When spring is on its way, lemon just seems like the flavor you should make! Lemon has such a light, sweet – but tart flavor that is just perfect for spring desserts. The little mini bundt cakes are just so cute – and each person can have their own dessert.

This is an easy recipe. You just put all the ingredients in your mixing bowl and mix for about 2 minutes. Pour the batter into a ziplock bag and pipe the batter into the individual bundt cake molds in the pan. Bake and let cool completely before frosting.

While the mini bundt cakes are cooling, gather some decorating supplies. You can make them all the same, create a fun variety, or set out the frosting and toppings and let each person decorate their own.

I decided to “play” with lots of different toppings. A bit of fresh lemon zest and sugar were mixed together to create an extra burst of sweet lemon flavor on these little cakes.

What pretty spring colors! A spring nonpareil mix was sprinkled on these right after the frosting was piped on.

Confetti sprinkles on glaze would be fun for birthdays! Could even put a candle in the middle!

These were my favorites! Add just a light dusting of powdered sugar on the top of each mini bundt cake and then fill the middle with Easter M&Ms. Pretty enough for Easter brunch.

You could also top your mini bundt cakes with a glaze and coconut – then add shimmering Easter eggs.

So many creative ways you can decorate these – but they are also delicious without toppings or frosting ! Happy Spring!!!

Print Recipe

Lemon Mini Bundt Cakes

Lemon cake mix, lemon pudding mix, sour cream and lemon zest combine to make the best mini bundt cakes ever!

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time20 minutes mins

Cooling Time30 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr 5 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Bundt Cake, Easter, Lemon

Servings: 16 people

Author: Mary Beth

Ingredients

Mini Bundt Cakes

• 1 15.25 oz lemon cake mix
• 1 3.4 oz instant lemon pudding mix
• 1 cup sour cream
• 4 large eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons lemon zest (or zest of 1 lemon), optional
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice*
• 1/4 cup water

Frosting

• 1 8 oz package cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3-4 cups powdered sugar

Instructions

Mini Bundt Cakes

• Preheat the oven to 350°. Spray bundt pan with nonstick spray.
• Using mixer, beat the cake mix, pudding mix, sour cream, eggs, oil, lemon zest, lemon juice and water for 2 minutes.
• Pour batter into large (or 1 gallon) zip lock bag. Cut off one corner of the bag, and pipe the batter into prepared bundt pan, filling about 2/3 full. This will make about 16 mini-cakes.
• Bake 18-22 minutes, until inserted toothpick comes out clean.
• Cool about 10 minutes in the pans, then twist each cake gently to remove from the pan and transfer to a cooling rack. If necessary, gently use a small spoon to lift the cakes out.
• If not serving or frosting right away, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
• Note: A regular bundt cake pan can also be used with this recipe. After mixing the cake batter, pour it directly into the prepared bundt pan and bake for about 45-50 minutes.

Frosting

• Cream cream cheese and butter together until smooth and creamy.
• Mix in vanilla and then gradually add the powdered sugar. Add enough powdered sugar to get the consistency that you want, less if you want a glaze, more if you want to pipe the frosting.
• Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Notes

*Can also use refrigerated lemon juice – or citrus juice you have on hand.  You could make orange or lime cakes too!  Zest is optional, but does add more flavor to the cakes.

Brownie Bites Valentine Treats

During the Christmas holidays, my sister, Laurie, gave me Espresso Brownie Bites with Kahlua Buttercream Kisses as a gift – and the Kahlua and espresso powder needed to make more of them. What a great gift idea!

Chocolate, Kahlua and Espresso – wonderful flavors!

The recipe is found on A Farmgirl’s Dabbles Blog – https://afarmgirlsdabbles.com/espresso-brownie-bites-with-kahlua-buttercream-kisses-recipe/ I followed the recipe above, but did omit the cinnamon on the top.

Brownie Bites are fun to wrap up as Valentine’s Treat

Creative Valentine cupcakes!

I made some of the small bites, then also cut out some larger circles, sandwiched them together with the buttercream and put a larger buttercream kiss on top – then placed them in a cupcake liner.

Espresso Brownie Kahlua Ice Cream Sundae

When you cut the brownie bites circles, you have tidbits of delicious brownie left over. I put the tidbits in sundae dish, added a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, a kiss of buttercream and a drizzle of chocolate syrup. Fun recipe to be creative with! Happy Valentine’s Day!

Stained glass cookies would be fun to make for Valentine’s Day – or any holiday! If you search for “stained glass cookies” on Pinterest you will find so many ideas – from spring flowers to Christmas ornaments.

These would add a fun pop of color to your holiday arrangements – and you get to combine cookies and candy!

Start by making your favorite sugar cookie dough. You want to hold a nice crisp shape, so choose a sugar cookie dough that is refrigerated. It works better if you roll out the cookie dough between two pieces of parchment paper before you refrigerate it. Then you are ready to cut the shapes as soon as it is chilled. I used the recipe below:

https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/best-sugar-cookies/

I used alphabet stamps similar to this one to stamp “LOVE” on the cookies:

https://www.amazon.com/Cutters-Plastic-Alphabet-Numbers-Fondant/dp/B07RGGHSKL/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=baking+alphabet+stamps&qid=1575648430&s=office-products&sr=1-1

You use hard candies for the center. Place the candy in ziplock bags, cover with a kitchen towel and crush into small pieces with a rolling pin or meat mallet. Don’t crush up really fine, you want tiny shards of candy, not a fine powder. The crushed candy is sharp and tears the bag easily, so I found it helps to double up the bags , placing one inside the other. Place the candies in the inside bag and secure the top before crushing.

I tried Jolly Rancher and Life Saver candies for comparison. The Jolly Rancher cookies are on the left. I though that they had the best transparent stained glass effect. With the Life Saver cookies, on the right, the color was not as pretty. It was darker and did not smooth out as well once it was cooled.

Roll out your cookie dough about 1/4 inch thick, cut out your designs and put on a prepared baking sheet. The silicone mats work really well for this, but you could also use parchment paper.

Place your crushed up candy in a bowl and fill the area that you want to look like stained glass. Fill until almost full and then use a toothpick to spread the crushed candy evenly and into all the nooks and crannies. Be very careful – any candy specks that fall on the dough will color the cookie. You can use a damp paper towel to remove small pieces of the candy from the cookie.

When I was experimenting with different designs, I found that the cookies with large center openings looked better. The “stained glass” effect was much prettier, and if you are doing this with kids, they are much easier to fill.

When you first take the cookies out of the oven, the candy will be bubbling. This is normal, it will spread out and the bubbles will disappear as the cookies cool. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet until the cookies are completely cooled and the candy has hardened.

These were made with cherry flavored Jolly Ranchers, I found it to be the best flavor to use for a bright red color.

Blue raspberry Jolly Rancher candies made pretty snowflakes and hearts.

Sprinkle a little pearl sugar on them for a snow effect.

Have fun playing with these stained glass cookies! Enjoy!