This latest recipe was inspired by a visit to Tart Sweets, a local bakery right around the corner from Kevin and me. (It really is close — less than half a mile from our house.) Despite its location, I hadn’t tried Tart Sweets until last Saturday (crazy, since I’m a lover of all things sweet). Kevin and I were running a few errands nearby and stopped in to check out the bakery. They had incredible looking pound cake on display, and Kevin and I chose a slice of Kentucky Bourbon Pound Cake to share. It was SO good, and put me in a pound cake mood. (That reminds me: I need to go back and sample Tart Sweets’ Brown Sugar Pound Cake.)
Determined to try a new pound cake recipe, I then decided I wanted to incorporate the awesome mini bundt cake pan I got for Christmas a couple of years ago. Mini pound cake time, people! We already had lots o’ lemons on hand, so I went the citrus route. It was a good call.
Mini Lemon-Glazed Pound Cakes:
Ingredients (for cake):
- 3 eggs
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, melted
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup milk
Ingredients (for glaze):
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
Directions (for cake)
- Grease your baby bundt pan (really well — get in all those nooks and crannies!) and set aside. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Beat the eggs in a stand mixer, then add the powdered sugar, melted butter, flour, baking powder, and salt, beating at medium speed until smooth. Beat in the milk.
- Spoon batter into prepared pan, then bake for 15-20 minutes (until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean).
- Cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then remove from pan (carefully — these have a tendency to stick!*) and let cool for 30 minutes.
Directions (for glaze)
- While your super cute cakes are baking, whisk 1 cup powdered sugar and lemon juice together in a saucepan, then bring to a simmer over medium heat. Stir until thickened to a syrup (about 8 minutes) and let cool.
- Brush the tops of the cooled pound cakes with the lemon syrup. Let glaze set, then brush with a second layer.
*While my first pan of mini pound cakes turned out pretty close to perfect (as shown above), my second pan met a different fate (as shown below). I think perhaps I didn’t clean the pan well enough between the two uses and so maybe there was some cake still stuck in the pan from round one, or maybe I should have tried a different greasing approach. Whatever the reason, I was left with lots of, well, pretty much crumbs. The good news? The crumbs are still delicious! Now I’m trying to decide how best to use said crumbs. As a pie crust? In cookies? Cake balls? That’s my project for tonight…
