The only time I use my 6" pan is for multi-layer tier cakes or a small cheesecake. I've never run into a regular cake recipe for anything smaller than an 8" cake.

but... I've never heard of a Dolly tea cake. I tried a search but didn't come up with anything. My mother always made what she called doll cakes for our birthdays, but they were angel food cakes with a doll placed in the center hole, then she frosted the cake as if it were her skirt. And, yes, she'd sometimes need to break the doll's legs to fit the hole. lol!

ETA: re the parchment needing to be pleated to go up the sides... one alternative is to cut the large circle of parchment, mark where the base will fit on it, then make scissor-snips every inch or so around the outside of your parchment circle to where the outside of the base would be. The little tabs it creates are easy to fold up and overlap. An alternative is to cut parchment just to fit the base, then cut a long strip(s) to be wrapped around the sides separately.

Your cake w/ lemon curd, blueberries, and fresh mint sounds great.

Thanks, PM. I know exactly what you're talking about re the parchment--One does those kinds of tabs sewing insets, but I didn't have time for cutting the tabs, or for chancing that the batter would leak out of the bottom without the paper from the bottom going up the sides. Planning ahead would have helped. ;)

Dolly tea cake might be a local expression. It's just a tiny cake for a doll's and/or teddy bear's tea party. It's not a "tea cake" necessarily. Just big enough to look pretty and not like a toy, and small enough that a couple little ones can't make themselves sick on it even if they eat it all--though each dolly and bear is supposed to get a slice. :)

My mother made a couple of those doll cakes too. One was Cinderella, I think, for my birthday. The bit I remember better was a giant high heeled shoe (cardboard covered with foil) filled with candy. And there were little 1-2" plastic cake toppers in pink which were actually meant to be bridesmaids, but my mother turned them into Cinderellas for each girl. I I don't remember what the boys got, or if it was the first all girls party. Another doll cake was a bride for a shower. They used to sell dolls for the purpose that cost less than fashion dolls and didn't have any legs. :) When I was a tot, I'd want the doll and my mother would warn me that it wasn't fund to play with. :)

Looking back I can see how inexpensive the stuff for our parties was--mostly ingenuity plus a little paper--but it all seemed magical.

I hope she enjoyed her Mother's Day party even half as much as I did all those wonderful birthday parties. :)

I have no idea what the form of this cake is supposed to be, so I apologize in advance if this won't work. Anytime I use parchment in a round pan, or any baking dish, I crumple it first, then it seems to fit better.

Jasdip, it's just a round cake pan with a loose bottom. Regular cake batter oozes out of the loose bottom (I tried it once with a batter I thought was very tight, not remembering that it would become runny when the sugar melted). I will definitely try crumpling next time, because I really don't want to buy another cake pan to store! And I'll try PM's tabs if I have time.