By Dorie Greenspan
- Total Time
- 45 minutes, plus cooling
- Rating
- 4(1,137)
- Notes
- Read community notes
Created as a first birthday treat for a little girl, these are a sweet example of something that is simple but memorable. The look is adorable: a cake sized for a baby’s hand, covered in a soft white-chocolate glaze and finished with sprinkles. The taste is primarily vanilla — that’s the extract and white chocolate at play — and there’s a sly hint of rose, added as much for mystery as for bolstering the best qualities of the fresh strawberry that’s tucked into the cake’s middle. But it’s the cake’s texture that’s most confoundingly wonderful. It’s tender and chewy, with a compact crumb still light enough to bring you back for another serving. When it’s not a baby’s birthday, skip the candles and have the cakes with espresso — or even Champagne.
Featured in: These Strawberry Mini-Cakes Are Perfect Party Food
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Ingredients
Yield:24 mini cakes
- Baker’s spray (optional)
- 3 to 6hulled strawberries, depending on size
- ⅓cup/67 grams granulated sugar
- ¼teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2large eggs, at room temperature
- 1½teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- ¼teaspoon rose extract (optional)
- 1tablespoon light corn syrup
- ⅔cup/86 grams all-purpose flour
- 6tablespoons/85 grams unsalted butter, melted, still warm
- 3ounces/85 grams white-chocolate bar, melted and fluid
- 1tablespoon milk
- 3ounces/85 grams white chocolate, finely chopped
- 1teaspoon neutral oil
- Sprinkles
For the Cakes
For the Topping (optional)
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (24 servings)
101 calories; 6 grams fat; 3 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 2 grams monounsaturated fat; 0 grams polyunsaturated fat; 11 grams carbohydrates; 0 grams dietary fiber; 8 grams sugars; 1 gram protein; 38 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
Step
1
Make the cakes: Center a rack in the oven and heat oven to 400 degrees. Line a 24-hole mini-muffin pan with cupcake papers or use baker’s spray to coat the inside of the pan.
Step
2
You need 24 chunks of strawberry for the centers of the cakes, so slice the berries into small pieces and set aside. (The chunks should be about ¼-inch wide and short enough to drop easily into the muffin cups.)
Step
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Working in a large bowl, whisk together the sugar and salt. Drop in the eggs and beat with a mixer on medium speed (or continue with a whisk) for about 2 minutes, or until foamy and slightly thickened. Stir in the vanilla extract and the rose extract, if you’re using it, followed by the corn syrup.
Step
4
Switch to a flexible spatula, and blend in the flour in two or three additions. You’ll have a thick batter. Mix the butter into the batter in three or four additions, stirring gently until well incorporated. The batter will be stretchy and a bit slippery. Pour the melted chocolate over the mixture, stir it in gently and, when it’s fully blended into the batter, stir in the milk.
Step
5
Spoon about 1 teaspoon of batter into each muffin cup, and then drop in a piece of strawberry. Divide the remaining batter evenly among the cakes, covering each berry.
Step
6
Bake the cakes for 11 to 13 minutes, or until a slender tester poked into the center of a cake comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack, and let rest for 2 minutes before carefully removing the cakes; cool to room temperature on the rack.
Step
7
Make the topping (optional): In a small microwave-safe bowl, melt together the chocolate and oil in a microwave set to half power, or in a small pan over very low heat. White chocolate is fragile and finicky — it burns quickly — so stay close. Stir the mixture to make sure it’s smooth.
Step
8
One by one, dip the tops of the baby cakes into the chocolate, swirling the cakes to even out the topping and allowing the excess to drip back into the bowl or pan. Return the cakes to the rack and, if you’d like, finish with sprinkles.
Step
9
You can refrigerate the cakes for about 10 minutes to set the chocolate or leave them at room temperature. Chilled or not, the chocolate will remain a tad soft, and that’s nice. Kept in a covered container, the cakes will hold for a day or two.
Ratings
4
out of 5
1,137
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Cooking Notes
Maggie
Golden Syrup from the UK and easily found in the US is a pure cane sugar sub for corn syrup. It makes incredible pecan pies.
Lorna
The comments on the sugar are a little over the top. 1 Tbsp of corn syrup and a 1/3 c of sugar in 24 cakes = 0.8 teaspoons of sugar per cake. You'd put almost that much in a hiccup cure for your one year old.
Elizabeth Valentine
Try agave as a sub for the corn syrup.
Lane
Historical note: In 1953 I was sent home from the hospital with my mother and a recipe for my formula. Karo syrup + evaporated milk + water. I grew to be a 5'8"woman BMI 22, still healthy. I think the baby will be OK here.
hl
If the request to find substitutions for the light corn syrup is concern about high fructose corn syrup, please note that these are not at all the same thing!
LK
If you don't have a mini cupcake pan, I made these as 6 regular sized cupcakes without changing the ingredients, set oven to 375F (was afraid they might burn at 400), on my oven it took 20m bake time. You could probably halve the topping, there was a lot left over. Delicious recipe, thank you Dorie Greenspan!
loislane
Real maple syrup can be a good corn syrup substitute too.
Mary Larson
This is an excellent recipe, and I have no problem with ideas of other readers. This said, I am going to make them for my grandson, with a teaspoon of lemon zest, and blueberries instead of strawberries. Not to say that the original is not great. I think I will also drizzle lemon juice/confectioners sugar glaze instead of white chocolate.
Elizabeth
The concern for corn syrup is the use of large quantities in beverages and in prepared foods.One tablespoon for an entire recipe does not create a health risk.
Scott
Corn syrup acts to retain moisture, so the cakes will remain fresh longer. In frostings (not this recipe it is an anti-crystallizing agent, preventing the granulated sugar from making the frosting gritty.
Sunny
Great recipe! Just make sure those strawberries are fully submerged in batter or the tops will be uneven. The chocolate topping is excellent, though I dipped all of my cakes first before sprinkles and the tops set up a bit making the sprinkles hard to adhere. Dip, sprinkle, dip, sprinkle.
Phill
I make a similar cupcake but I use a single raspberry instead of the strawberry chunks.
LCV in VT
I had to google it, and you're right. Karo syrup (the brand I have) contains no high fructose corn syrup. Good to know!
JDM
I am beside myself! These are gorgeous! I read Sam’s email as I was planning my day & decided I HAD to bake these. No tiny muffin tins so made about 8 standard sized cupcakes. No fresh strawberries so thawed a few frozen. So pretty! Tender and yum! Rose water is 5 times or 1.25 teaspoon. Love!
Donna hall
is there a substitute for light corn syrup
Marie Gerard
There is only 1 tablespoon of corn syrup in this recipe and the corn syrup that you buy at the grocery store (Karo) is NOT high fructose. Hilarious...Ignorance is bliss...Everyone is outraged today.
Sardina Bandana
One egg is perfect, otherwise, it is too eggy, especially if you are using large eggs.
Deryn Harris
Is there any way to incorporate more strawberry flavor in the cake? I feel like one strawberry chunk in the middle will not do much for flavor.
Ka-ching!
Was excited about this recipe, but the baby cakes were unremarkable.
Ann E L
I made these for a baby shower. They were beautiful to look at, but they took a fair amount of time, and the flavor/texture was good, but nothing fabulous. The other desserts I made were better.
LeRoy
This is an excellent recipe which produced excellent results! Family and guests relished every bite and it will now become the only cupcake recipe I ever use!
Stephanie George
These were fabulous. I made them for a friend’s 95th birthday. I had XL eggs so I used one whole egg and one egg white; rose water instead of rose extract 5:1. Be sure you get white chocolate not “white baking chips” which are just sugar and palm oil and they don’t melt.
Dessy
F A B U L O U S!! Great success, stores well - still moist and tasty after 5 days. Will make againfor sure.
FitFoxxx
These were amazing! Finished baking at 350. Was told they tasted like wedding cake!
brelwill
Substituted the Rose Extract with Nielsen Massey Rose Water. 1/4 tsp is more than enough for a subtle rose flavor. I tried 1/2 tsp, and the flavor was too overpowering and perfume-y. Followed the recipe exactly otherwise, and they turned out great. Would highly recommend using a dough scoop with small spoonfuls to fill the cups!
Leor
These are delicious and a big hit. But a word to the wise: The recipe takes time (much more than the 45 minutes indicated), as well as some precision. If you're planning to make them the night before a birthday party, after your baby/toddler goes to sleep, you are going to be up late... After the first batch, I decided to fill the mini muffin cups almost to the brim. This led the cupcakes to dome slightly, making them much easier to dip in the melted chocolate with attractive results.
Debbie
Since my grandson loves vanilla and everything white chocolate, I wanted to make this recipe for his birthday. But, since he was turning 12 I felt the baby cupcakes wouldn't really be appropriate. So, I doubled the recipe and baked two 9-inch rounds. They came out perfectly. For the filling and frosting, I used a buttercream mixed with some melted white chocolate and it was perfect for the density of the crumb. Everyone loved it!
Tamara
I would use another 0.5 ounce of white chocolate for the topping as there was not enough topping to swirl the last 6 cakes. I had to dab. I used cupcake papers, and after an hour in fridge, the topping takes on a nice ridge from papers. I used rose water instead of rose extract, and it worked fine. Delicious!
Robert B.
There is so much misinformation about corn syrup. Light corn syrup is primarily glucose and is only 80% as sweet as table sugar. Golden syrup is sucrose which is much sweeter and is cloyingly sweet in pecan pie. High fructose corn syrup varies but is generally 55% or more fructose and is even sweeter than sucrose and is sold only to food producers. It's not sold in the grocery aisle as corn syrup. Agave syrup is similar to HFCS with ~55% fructose. Honey varies from 20-40% fructose to glucose.
JoJoNYC
This is A LOT of work - turned out well. I halved the recipe to yield 12 mini cupcakes. Here's what I did:*Mixed some Bonne Maman preserves with fresh strawberry pieces because others complained about a "steamed" berry. *1/3 of the flour consisted of cake flour*used almond extract instead of rose extract*did not have corn syrup so I added some honey*baked at 375 for 12 min (but should have taken them out at 11)
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