those look like boobies is the first thing marsha said when she walked in the door to find eggboy and me dancing with a welcome committee made of fresh flowers, fancy water, her favorite swedish fish, and freshly made mini princess cakes. it was the perfect thing anyone could have said in that moment because, look at these cakes, they look like boobies.

out of all the boobies one eats in a g-rated world (you know, chicken boobies, turkey boobies), these are by far the tastiest ones. sweet, fruity, marzipan-y, spongey. oh yeah, come to mama. 

the sassy human that is marsha would only accompany my mum on the trek from illinois to north dakota if and only if i made her a marzipan cake. i made her eight for extra reassurance, and also because... mini cakes. again. 

so they drove up through three snow storms and an audiobook, toting odd cheeses and black vinegar, and then they got here and did my dishes without even letting me help. can you believe it?! i sat in the kitchen and played with my marshmallow peeps and thought of all the ways i could get them to move here. 

number one is build a fence so that george gershwin and gracie can run safely around the farm, free of farm cats. number two is forge thousands of signatures on a petition to get whole foods to open here. number three i guess is make marzipan cakes every single day forever and ever and ever. 

which would be the greatest thing ever.

there are a whole slew of reasons why they (and everyone?) should move here, but i don't want to give away allll my secrets otherwise this place will be overcrowded and there will be traffic and a longer wait at the ruby tuesday.

i've read a few recipes for princess cakes. they involve gelatin sheets and syrups and all sorts of steps that kind of jumble all together on the page and get lost in my one-track marzipan mind. when i eat the mini princess cakes at ikea, i simply taste marzipan, cake, raspberry jam, whipped cream, and more marzipan. so i winged these little guys to come up with a super easy solution that might not be the most authentic, but sure is amazingly tasty. and no, you don't have to decorate them to look like boobies.

mini princess cakes

makes 8

ingredients

1/2 batch of your favorite vanilla cake batter*

1 cup heavy cream

4 tb powdered sugar, plus more for dusting

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp almond extract

1/2 cup raspberry jam

16 ounces of marzipan

food coloring (gel or liquid)

*i've yet to find a go-to vanilla cake recipe. i actually used a boxed cake hehe. 

clues

line a 13-inch x 9-inch pan with foil so that it hangs over the edges. grease the foil, pour in the batter, and bake according to your recipe. use the foil wings to lift the cake out of the pan. let it cool, and then wrap in plastic wrap and freeze for at least an hour or overnight.

when you're ready to decorate, make the whipped cream by whipping up the heavy cream to stiff peaks. beat in the powdered sugar, vanilla, and almond. taste and add more sugar or flavorings if you'd like.

cut out 3-inch circles of the cake using a biscuit cutter. spread the tops of each with a thin layer of jam and then pipe on a nice round blob of whipped cream.

dust a surface with powdered sugar. knead a few drops of food coloring into the marzipan and roll it out into a thin even layer. cut out 4 1/2 or 5-inch circles, brush them with jam, and use these to cover the cakes. cut off excess marzipan or tuck the ends under the cake. decorate!

enjoy while wearing a cute dress or at least imagining that you are.

-yeh!