Lemon Tea Cakes with Lemon Satin Icing

Love is in the air with Valentines Day just around the corner.

With so many V-Day events going on in the blogosphere, I thought these cute Lemon Tea Cakes would be ideal for the occasion. The recipe is from the “Better Homes & Gardens -- the new baking book". The cake is a Genoise which a very fine crumbed cake and works great for such desserts.

Lemon Tea Cakes with Lemon Satin Icing

You will need:
For the Genoise:

1 cup Sugar
6 slightly beaten eggs
2 tsp Vanilla extract
1 Cup all purpose flour
½ cup Butter, melted and cooled
1 tbsp finely shredded Lemon peel
1 tbsp Lemon juice

Grease a 13x 9 inch baking pan. Line bottom of pan with waxed or parchment paper, grease paper and set aside.

Place Sugar and eggs in a 3-4 quart heat proof mixing bowl. Place bowl over 1-2 inches of hot water (bowl should not touch water). Heat over low heat, stirring occasionally for 5-10 minutes or until egg mixture is lukewarm. Remove bowl from heat and stir in vanilla and lemon juice.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Beat egg mixture with a electric mixer on high speed for 10 minutes. Sift about 1/3^rd of the flour over the egg mixture. Gently fold in flour. Repeat sifting and folding in 1/3^rd of the flour at a time. Stir in shredded lemon peel into the butter and then gently fold this into the batter. Spread batter into prepared pan.

Bake in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near the centre of the cake comes out clean. Cool cake in pan for 10 minutes and then on the cooling rack. Remove paper and cool thoroughly.

For the Satin Icing: (makes 3 cups)

2 ¼ cups Granulated Sugar
1 ¼ cups Water
¼ tsp Cream of Tartar
1 tbsp Lemon juice
1 tsp Clear Vanilla
3 ½ Cups Powdered Sugar

In a large pan, combine granulated sugar and water, with cream of tartar. Bring mixture to boiling over medium high heat, stirring constantly for 5-9 minutes or unitl sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to medium low. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking and let mixture boil at a moderate, steady rate over the entire surface (should take around 8-10 minutes) Remove saucepan from heat and let cool without stirring for about 30-40 minutes. Stir in lemon juice and vanilla. Also stir in the powdered sugar to form a smooth lump free mixture. Beat with a whisk or electric mixer to remove any lumps. This is the Satin Icing.

When the cake has completely cooled, trim the edges with a serrated knife. Cut into desired shaped using cookie or fondant cutters. I made all hearts with a few flowers. Place the cake pieces on the wire rack with parchment paper underneath the rack.

Colour the icing with your choice of colour. Divide the icing if you want to use the white to pipe on the cakes once they are frosted.

Insert a fork into the side of 1 cake piece. Hold the cake over the saucepan , pour enough icing to cover the cake piece completely. Place frosted cake back on the wire rack making sure it doesn’t touch the other cake pieces. Repeat with remaining pieces. Let caked dry 15 minutes and repeat a second and third layer of icing. When icing the second time, place cake on the fork instead of inserting into the cake. Pipe or drizzle on top of cakes.

The icing didn't come out as well as I expected. No matter how many ever times I tried to cover the surface evenly with the icing, after dripping, the sides were still uneven. After the 3rd layer I just decided to stop and not focus on the sides!

These little treats are my entry to these events:

"A heart for Your Valentine" hosted by Zorra
"Theme of the Week: Valentine's Day" hosted by Pooja of My Creative Ideas
"JFI: Lemons/Limes" hosted by Coffee of The Spice Cafe

Happy Valentine's Day!!