Wednesday, February 25, 2009

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Lemon Cakes/Lemon Burst

I was in the mood for something lemony. I sifted through my cookbooks to find something that appealed to me and I finally landed on Martha Stewart's Glazed Lemon Cakes. My friend Edgar had given me Martha's Good Food Fast back in 2007. I had never made any of the desserts in the book because most of my dessert making is taken up by various baking groups I'm a part of. But my craving for a lemon sweet pushed me over the edge and I absolutely had to make these. What's one more dessert in the house when your craving is taking over? I am so happy I made these because they were amazing. Think of Dorie's Madeleines in pure cake form with a lemon frosting. The cakes were delicious, addictive, fluffy, sweet, lemony, light, moist, soft, tangy, and refreshing. Or in the words of Alex, "those cakes are lemon burst."

Since I don't have a jumbo muffin pan I divided the batter into my cupcake pan. I was able to fill up the 12 cavities completely. I still had some leftovers so I made a few mini cupcake-sized cakes. The glaze came out more like a frosting for me. The 2 Tbsp of lemon juice wasn't enough. I didn't want to add anymore lemon juice and it didn't occur to me to add water to thin it out until I got the right consistency. So instead I put it on the cakes more like a frosting. I liked this look; I think it gave the cakes a fun look.

Glazed Lemon Cakes
Source: Martha Stewart's Great Food Fast

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk or plain low-fat yogurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon, plus 2 Tbsp juice for the glaze
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 6-cup jumbo muffin tin.

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour with the baking powder and salt. In a small bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, vanilla, and lemon zest and juice of 1 lemon. Set aside.

With an electric mixer, cream butter and granulated sugar until light. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk mixture.

Divide evenly among muffin cups. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a cake comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool 10 minutes in tin, then cool completely on a rack.

Set rack over wax or parchment paper. In a small bowl, stir confectioners’ sugar with remaining lemon juice until smooth. Pour over cakes, spreading to edges with a small knife. Let set 30 minutes.

The cakes.
I thought it was cool that the small ones were whiter than the big onesI ate this one......and it was good!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Those look amazing...I love lemon, and I use the Great Food Fast book quite a bit, so I'll have to try them. If you are looking for another dessert to try from that book, the carrot cupcakes are excellent, and I really liked their version of the chocolate gingerbread (I liked it better than Dorie's version...sorry to say).

Elyse said...

YUM! These look so refreshing and delicious. I like that your "glaze" turned out mroe like a frosting; that's how I prefer it anyway!

Stephanie said...

Thanks for the rec Jess! I have been eying those cupcakes for a while now.

Elyse, I prefer frosting too!