Lemon Petits Fours: Cute Cakes!

My friend got me this cute cake pan with tiny flower molds for Christmas (and onion goggles, which totally rock...and work!). Actually, the pan is called a petit four pan, and that confused me a bit. You see, I always thought petits fours were tiny square layer cakes with icing -- as in, that's the only form they can come in and be called a petit four. Shockingly, I was wrong! Petits fours can be any small cake or confection. Now you know. Now I know. And on to the recipe...

This cake is an adaptation from the almond cake recipe that came on the the packaging of the petit four pan. I made the cake exactly as written, and it was great (most recipes on products' packaging are totally legit, 'cause they want you to have great success with their product) I'm more of a lemon girl than an almond girl, so just made some slight alterations to make the cake lemon. Great little cake, but, more importantly, they're cute! I'll try not to make all future cakes in the petit four pan to avoid cute overload.

If you don't have a petit four pan, just use a mini-muffin pan, and adjust cooking time as needed.Lemon Petit Fours
makes about 24

Cake
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup milk
1 lemon, zest only
3 egg whites

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and lightly flour a petit four pan.
  
• In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar; stir in vanilla extract.
• In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, and salt.
• Add flour mixture to butter mixture, alternating with the milk. Add lemon zest to mixture.
  
• In a small bowl, beat egg whites until stiff, but not dry. Fold egg whites into batter.
• Fill molds 2/3 full, and bake at 350 degrees for 20-22 minutes, or until golden brown and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
• Remove cakes from pan and let cool.
  

Glaze
1/2 cup sugar
3 lemons, juice only
water

• Put 1/2 cup sugar and juice of three lemons in a measuring cup, then add enough water to equal the 1 cup measure mark.
  
• Bring sugar, water, and lemon juice to a boil in a small pot on the stove top. Reduce heat and simmer for 5-10 minutes, or until syrup has slightly thickened.
• Let syrup cool.
• Dip tops of cakes (or the whole thing) in syrup, and let cakes rest on a cooling rack to "drip dry" before serving.
  

Lemon Bars

I made lemon bars for my boyfriend’s birthday. That was his request.

Now, I love lemon bars, but I don’t recall ever making them before. I had researched recipes, and decided on one from the Epicurious files. When it came time to make them, the site was experiencing a lot of traffic and the pages were taking about five minutes to load.

I have no patience for such things, so pulled out The Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. This book has every standard recipe in it and is a excellent source of basic recipes. If you're hankering for your aunt's famous dish, she probably got it from this book.

Their recipe was good, but not up to my standards. I wanted a little thicker crust, twice as much gooey lemon top, and tangy-er lemon flavor.

Soooo... I made a second batch with my own recipe that I modified from theirs. Theirs are enjoyable and you can eat many. Mine are enjoyable, but you can only eat one. (Theirs is to the left in the picture. Mine is to the right.)

How were they received?

Well, upon arriving home drunk, he did not want any.

“What?” I said incredulously.

I force-fed him a bite. He better eat this, god damn it!

He said, “Mmmm. The real deal!” Then passed out. Zzzzzzzzzzzz.

Just the response I was hoping for!!!???

Lemon Bars

7 ½ tablespoons butter or margerine
⅓ cup sugar
1 ½ cup all-purpose flour
4 eggs
1 ½ cup sugar
4 tablespoons flour
5 tablespoons finely shredded lemon peel
8 tablespoons lemon juice
½ teaspoon baking powder
powder sugar (optional)

• Beat butter with an electric mixer for 30 seconds. Add the 1/3 cup sugar; beat until combined. Beat in the 1/2 cup flour till crumbly. Press the mixture into the bottom of an ungreased 8x8x2-inch pan. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes or until golden.

• In another bowl, combine eggs, the 1 ½ cups sugar, 4 tablespoons flour, lemon peel, lemon juice, and baking powder. Beat until combined.

• Pour the filling over the baked layer. Bake 35 minutes more or until lightly browned around the edges and the center is set.

• Cool on a rack. Sift powdered sugar over top. Cut into bars. Best served chilled

ESSENTIAL TOOLS
Citrus Zester - I like the OXO lemon zester. OXO makes great tools
Lemon Juicer - I'm nostalgic, so won't give up my mother's glass lemon juicer. It's pretty and it's the one I used as a kid. The mexican lemon juicer is a sweet tool, though. It makes fast work of extracting juice and you don't have to pick the seeds out.