Imagine combining fresh squeezed lemonade into a miniature pound cake with a crunchy sweet exterior. These little cakes are so fresh and lemony. They pair perfectly with your favorite tea for an afternoon pick me up or could be served for an elegant brunch. My daughter adores them and requests that we bake them every chance we get. They are pretty simple to make and have only a few ingredients. They are tangy, moist, rich, and have the perfect glaze on top. Not too sweet but just sweet enough, everything a cutesy demure cake should be : )
What you need:
For the cake:
2 cups granulated white sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
zest of 1 whole lemon
zest of 1 lime
1 cup whole milk / full fat yogurt
3/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
3/4 cup melted butter
4 large eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
Use 2 muffin tins for baking (makes 24 total) lined with non stick / parchment baking cups.
For the glaze:
juice of one lemon
one cup of confectioners sugar
(Combine in a small bowl by stirring until you have a glossy smooth glaze with no lumps)
Pulling the eggs out of the refrigerator before you begin any baking recipe is important because room temperature eggs will emulsify better with the other ingredients and result in a better bake. So first, crack 4 eggs into a bowl and set them aside. Also, preheat the oven to 375° . Next, melt the butter in a microwave safe dish. About 30 seconds should do it. Now measure out the sugar and pour it into the mixing bowl. Zest the lemon and lime directly into the mixing bowl and rub the sugar and zest together with your fingers to release the lemon and lime oils. It will start to smell very fragrant. A few seconds of rubbing the sugar and oil together should be enough. Give it a quick stir. Now turn the mixer on between low and medium and gradually add in the melted butter, oil, and yogurt. When those are well combined add the eggs. Mix on medium for about 30 seconds until its glossy and well combined.
Now add the flour, salt, and baking powder to a bowl and give a quick stir to combine. I recently learned that if you do not have a scale to weigh your flour that you should scoop the flour into the measuring cup instead of using the measuring cup as a scoop (it was a cooking podcast, maybe Milk Street…I can’t remember, but now its what I do). When you use the measuring cup as a scoop it tends to be too tightly packed. You want a loosely packed cup of flour to ensure you don’t use too much and make the cake dry. Add the flour combination to the egg mixture and mix until just combined. Ladle large spoonfuls of batter into the baking cups so they are about 3/4 full. You should have just enough. My oven achieved perfection in 23 minutes but I’d start checking after 20 minutes. You can make the glaze while they are baking.
They will be lightly browned around the edges when finished. Remove them from the oven and allow to cool for around 5 minutes before pouring the glaze onto each cake. Use about 2 tbsp of glaze per cake, just gently pour it onto the top of each one and let it drip down the sides. Enjoy!
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