Mignon means small and pretty, dainty in English, in Hungary this word refers to mini filled cakes coated in a thick sugar glaze. Henrik Kugler was the first confectioner in Hungary who made mignon cakes in the 19th century.

The shape of the mignon cakes is usually a cube, but you can also see diamond and dome-shaped mignons. Mignons can be filled with butter cream, fruit jam, truffle or praline. The color of the glaze conforms to the flavor of the filling.

• White glaze: mignons filled with marzipan, lemon or chestnut cream
• Light green glaze: mignons filled with Chartreuse dyed marzipan or fruit jam
• Light orange glaze: mignons filled with cream flavoured with orange or white butter pear liqueur
• Light pink glaze: mignons filled with punch cream or fruit jam
• Light brown glaze: mignons filled with coffee, hazelnut, almond, walnut or brittle cream
• Dark brown glaze: mignons filled with chocolate cream

Making mignon is not an easy task, coating the mini cakes with the glaze will test your cooking skills and handiness. This is the reason why my first mignons you can see in the picture are far from perfect.

The key element of the whole process is to find the right consistency of the glaze. It has to be creamy but runny enough to be able to cover the cakes. Since the glaze thickens quickly as it cools, you have to work fast and dip the cakes into the glaze before it sets.

In order to save you a headache, I would recommend not slicing the cake into tiny cubes, just covering the whole cake with the glaze. That’s how I’m gonna make my next mignon cake.