Friday Recipe: Tiny Lemon Cakes

I have a new Friday Recipe for you today (Saturday morning). I know what I said about this being the year of full sized cakes and everything, but these are too yummy to be ignored in 2008. Besides, they aren't cupcakes. I haven't got any pictures today because we already ate the cakes.

I have some special tiny cake pans, but before I did, I used to make tiny cakes in the bottom of large aluminum cans. I used empty tomato cans or pumpkin cans, you know the size, right? Well, I washed them really well, then lined them with foil (just in case tin cans are actually toxic in some way). So, if you have small pans, use them. If not, improvise!

Tiny Lemon Cakes

1/2 cup butter
7 tbsp sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup self-rising flour
1 tsp lemon extract
zest of half of one lemon
3tbsp milk


Ok, make sure your butter is a little soft, but not squishy before you start. Mix all the ingredients except for the milk together on high speed. I use the small bowl on my mixmaster so that everything gets good and whipped. When everything is combined, drizzle the milk in until it reaches a good batter consistency. Sometimes it doesn't need all 3 tbsp. You know how cakes can be fiddly like that.
Fill your prepared cans about 1 inch full (use several cans to make layers, you should be able to get 6 tiny layers) or pour batter into lightly greased pans.
Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 min or until they start to get a little golden on top. My oven is inconsistent and I sometimes have to cook them at 375 for 25 minutes. Your's is probably lovely and will be right on target.
When they're done, let them cool for a minute or two in the pans (don't burn yourself) then turn them out onto a cooling rack for at least 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the icing:
1/4 cup butter, softened (1/2 a stick)
8 oz cream cheese
5 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp lemon extract (or use lemon juice at this stage)
the other half of the lemon zest
1/3 cup of milk or cream.
yellow food coloring (people won't believe it's lemon if it's not yellow)

Mix up the butter and the cream cheese. Slowly add the powdered sugar, alternating with the milk and the lemon extract. (Go check and see if the cake is burning). Adjust the milk or powdered sugar to get a good icing consistency. Not too thick, not too thin. The lemon zest will make the icing just a little lumpy, but we're not perfectionists, are we? Add the food coloring just a little at a time until it looks nice and fake. When the cakes are cool, ice them liberally with your delicious icing and eat the rest out of the bowl.

-so I made this up and as you can see some of the instructions are a little less than exact. If you do make the cakes, let me know how they turn out, okay, and we can adjust the recipe for later.