Mini cakes

Description

We suggest you move away from the generally accepted canons and prepare mini-cakes that can be served on the table in portions or used as Easter gifts for guests. And no resemblance to muffins, except for the size! The dough of mini-cakes is the most traditional: rich, with yeast. Yes, and the decor has a very definite Easter focus: white cream plus tiny marzipan eggs. By the way, little fidgets will surely like mini-cakes very much, who will appreciate both the format of baking, and the appearance, and, of course, the taste.

Cooking

Step 1

Prepare dough for mini cookies. To begin with, rinse the raisins thoroughly and put them in a bowl. Fill with rum. Cover the top of the container with foil. Coarsely chop the almonds.

Step 2

Dissolve yeast in warm milk. Add sugar and stir until completely dissolved. Leave for 20 minutes in a warm place to activate the yeast.

Step 3

Sift the flour into a bowl, make a well in the center, pour in the yeast solution and knead the smooth dough of the Easter cakes. Cover the bowl with cling film and leave to ferment for 1 hour.

Step 4

An hour after the start of fermentation, sprinkle the surface of the dough with salt and continue kneading the cake dough. Add the oil in several portions, each time kneading the dough until the oil completely disappears from it. When all the oil is mixed in, add the almonds and raisins along with the rum, and knead the dough so that the additives are evenly distributed.

Step 5

Grease muffin tins (volume 100 g) generously with butter and place in the freezer for 15 minutes. Remove, brush again with oil and sprinkle with flour. Shake off excess flour. Divide the dough into 12 equal portions, roll each into a ball and place in the molds. The dough should take no more than 2/3 molds. Put the molds on a baking sheet and cover with a film greased with vegetable oil.

Step 6

Preheat the oven to 180 C. When the cake dough rises to the level of the edge of the mold, place the baking sheet in the oven. Bake the blanks for 25-30 minutes: the Easter cakes should become ruddy, elastic, and a wooden stick inserted in the center should come out dry. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and remove the cakes from the molds. Cool completely on a wire rack, at least an hour. Prepare the syrup: mix sugar with water, bring to a boil, boil with stirring for 5 minutes, remove from heat and cool for 2-3 minutes. Add rum or flavor. Lubricate the mini Easter cakes with syrup using a brush.

Step 7

Prepare cream. Mix 150 g of sugar with water in a heavy-bottomed bucket, stir until the sugar becomes like wet sand. Place the ladle over medium heat and cook without stirring for about 10 minutes, or until the syrup reaches 116°C (soft ball test). While the syrup is cooking, put the egg whites into the bowl of the mixer and start beating the meringue: first, at low speed, when a ball of large bubbles forms, add sugar and increase the speed. Beat until soft peaks. While beating, pour the hot syrup in a stream along the sides of the bowl, being careful not to get it on the whisk or splatter. Continue beating for a few minutes until the mixture has cooled to room temperature. At this point, it will become thick, dense, smooth. While continuing to beat, add the oil in small portions, each time wait until the oil is completely beaten. Along with the last portion of the oil, add the vanilla tincture.

Step 8

Place the cream in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Tint marzipan with food coloring, divide into small pieces and form decorative eggs from them.

Step 9

Decorate mini-cakes: melt chocolate in a water bath or in a microwave, being careful not to overheat, spread with a pastry spatula on a cold surface (for example, on the bottom of an inverted baking sheet or smooth ceramic tiles), cool. Use a wide knife or a metal pastry scraper to scrape off the chocolate so that it breaks into long chips. Lift the chips with the tip of a spatula and transfer to a sheet of baking paper. Place in refrigerator for 15 minutes.

Step 10

Using a pastry bag with a smooth tip, pipe the cream onto the surface of the cakes, place the chocolate chips in a nest, and place the decorative eggs on top of them. Make sure that the eggs do not touch the cream, they can melt!