Oh Chocolate Cake! One of my favorite things in the whole world! I could eat a ton of it. All in one sitting. All by myself. But it’s probably better not to, right?
And when we have dinner parties, everybody’s pretty full by the time dessert comes around. So I like to make something small. Something in my favorite flavor – a tiny chocolate cake!
Tiny Chocolate Cake Pans
It all started a couple years ago. I was at Joann Crafts and stumbled across these mini cake pans. They were so cute, I had to buy them.
I just love them. They’re only 4″ in diameter and they make the cutest tiny chocolate cake! (They make other kinds of cake too, but they make chocolate most often at my house!)
You can see a little bit of the mixer in the pictures below. I could do a whole post about how wonderful this mixer is, but for now I’ll just tell you – it’s wonderful! If you’re in the market for a new one, this is it! But onward –
As you can see, the cakes come out as little cups, so you can stuff them with whatever you want. In this case, peanut butter buttercream frosting.
Peanut Butter Cream Filling
If there’s anything I like better than chocolate, it’s chocolate with peanut butter!
Building A Tiny Chocolate Cake
Once you’ve filled them and covered the tops with however much extra frosting you want, you put two of them frosting-side together, then put on the top layer, filling side down.
Technically you don’t really need this shape of pan for this particular cake. The extra frosting in the middle is just a side benefit for me, because these are the only small pans I have! You could buy just plain small pans if you wanted flat layers.
I did a lot of things “wrong” on this cake, but I was mostly just experimenting so wasn’t as careful as I would have been otherwise.
I won’t bother to point out all the mistakes. But if you want to make your tiny chocolate cake look better, be sure to trim the edges and put an even amount of frosting in! Make the outside as smooth as possible. And don’t push down too hard on that bottom layer and make it crack, either.
Pour On The Ganache
The next step is the topping. I love this part because it’s so fun to watch it spill out and cover the cake. My recipe is just an easy ganache of melted milk chocolate chips and cream, and it tastes excellent!
The consistency of your ganache is an important thing. If you get it a little too thin &/or too warm, it can make quite a mess. Besides that, it might not cover any “texture” on the cake.
Witness the above. I was not too thrilled about this coverage, so I figured I’d experiment with a semi-naked cake.
A Semi-Naked Cake
This is what I ended up with after a little trial and error. It would have just been a whole lot easier to have trimmed the cakes in the first place. But we live, we learn!
Anyway, I thought it was kind of cool to be able to see the filling. Especially since the roses I bought to put on it were exactly the same color. Don’t they look peanut buttery?!
Peanut Butter Roses
As I mentioned, I love how the roses were exactly the same color as the frosting. I cut the stems to about an inch, and just stuck them in where I wanted them.
It was fun to cascade them down the side in sort of a waterfall effect.
After the roses were on, there was still a largish expanse of empty cake top.
So to fill that up, (and to reinforce the peanut butter theme,) I chopped up some mini peanut butter cups and sprinkled them on top.
It was the perfect finishing touch to our tiny chocolate cake!
Here’s the finished product! You can get a better idea of how tiny it actually is now that the dessert forks are there for reference.
Dessert as Decoration
Whenever I make a pretty dessert for a dinner party, I like to leave it out on the buffet to come up to room temperature during dinner. Plus then it can be a decoration.
And in this case, we can admire the roses before we have to take them off to eat the cake!
A Rich Beautiful Slice
Here’s what it looks like when it’s cut. The inside is kind of fun with the extra frosting.
This little slice of rich tiny chocolate cake is just the right size for an after dinner treat.
Depending on who you have at your table, one tiny cake can serve up to eight people. It’s delicious enough for a second helping, but my guests always thank me for removing the temptation!
Of course, unbeknownst to them, I usually have another one in reserve, just in case!
Leftover Tiny Chocolate Cake
This recipe makes seven or eight little layers, so most times there are some cake cups left over. There’s always frosting left over too, so you can make these extra little desserts.
And if some don’t get eaten, we can take them into the office and spread the joy around!
Pin The Tiny Chocolate Cake For Later!
Give this delicious tiny chocolate cake a try – you’ll be glad you did!
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This Post Shared With
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Barbara, oh my gosh. This is positively decadent!! And the peanut butter buttercream frosting looks divine. My mouth is watering lol. Those little cake pans are adorable – they would have to live on the very highest shelf in my kitchen otherwise I’d get into too much trouble. Thank you for sharing this deliciousness and wishing you a very happy Monday!
Haha – yes! I keep my pans on the top shelf in the basement pantry. Double-hard to get to! 🤣 I haven’t made this one for a while – I should invite a whole bunch of people over so I’d only get a little sliver! Thanks so much for stopping by, my friend! Hope your Monday was good too!
Beautiful cake and the way you added the flowers makes it stunning. Almost too pretty to eat 😉 But, I would just need to force myself – LOL
Hugs,
Rachelle
Ha – I forced myself too Rachelle! 🙂 It was worth it – this is such a great recipe! Thanks so much for stopping by!
This is beautiful and I’m certain that frosting recipe is going to become a regular in my house! Also, thanks for the reminder to decorate a cake with flowers. I should be remembering that more often.
No kidding – that frosting is the best! 🙂 I think it’s about time to actually make another cake. Can’t wait till we can all get together to share one again someday! Love to all over there!
Tough job if you have to eat the mistakes. LOL Very pretty, but I think I would like it with ice cream filling. Think of it as deluxe ice cream sandwich.Or maybe some cherry filling like a Black Forrest cake.
Oh my gosh – ice cream!! I’m SO going to try that at the first opportunity. Wouldn’t that be delicious?!? What great ideas you have! 🙂
What an absolutely stunning cake and looks as delicious as it is beautiful! Featuring when my link party opens up tonight!
Oh Carol you are so sweet! I’m so glad you like it! I really appreciate the feature – I’m honored to join your party. There are so many wonderful posts! Just got back from a visit there, and I’m totally inspired! Thanks again, and Happy Chocolate to you!
I can’t remember ever seeing these little pans before and am definitely going to have to have some! Your cake is so pretty! Do you use roses from your garden or the florist?
Hi! So glad you like the cake! I’d never seen those pans before either, but I’m so glad I found them – they’re so cute. I pretty much use flowers from anywhere I can find! The ones on the cake came from the grocery store. No matter where they come from, I always make sure they’re edible and very clean before I put them on my food. Not that I would actually eat them, but just to be safe! 🙂
So gorgeous, I am wild about the mini cake pans!!
Oh man! Me too! Those pans were a total impulse buy, but I’m SO glad I got them. They make the cutest little perfectly sized cakes! 🙂
SO pretty! And it looks so tasty, too! I’m featuring it tomorrow at the Thursday Favorite Things link party. Thanks for sharing with us.
Hi Pam – how sweet of you to stop by! And Wow – thanks for featuring the tiny cake! That’s so nice of you! ❤️ I’m hopping over to TFT in just a minute. I can’t wait to see all the new inspiration! Thank you again!!
This tiny cake is gorgeous! And it looks delicious, too! I like the idea of a tiny cake because then I wouldn’t feel so bad about eating it all.
Ha! You’ve caught on to my evil plan! 😉 So glad you like it Michelle, and thanks for stopping by! I’ll pop over to your blog next!
Perfect idea to make them small to savor the flavor with less guilt! Beautifully done and the roses add such an elegant touch.
Aw thanks Carie! I couldn’t have done it without the loan of your most excellent mixer!! 🙂 See you very soon! ❤️
Barbara, this cake is stunning. And it is making me super hungry. Ha. Beautifully done!
So glad you like it Ahna! It made me hungry too! 🙂 Thanks so much for stopping over – Happy Friday and weekend!
Barbara this cake is absolutely gorgeous! I like that it is not “perfect”. The best food isn’t! I just want to dig right in. I bet it is so much fun to make these. And great idea to put them out in the buffet so guests will be sure to save a little room. : ) I know I would! And so good with coffee the next day… if you have any leftover that is! Thanks for a great idea!
Aww thanks Terri – I just love those tiny little cakes! Now why didn’t I think of that breakfast thing??! 😉 Hope you have a lovely day my friend! ❤️
I love the idea of a tiny cake!! Almost seems like most of the calories were left out too 😉 I love the roses cascading down the side, such a beautiful presentation. Chocolate and peanut butter…my favorite! Thanks for sharing
Ha! Wouldn’t that be nice if the calories were gone?! 🙂 So glad you like it Denise!!