The best way to recover from summer travel fatigue is with mini lemon buttercream floral confetti cakes. It has been a couple days since my parents and aunt visited me in Ohio. I spent the last week thoroughly exploring downtown Columbus and showing my parents the wonderful attractions Ohio has to offer. The last time they visited Kevin and I was two years ago. My parents, aunt, and brothers all traveled to Ohio from New York City. We all had a blast exploring the food and culture of Cincinnati and its surrounding areas. This time, only my parents and aunt came. My brothers were off to their own adventures. Peter traveled to Rhode Island with his wife, son, and in-laws. Yu went on a cruise with his girlfriend. I didn’t want my parents to miss out on an adventure, so I invited them to experience Ohio. On the weeks leading up to their visit, I listed out a bunch of places I wanted to take them to. On the top of my list was Red, White & Boom followed by Hocking Hills. Both experiences were unique to Ohio and I truly believed they would enjoy both experiences. My parents and aunt arrived on July 2nd and stayed for almost an entire week. You can read more about our adventures during the week of July 4th here and here.
This week was my first full week back to work. I spent most of my Monday catching up on emails and most of my Tuesday following up on immediate requests. When I got home today, I wanted to share a recipe I worked on two weeks ago for my mini buttercream floral confetti cakes. I had initially intended on making a confetti cake to celebrate my family’s visit. My experiments in the kitchen led me to make mini buttercream floral confetti cakes instead. Each piece of cake looks like a smaller version of a large circular cake. These little cakes are thinly frosted on top and decorated with the most adorable buttercream flowers and leaves. I’ve been making confetti cakes throughout the years to celebrate important milestones. Last year, I celebrated Kevin’s 30th birthday with a confetti cake frosted with some vanilla buttercream frosting. This year, I practiced adding new twists to my confetti cake and ended up making mini buttercream floral confetti cakes. The mini versions were cuter and easier to serve. I used my trusty old circle cookie cutter to cut the larger cake into mini cakes. My cookie cutter is the same cookie cutter I have been using to cut biscuits, scones, and mini pie crust circles. I did have some remaining cake pieces and buttercream frosting, which I ended up repurposing in a new way. See my takeaways section below for how to use up the leftover cake pieces and buttercream frosting.
Mini Lemon Buttercream Floral Confetti Cakes:
For the confetti cake:
· 1½ cups all-purpose flour
· 1½ teaspoons baking powder
· ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
· ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
· ¾ cup granulated sugar
· 2 large eggs, room temperature
· ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
· zest of a small lemon
· ½ cup whole milk, room temperature
· ¼ cup rainbow sprinkles
For the lemon buttercream frosting:
· ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
· ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
· juice of ½ a small lemon
· 2-2½ cups confectioners’ sugar
· red gel food coloring
· green gel food coloring
Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly butter and flour a cake pan. Line with a piece of parchment paper.
2) In a medium bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, and kosher salt until combined. Set aside.
3) In a large bowl, mix the butter and sugar until combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, combining all ingredients between each addition. Fold in the vanilla extract and lemon zest. Sift in half of the flour mixture and pour in half of the milk. Stir to combine. Add the remaining flour mixture and milk. Stir to combine the ingredients until a smooth batter forms. Gently fold in the sprinkles. Be careful not to mix too much as overmixing may cause the color to come off the sprinkles.
4) Pour the batter into the cake pan. Bake the cake for 35-40 minutes. Test doneness of the cake by inserting a knife in the center and checking to see if the knife comes out clean. Let cake cool before frosting, about an hour.
5) To make the frosting, mix butter, vanilla extract, and lemon juice in a bowl. Gradually add in confectioners’ sugar ½ cup at a time. Keep adding until desired consistency is formed. Divide the buttercream in half. Add red gel food coloring to the first half. For the second half, divide the buttercream in half again. Now you have two quarters. Use one quarter for frosting the tops of the mini cakes. Add the green gel food coloring into the remaining quarter. Use the remaining quarter for piping mini leaves.
Takeaways: When cutting the large cake into mini cakes, I had quite a bit of leftover cake pieces. Instead of wasting the leftover cake pieces, I crumbled up the cake pieces into coarse crumbs, added in the leftover buttercream frosting, and rolled the mixture into mini cake balls for snacking at a later time.