Lemon Poppy Seed Babycakes

My weakness for sweets is getting worse now that I'm six month pregnant. But I try to limit myself, and make things from simple ingredients, and at home - so it's not as bad as a processed brownie from panera bread, or a frozen pie! Yuck, frozen pies are gross.

So I have been baking a lot. This is one of my favorite cakes in the world! MLE and I recently bought a bunch of mini bundt pans at a consignment shop...so it was meant to be...

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/djwtwo/5744281757/

You'll Need:

4 lemons
3 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk
6 oz. sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 stick butter
2 oz. olive oil
6 oz. all-purpose flour
1/2 oz. poppy seeds
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. ground cardamom
confectioners sugar

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Set a pan of water large enough to hold the bottom of your mixer bowl to simmer on the stovetop.
2. Start by zesting the lemons, then juice them. You should have about 1/3 c. of juice, total. Set juice aside.
3. Melt the butter and combine with the oil, set aside to cool.
4. In your mixer bowl, combine the eggs, sugar, salt, vanilla, and 2 tbl. of the lemon juice. Set over the simmering water and whisk until the mixture is body temperature and the sugar begins to dissolve, a minute or so. Remove from the heat, and beat at high speed with the whisk attachment of your mixer until light and tripled in volume, 4 or 5 minutes or so.
5. Sift together the flour, cardamom, baking powder, and poppy seeds. Fold the dry ingredients into the egg mixture just until no dry streaks remain, then fold in the butter and oil mixture until combined.
6. Portion equally into six mini bundt pans sprayed with cooking oil. Bake for 20-22 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean, then remove from the oven and cool for 2-3 minutes.
7. Combine 1 oz. of the reserved lemon juice to thin it a bit.
8. Carefully check to be sure that the cakes release from their pans, but don’t remove them yet. Poke the bottom of the cakes several times with a skewer or toothpick, then carefully add 1 oz. of the thinned syrup to each one to soak it (add in small increments, and give the cakes time to absorb the syrup.) Allow to cool completely, then remove from the cake pans.
9. You should still have about an ounce of the lemon juice left. Add enough confectioners sugar to this to make a thick glaze that will run slowly off of a spoon. Spoon the glaze over the top of each cake, allowing it to run down the sides. The glaze will set up fairly quickly, after which you can serve the cakes.

These are so good! Hope you have good company to share these with (or hide them from).

:) Sizza