Cupcakes are all the rage these days, but they surely aren’t the only mini eats making waves. We have flipped for some truly sweet small bites lately, and the possibilities are only as limited as your imagination!
Linda Dalton of Stoughton, MA is the perfect example of a cook with an eye for cute creations. Her Mini Cream Filled Delights are one of our favorite recent finds… and were developed after Linda was taken by another recipe on Just A Pinch! “I was inspired by Anne Nunez’s Chocolate Chip Cheese Ball,” explains Linda. “[I] decided to use it as a filling in my brown sugar cookie recipe. Wow! These little bites are good. Thanks, Anne.” What terrific cookie collaboration! The sweet and tangy cream cheese filling is sandwiched between melt-in-your-mouth delicious cookies. We love piling these darlings high on a platter for an impressive party presentation.
Equally dreamy are Lisa Cox’s miniature Chocolate Raspberry Rum Cakes. This recipe is BIG on chocolate, and is a fab way to make use of that mini Bundt pan you have stored away. “These are always a big hit with family and friends,” says Lisa who also likes to wrap them up and present the mini cakes as hostess or birthday gifts. We love the taste of raspberry and chocolate together, and these delightful cakes strike the perfect flavor balance.
And how does a handheld chess pie sound? Well, it’s music to our ears, and home cook Angel Porter is the maestro! Her mini coconut chess cakes are wrapped in flaky pie dough before baking, making for the best of all dessert worlds! And the recipe, named Pearl Weddle’s Pattern for Chess Cakes, comes with a history as sweet as its filling.
“This is a very old recipe,” explains Angel. “When my mother-in-law was just a little girl, she knew that when making clothes you had a pattern, but at that time she didn’t know that with cooking it was [called] a recipe.” After falling in love with chess cakes, she asked Ms. Pearl Weddle for the “pattern” for her yummy cakes. “It has been called a pattern ever since!” laughs Angel.
Well, we just love this “pattern.” With only six ingredients – eggs, milk, flour, sugar coconut and prepared piecrust – this recipe is a terrific way to get kids in on the fun of baking. It’s also a tasty way for those less experienced bakers among us to turn out a truly impressive dessert. Your family will think you’ve been sneaking away to culinary school!
Bite-size desserts are such a great way to offer your guests a variety of flavors without overwhelming them (or yourself!) Imagine eating a whole chess pie and walking away guilt-free. If cupcakes are the current “it” dessert, then other mini treats cannot be far off. Now that’s one trend we can get behind!