Coastal Theme Tea Cakes

I really enjoy baking with Nordic Ware pans - I'm getting quite a little collection going!  You may have seen my rose cakelets, my mini bundts, my Christmas tea cakes, etc.

My newest acquisition is their Sea Shell Tea Cake pan.  It has been on my Amazon Wish List for over 18 months...and I finally just DID IT.

The outside of the pan shows what your
finished product should look like

The inside shows you what tiny little bits of batter
will fit in the tea cake pan...1 Tbsp each.

 I have had issues in the past with overfilling these tiny little sections and I was thinking hard about what would not rise too much and would be moist and dense enough for one bite to be "just about enough".  I decided I would test the pan with a box of Milk Chocolate Brownie Mix I had bought a few weeks ago.    As you can see below, they turned out pretty good!  A few of them have "edges" but all were easy to see, nicely outlined, sea life tea cakes!  I had enough batter to make another pan, using my mini tea cake pan I used in the Christmas endeavors of 2011.  What was nice about using the dark batter was the ability to see more clear outlines.  I didn't take pictures of those using the other pan  because I was in a big hurry.  However, I sent all of these and some of the tea cakes from the other pan over to Joni at Paragraphs on Padre Blvd for treats at the Rio Grande Valley International Poetry Festival readings.  I heard a little feedback that they were enjoyed so, even though I used a box mix, it was the "just right" density to work in these little sea shell shaped treatlets!

If anyone has a suggestion for a homemade recipe I can use for tea cakes, please send me a link... I'd love to find that "just right" recipe for using these adorable little pans!!!

The final unadorned tea cakes - very tasty and quite cute!

Bon Appetit, Y'all!!!