So one afternoon I was flipping through channels making a short stop on the Food Network. Paula Deen was on, and while I don't usually care for her, there was a preview for the next recipe after the commercial break. I saw these little cakes and was intrigued. After watching her make these lemon blossoms I thought 1) OMG these things look delicious and 2) OMG these things look so easy to make. I now present to you, lemon blossoms, which happen to be both delicious and easy to make.
A lot of the ease comes from using box mixes. It's got a box of yellow cake mix and lemon pudding. And if you are like Britta (or I guess, were like Britta) and refuse to buy common baking ingredients like flour, this is the recipe for you.
Cake mix, pudding mix, oil, and eggs get mixed together.
As a side note, this can easily be done without a stand mixer. You could use a hand mixer or if you've got really strong arms, by hand. I say really strong arms because the batter is very thick (like "stick a spoon in it and turn it upside down like a blizzard" thick) and it'll probably tire you out.
The batter is put into a mini muffin pan. A word to the wise, the recipe makes about five dozen. So be prepared. Either get a big mini muffin pan that has 24 cups or be ready to move one pan in and out of the oven a lot.
I forgot to take a shot of the finished muffins, whoops...on with the glaze! The recipe says to sift the powdered sugar and I tried that for a while but there's four cups of powdered sugar in there, I got impatient and just dumped it in there, spoiler alert, it worked out fine. Then comes the magic. The zest of one whole lemon. Usually recipes will have just a little bit of zest, but no, you zest the entire darn thing. (Also for those who are new to zesting, be sure to only get the yellow part, the white part is bitter so be sure to move the fruit around every few scrapes.)
I had to use a lot more water than the recipe called for. It called for three tablespoons, I used six or seven. Either way, the glaze was magic. It was REALLY lemony, like, I AM LEMON, HEAR ME ROAR! I had more than my fair share of samples.
Now on the show, Paula Deed used this method to glaze the little cakes: stick a fork in the bottom of the cake (so the puncture holes don't show),
Dunk those bad boys into the glaze and voila, you're set. Now this would have been fine and dandy if the cakes didn't keep falling off the fork. I soon abandoned the fork method and used the swirl it around in the glaze with my fingers method.
Pretty soon you'll have a bunch of cute, lemony cakes.
And you'll have a lot of glaze. I tried double-dipping some of my cakes, you can see a little difference (the double dipped ones are on the top, those were also the ones that were a little too done from the oven). With this in mind, you could probably cut down on the amount of glaze you make.
Verdict? This recipe is a good bang for your buck. Not only do you make a ton of little cakes (so great for a party), they're really easy to make (and due to the box mixes, probably impossible to mess up). In addition, they look super fancy. It's one of those things people will say, "Wow, do you make this?" in that really high pitched voice, to which you can coolly reply, "Why, yes, yes I did."
Lemon Blossoms
Cakes:
4 eggs
1 package instant lemon pudding mix (3.5 oz)
1 package yellow cake mix (18.5 oz.)
3/4 cup vegetable oil
Glaze:
4 cups confectioners' sugar
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
grated zest of 1 lemon
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 tablespoons water
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Spray miniature muffin tins with vegetable oil cooking spray. Combine the cake mix, pudding mix, eggs and oil and blend well with an electric mixer until smooth, about 2 minutes. Pour a small amount of batter, filling each muffin tin half way. Bake for 12 minutes.
To make the glaze, sift the sugar into a mixing bowl. Add the lemon juice, zest, oil, and 3 tablespoons water. Mix with a spoon until smooth.
With fingers, dip the cupcakes into the glaze while they’re still warm, covering as much of the cake as possible, or spoon the glaze over the warm cupcakes, turning them to completely coat. Place on wire racks with waxed paper underneath to catch any drips. Let the glaze set thoroughly, about one hour, before storing in containers with tight-fitting lids.
3 comments:
Those look adorable! I wish I liked lemon things (lemon chicken aside). I wonder if there is a way to make them chocolatey???
Yes, I've read that people adapt the recipe to make chocolatey things and it works out well. You'd probably just use chocolate cake mix, chocolate pudding mix and instead of the lemon juice and zest either use coffee to make a mocha glaze or just add enough liquid (like milk or water) to make it the right consistency. Let me know how they turn out if you make them!
Wow, you're so clever with the chocolate adaptation! These look like something I could handle. Screw flour!
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