Complete Guide - Mini Designed Sponge Cakes

Begin by tracing your 4″ cake molds onto parchment paper and cutting out 24 circles to fit inside each mold. You can find the exact molds I used on Amazon, here! On half of the circles, draw or trace as many designs as you want using an edible marker. You can find the edible markers I use on Amazon, here! Set the silicone molds and parchment circles aside. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

To make the sponge cake batter, separate the egg whites from the egg yolks. We are using every part of the egg in this recipe, so hang onto both. Place the egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer, and the egg yolks into a large bowl. Set the egg whites aside; we will need them later.

Whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, vegetable oil, milk, and vanilla until smooth.

Sift the flour and cornstarch into the colored egg yolk mixture. Whisk until the batter is nice and smooth. The batter will be thick. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whisk the egg whites from earlier until frothy. Slowly add the sugar and vinegar to the egg whites.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form. This is very important. Stiff peaks should be able to stand up straight when the whisk is lifted.

Add the egg whites to the egg yolk mixture. Gently fold in the egg whites. Be careful not to over-mix the batter. Over-mixing will deflate the egg whites and make the batter thin and runny. Mix until the egg whites are just evenly distributed and the batter has few streaks.

Scoop a few tablespoons of sponge cake batter at a time to dye each color you’ll need for each character. To make each color, gently scoop and fold the food gel into the batter to prevent the batter from deflating and thinning out. Place each color into a piping bag. You can find the exact tipless piping bags I use on Amazon, here!

Now that our batter is prepared and colored, lightly grease your silicone molds and place them on a cookie sheet (this will help the transferring process so it’s easy to pick up and your molds don’t smudge). Place the designed parchment circles facing up or down (does not matter) into the greased molds. If you are piping words onto the cakes, place the marker side down so that the words are mirrored.

Cut a very small tip off of your piping bag (you can always cut off a bit more if needed) and carefully trace the design you made on your parchment paper. Repeat this step until all of your designs are colored in and traced with batter. You do not need to refrigerate the molds between each color. Place these molds on the cookie sheet in the fridge to firm up for 3-5 minutes; this is the only time you need to refrigerate the designs – just before adding the batter on top.

In the meantime, place the remaining uncolored batter in a piping bag. After the designs have sat in the fridge for a few minutes, pipe an even layer of batter on top of your design.

Bake these for 8-10 minutes or until the cake has a slight bounce back once tapped on top. The sides of the cake will turn a very light golden color as well.

As soon as the cakes are finished baking, take them out of the oven and run a butterknife along the edges of the mold to help release the cake. Then flip the molds onto a piece of parchment paper so that your designs are now facing up. Right away, peel the parchment paper circles off of each cake to reveal your design.

Once all of your designed cakes are made, pipe the remaining batter into the molds without any designs, as these will be the bottom layers of our cakes.

Allow all of your cakes to cool before decorating. In the meantime, you can prepare the whipped cream.

To make the Whipped Cream, in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk the cream, sugar, and vanilla until stiff peaks have formed and you have reached a whipped cream consistency.

Once your cakes have cooled and your whipped cream has been prepped, it’s time to decorate! Place one undesigned layer of cake down on your serving dish and pipe nice fluffy layers of whipped cream on top. Place a designed cake on top. Repeat this step for each cake.

Feel free to fill your cakes with jam, fresh fruit, festive sprinkles, etc. Enjoy!