to the sandwich tins.  Would be surprised that this company would make them if they really were not very good as they seem to take pride in their goods

Just curious, are you a Brit, as I was wondering whether Silverwood is available in USA? Very, very expensive in Australia.

yes. I’m a Brit….well a Scot…we Scottish people are very proud of our heritage!! they are quite expensive here too, but worth the money for the sandwich tins.  These multi-tins price at around £30 for a 16 cake tin in the UK.