Ginny Dyer - Petite, Pretty & Piped

Petite, Pretty & Piped

60 Delicate Cupcakes & Mini Cakes to
Satisfy Every Sweet Craving

Ginny Dyer
Creator of In Bloom Bakery

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To Trisha, who put the love of baking in my heart from a young age, and to Kevin, who knew about this dream first.

Welcome to Petite, Pretty & Piped, a deep dive into the world of cupcake and mini cake making that both novice and experienced bakers alike will find exciting! Here you will find recipes that are aesthetically pleasing and mouthwateringly delicious. Included are 40 cupcake and 20 mini cake recipes, each with a unique and exciting flavor concept.

Baking has always been my solace. From an early age, I was in the kitchen with my mom learning to bake; it was a happy place where I was free to explore and stretch my creative muscles. I believe it deeply affected how I developed as a person; it made me more imaginative, spontaneous and fun. Ive always had a fascination with mixing different ingredients together and trying new things, and that is what I now get to do in my professional life with my baking blog, In Bloom Bakery.

I especially love baking cupcakes and cakes because there are so many different flavor concepts to experiment with. This book is my creative heart and soul poured outall the exciting flavors I want the world to see in cupcake and mini cake form. Each base recipe features a similar, approachable foundation so youll be able to refine your baking skills and achieve moist, delicious cakes every single time. But if you think this will make for boring bakes, think again! Each and every frosting, topping and filling has been thoughtfully developed to create a fun and unique flavor profile, so youll never get tired of baking from this book!

My hope is that through this guide you will fall in love with baking mini desserts as much as I have. May it bring you joy and comfort and add carefree delight to your life. May it be an escape from the world around us, where we can relax our minds, be creative and forget about our worries, if even for just a moment.

I truly hope these recipes are ones that you and yours will adore for years to come. Thank you for being here and exploring in the kitchen with me. Lets begin this beautiful journey and get right down to making some petite and pretty mini cakes and cupcakes!

With love,

A mini cake or cupcake is only as good as its ingredients! Always use the highest-quality ingredients you can. Below, I expand on the most common ingredients youll need to make these recipes and the purpose each one serves.

Baking Soda and Baking Powder: These two very important ingredients are what give cakes and cupcakes their perfect fluffy texture. Without these, baked goods would be super flat and unappealing. Baking soda is on average three times more potent than baking powder, so youll see most recipes call for a teeny amount of baking soda instead of baking powder.

Butter: Ahh, my favorite ingredient. All the recipes in this book use butter instead of oil. Cakes made with butter tend to be softer and have a more tender texture than cakes made with oil. Butter also adds the best flavor to cakes that you really just cant replicate with oil. Butter is also used in almost all the frosting recipes in this book. For all recipes, unless otherwise indicated, use unsalted butter for the best results.

Buttermilk: Buttermilk is used in many recipes in this book. It adds extra moisture and reacts with the leavening agents to give the cakes and cupcakes the perfect rise. If you dont have buttermilk on hand, you can always make your own by mixing tablespoon (7 ml) of fresh lemon juice or white vinegar with cup (120 ml) of whole milk or half-and-half.

Cake Flour and All-Purpose Flour: Cake flour is super finely ground and has a very low protein content. Because of this, cakes baked with cake flour are much lighter, airier and have a looser crumb. Think of fluffy white cake. All-purpose flour has a higher protein content than cake flour. Cakes baked with all-purpose flour have a tighter crumb and more of a bite to them. Think of moist chocolate cake. Cake flour also weighs less per cup than all-purpose flour, so for best results, use the kind of flour each recipe specifies.

Chocolate: Four different kinds of chocolate are used in this book: milk, dark, white and ruby. I highly recommend using the highest quality chocolate bars you can, like Lindt or Ghirardelli. Doing so will give you the very best frostings and ganaches.

Cocoa Powder: The two kinds of cocoa powder used in this book are natural and Dutch process. Natural cocoa powder gives you that classic, mild chocolate taste, while Dutch process cocoa powder offers rich dark-chocolate notes. Each recipe will specify which to use, and results are best if the kind indicated is used.

Cream Cheese: Many of the recipes in this book are frosted with delicious, melt-in-your-mouth cream cheese frosting. I recommend using full-fat cream cheese, as it will give you a more stable consistency and overall better taste.

Eggs: Eggs add structure to cakes and cupcakes. Egg whites create light and airy cake, while yolks add extra moisture and produce a more rich and tender cake. In all the recipes in this book, minus the brownie cupcakes , eggs or egg whites are whipped into creamed butter and sugar, which adds air to the batter. This results in a perfect textured crumb, and cakes and cupcakes that rise beautifully. I recommend using large eggs for all the recipes in this book.

Salt: Salt accentuates all the flavors in cakes and cupcakes. Without it, baked goods would be extremely boring in taste. I recommend using sea salt for the best flavor.

Sugar: Granulated white sugar and light brown sugar are used in these cake and cupcake recipes to, of course, add sweetness but also moisture. Powdered sugar is used to sweeten the various frostings in this book.

Vanilla and Other Extracts: This book uses all sorts of extracts. Vanilla, orange, lemon, almond, lavender, peppermint, hazelnut, coconut and even butter extracts, to name a few, are used to add unique flavor to particular recipes. I love to use vanilla bean paste when I can, as it adds the best and most concentrated vanilla flavor.

These are all the tools necessary for making the best mini cakes and cupcakes! They will help you make perfect frostings, the best cake batter and the prettiest piping.

4-inch (10-cm) Cake Pans: All the mini cake recipes will require three 4-inch (10-cm) cake pans. Heavy-duty aluminum cake pans will be your best option.

4-inch (10-cm) Parchment Paper Rounds: