Smith - Mini Cakes Academy: Step-by-Step Expert Cake Decorating Techniques for Over 30 Mini Cake Designs

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The cakes

Petite yet perfect, beautiful yet detailed, mini cakes make fabulous small gifts to be given and enjoyed. These miniature sweet treats have always appealed to me, they are very personal yet far less daunting to bake and decorate than a large cake. I love experimenting with colour, patterns and design and mini cakes make an ideal canvas on which to try out my ideas. The cakes in this book cover a wide range of themes under four chapter headings: vintage, milestones, childhood and designer. I think the cakes make quite an eclectic mix, so I trust I have included ones that will appeal and inspire you.

I am particularly thrilled with the Hundertwasser-style Happy Home cake. This was a design that just popped into my head, in a flash, and one I hastily scribbled on a scrap of paper before it vanished sometimes designs come to me like this. I also love the Autumn Magic cakes that were inspired by the countryside around my new home in the Shropshire hills. The two designs for this project were researched, considered, planned and developed over a few weeks during the autumn but never the less are just as effective and unique all year round. Another favourite is the Graduation Honours cake, created for my daughter. For me it was a real privilege to create this special cake for her. She has grown up surrounded by my cakes and books and is the one person I can completely rely on to give me an honest opinion.

Throughout the book I have used a selection of cake sizes from the almost bite-sized 5cm (2in) to larger 7.5cm (3in) cakes, ideal for sharing. The size you select is entirely up to you. My students vary hugely in their opinions as to the perfect size. For a mini cake I prefer smaller but Im often outnumbered! For those of you who enjoy sculpting cakes, Ive included a number of designs ranging from seaside beach huts for sunny summer days to oriental paisleys for a touch of the exotic. All are achievable using the templates supplied within the project pages. The designs contained within these pages do not only work on mini cakes, so why not try up-scaling them into larger celebration cakes or even multi-tiered wedding cakes? Ive created an example for the rosette mini cakes to show you how this is possible.

I believe inspiration is vital, so for each cake I have put together a collection of items, including my own photos, and created mood-boards based around colour and theme. My intention is to start you thinking, to spark ideas to help you on your own journey of discovery. If you are new to cake decorating this may seem like a leap in the dark but I assure you, once you have followed the instructions in this book and are feeling more confident with your sugarcraft techniques, youll be able to adapt and change my designs to suit.

As always, I love to see how Ive inspired you, so please do add pictures of your creations to Pinterest, quoting my name or this book so I can easily find them, or Tweet on Twitter using my Twitter handle @LindysCakes or post onto the Lindys Cakes Facebook page.

To see more of my decorated mini cakes and to gather inspiration, please visit my website where there is a wealth of examples just waiting for you to discover. Click on the galleries, the blog and the shop to see cakes in all shapes, sizes and colours. Please note all the specialist equipment and tools you will need to create the cakes in this book are available via the online shop on my website.

I hope you find this book an inspiration.

Happy sugarcrafting

www.lindyscakes.co.uk

Whether they are cute and adorable or bite-sized packages of sophistication, baking and decorating mini cakes is always enjoyable. There is no pressure, you can experiment with design and colour and if youre not happy with the result it really doesnt matter as you can always have another go. I baked and decorated my first mini cakes over a decade ago by cutting up larger cakes. Today, however, we are spoilt as purpose-made round and square multi-mini tins and shaped bakeware are readily available, making baking and covering mini cakes so much easier.

So what is a mini cake? For me it has to be a small cake, designed to be consumed in just a few delicious bites. Im particularly drawn to cakes baked in 5cm (2in) round tins, but the size you select is entirely up to you and very much personal choice. I know from my students that we differ hugely in our opinions as to the perfect size, you may prefer slightly larger cakes, say 6.5cm (2.5in) cakes or even cakes as large as 10cm (4in).

Your choice of size will also be influenced by the decoration you plan to use, and the occasion. Some designs, for example my Marvellous Marigolds, call out to be placed onto tiny dainty cakes whilst others, like the Rainbow Love cake need to make more of a bold statement. I suggest you experiment with various sizes to see which you prefer working with and find the one that appeals most to you.

Look out for the handy quantities chart in the Basics section of this book, which will help you to work out how much sugarpaste (or marzipan) you need to cover the number of mini cakes you have chosen to make.

The designs contained on these pages not only work on mini cakes, so why not try up-scaling them onto larger celebration cakes or even multi-tiered wedding cakes. Here I have created an example for the rosette mini cakes to show you one possibility (pictured below).