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.