New Recipe: Limoncello Mini Cakes

Hello everyone!!! Hope all of you enjoyed the Holiday/Easter weekend! We hung out, just us, no extended family which is a bit odd for us–we are always surrounded by lots of loved ones, but this time around, I have to say it was nice to be just us. Going to church…delicious brunch and then spending time watching movies and being lazy. Yup. Pretty much a perfect Sunday in my book.

So for this post, wanted to try to keep up something different for this year by including dessert recipes that we love. Baking is something I truly enjoy to do and if I can bring myself to do a quick and delicious dessert that I can share with others, nothing makes me more happy.

Limoncello Mini Cakes (or Cupcakes) with Limoncello Glaze

These are absolutely delicious and there is nothing I love more than making an adult-inspired dessert. Sorry kiddos.

Serves: 12 (or 24 if you are making cupcakes)                Prep Time: 25-30 minutes          Cook Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

2  cups All Purpose Flour (unbleached)

1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda

1/4 Teaspoon Salt

2 Sticks of (unsalted butter), Softened

Lemon Zest from 1 Lemon (1 Tbsp. at least)

5 Tablespoons of freshly squeezed Lemon juice

1/2 cup of Limoncello

2 cups of granulated sugar

For the glaze

1 cup of powdered sugar

3 Tablespoons of Limoncello

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat your mini bundts pan or cupcake pan with baking spray, or of course, flour and butter work just as well.

2. In a small bowl, sift together flour, baking soda and salt and set aside.

3. Cream together the butter, sugar and lemon zest for a 5 to 8 minutes, until smooth and light. Stop every now and then to scrape the bowl/paddle attachment.

4. Slowly add one egg at a time, again, stopping periodically to scrape the bowl (I have my mixer at medium speed during this time).

5.  Drop the mixer down to low (unless you want to be covered in a white powdered mess) and add in the flour mixer slowly. I add the flour mixture in three additions (add, scrape bowl, add, scrape bowl), until the entire mixture is well incorporated.

6. Add the Limoncello and lemon juice. Blend again.

7. Bake the mini-bundt or cupcake pans anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes. I find especially, for the mini-bundt cake pans, they really due tend to cook quickly.

For the glaze: Warm the Limoncello in the microwave and then slowly whisk the powdered sugar in. This part is really to your liking–the more powdered sugar you put in, the thicker it will be. Feel free to adjust according to your taste.

RECIPE NOTES

1. Mini bundt cake pans can be found readily at Walmart, Target and even Michaels. Would love hear what other recipes you all of done with them. I’m a little hooked on how adorable they came out.

2. Kid friendly alternative: If you feel inspired to turn this into a kid-friendly lemon cake, just omit the lemoncello and replace with 1 cup of milk (I use 2 percent). For a topping, sprinkle powdered sugar.  

3. I have a bottle of Limoncello sitting in my refrigerator…hmmm…any creative ideas or other recipes I should try? As you can see I’m on a big lemon kick over here! Would love to hear your thoughts!