Down the Rabbit Hole… Testing a new recipe

Who doesn’t like lemon desserts?

Down the rabbit hole with just two lemons from neighbor Brian.

Neighbor Brian has a Meyer lemon tree and wanted to know if I wanted a couple. Of course I said yes! We have two huge lemon trees in our own backyard but not Meyer lemon. He also gave me a recipe for Meyer lemon pancakes, which I have made before but I decided I wanted to do something different. Recently on Pinterest I saw a recipe for Lemon Drop Mini Cakes. So I knew what I was going to do with these Meyer lemons.

Inspiration can come from just a good pan.

I love Bundt cakes. Truthfully, I haven’t always had the best of luck with them. About 40 years ago I bought this fancy Bundt pan that had a lot of contours. I actually made the same pumpkin cake recipe three different times because the cake kept sticking in the pan. I still haven’t learned my lesson because I just recently bought this mini Bundt cake pan and have had mixed success with it. So, I decided to try again using this pan for my Lemon Drop Mini Cakes recipe since I was testing it out for teas. The recipe follows.

Lemon Drop Mini Cakes

These mini Lemon Drops are a perfect treat for lemon fans. Tiny lemon cakes are drenched in a mouthwatering lemon glaze making them delicious and addicting. Servings 48 (using mini muffin pans). Author Kara Cook.

Ingredients

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1 whole egg
• 1 Tbsp fresh lemon zest
• 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

Lemon Glaze

• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tsp fresh lemon zest
• 1 Tbsp melted butter
• 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp milk

Instructions

1. Spray mini muffin pans with non-stick spray; set aside. 
2. Whisk together flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda in a mixing bowl; set aside.
3. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add water and bring to a boil. 
4. Pour hot mixture over dry ingredients and beat with a hand beater till barely blended. Beat in the sour cream, egg, zest, and lemon juice till smooth.
5. Scoop batter into muffin pans. Bake at 325° for about 12 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes, then turn onto cooling racks. Cool completely before glazing.
6. Dip lemon drops bottom side down into the glaze. Let excess glass drip off into the bowl, then invert lemon drops top side down onto cooling racks. (Place waxed paper underneath the cooling racks for easier clean up.) Let sit till glaze hardens. 

Lemon Glaze

1. Whisk all glaze ingredients together in a small mixing bowl. Heat for about 10 seconds in the microwave till glaze is very thin.

Improvising, just a bit.

My first improvise was using a different kind of pan. Since the original recipe said it made 48 mini cakes and my pan only made six mini Bundts, I knew I had to increase the amount of baking time. I added about another 10 minutes to the baking time–checking the doneness about every 4 minutes. I didn’t measure my lemon zest for either the batter or the glaze. I usually don’t measure zest. I think I put too little in the batter and too much in the glaze based upon my taste. Something to think about next time.

Bon Appetit!