Vegan Orange mini Rose Cakes

The fact that I love making birthday cakes for friends goes without saying - so when we arranged to go for afternoon tea for a joint celebration of my birthday and that of my friend Jane, I was a bit stuck. We would be eating plenty of cake so there was no point me making another one! But I did want to bake something so decided to make some small cakes that I could package in pretty boxes and give people to take home. This Nordicware 56748 Baking Mould Rose Muffinwas perfect for that.

It's a big piece of kit as it's a heavy metal pan that takes up a fair amount of cupboard space but the reaction when you serve tiny cakes shaped like roses is worth it!

One of my friends is vegan so I needed something she could enjoy, and found this recipe on Cook Like Priya for a vegan orange cake.

I used caster sugar rather than powdered (icing) sugar for the cake, but otherwise pretty much followed her recipe.

I sprayed each section of the cake mould with Cake Release and filled them no more than 2/3 full. The cakes came out perfectly and had a delicate orange flavour. I thought about glazing them but didn't have time and as the cakes are very small I think you can get away without any frosting, and this way you can see the design of the rose better! I was in such a hurry though - I made these the morning of the day I was going to meet my friends  - that I forgot to take a better photo!

I'm entering these in the Alphabakes challenge which I co-host with Ros of The More Than Occasional Baker as the letter I have chosen this month is O.

  I'm also sending these to Treat Petite, hosted by Stuart at Cakeyboi and Kat aka the Baking Explorer, as their theme this month is fruity.