Luscious Lemon Curd Mini Cake Recipe

The third set of mini cakes was Luscious Lemon Curd, and they were actually the first ones that I made. I had a spectacular fail in the middle of the recipe, so there weren't as many of these little cakes as the others. Here's the recipe:

Luscious Lemon Curd Mini Cakes
Baker's Joy flour/oil spray for dusting pans
2 boxes of plain lemon cake mix (with NO pudding added)
1/2 cup of flour (for high altitude only)
2 2/3 cups of water
2/3 cup of lemon curd (I made my own, or you can get 2-10 oz. jars)
2/3 cup of canola oil
6 large eggs
2 cups of heavy cream (for whipping)
2 T. powdered sugar
1 1/3 cups lemon curd
2 tsp. lemon extract
Buttercream frosting (recipe on Thursday)
Whipped cream and leftover glaze for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and get out two mini cheesecake pans with removable bottoms (to bake 24 at a time) and the Baker's Joy. Put a gallon Ziploc bag into a medium bowl with the bag sides folded over in an open cuff, and have a pair of scissors handy.

Wash and dry the oranges, then grate the zest off. Cut the oranges in half and ream the juice from them, removing all seeds and stringy parts. Save 1/2 cup of the juice for the glaze.

Into the mixing bowl dump the two cake mixes, a 1/2 cup of flour if you are at a high altitude, the water, 2/3 cup of lemon curd, oil, and eggs. Mix on low for 30 seconds, stop and scrape to make sure it's all mixed together, then mix for another 2 minutes on medium speed. Stop the mixer, scrape the bowl thoroughly, and pour the batter into the open Ziploc bag. Zip the bag closed.

Spray each little well of the pans with the Baker's Joy, then snip 1/2 inch off one corner of the Ziploc bag full of batter. Carefully pour each mini cup about 1/2 full of batter, wiping up any drips. Put the Ziploc bag back into the medium bowl it was sitting in earlier, this time holding the cut tip up so the batter doesn't run out. Bake the mini cakes for 14 minutes (or so) until a toothpick comes out fairly clean. Remove from oven and let sit on cooling racks for about 10 minutes, then pop cakes out and remove little bottoms before sitting cakes on racks to completely cool. Wash the pans and bottoms then dry and spray with Baker's Joy again. Repeat process again to make 48 cakes. If you have extra batter left over you can either put it into a small pan and bake for eating later or just throw it out.

(Here's my fail: I did't put the Ziploc bag into a bowl, and was trying to pour the batter into the bag without anything to hold it. The bag flopped over, spilling batter all over the counter, down the front of the cabinets, into the drawers, on my son's feet, the chair he was standing on, the floor, and the dog's head. Therefore, I had must barely 40 cakes and no leftover batter. What a horribly sticky mess -- lesson learned!)

When all 48 cakes are cool, put the heavy cream into a chilled mixing bowl and beat until stiff peaks form. Fold in the powdered sugar, 1 1/3 cup of lemon curd, and extract. Dip each cake into this glaze and set back on racks (they will drip off the excess). When glaze is firm (this one stayed sorta gooey), then put a dot of buttercream on each glass coaster, then put a cake on the frosting. These cakes just got a ring of stars around the bottom because it was eleven at night and our hands hurt from frosting little cakes. I finished the presentation with a little tag that told what flavor the cake was slid under the edge of the frosting on the corner of the coaster. Put into a couple of huge, flat boxes with lids and refrigerate until ready to serve. Just before serving, top with whipped cream and a drizzle of the leftover lemon curd glaze.

TOMORROW: Buttercream Frosting Recipe!