These Mini Lemon Drop Cakes are super airy, tender, and moist. If you are a lemon lover and you like simple and delicious homemade mini cakes, this recipe is for you.
Mini Lemon Drop Cakes
They taste like the most delicious lemonade in the world. Try it and these mini lemon cakes will melt in your mouth!
I associate these mini lemon drop cakes with sunny summer days. Therefore, I usually cook them on rainy days to cheer myself up. These mini lemon drop cakes have a beautiful sunny color, rich lemon aroma, and delicate taste.
It is so good that these mini lemon drop cakes are super easy to prepare. I think you definitely have all the ingredients on hand.
You will need all-purpose flour, sugar, powdered sugar, fresh lemon zest, fresh lemon juice, butter, water, sour cream, one egg, milk, baking soda, and salt.
That’s all. Also, you will need a non-stick mini muffin pan, cooking spray, and cooling rack. Mini Lemon Drop Cake recipe is really easy.
What makes Mini Lemon Drop Cakes moist and fluffy?
Ingredients such as sour cream, egg, baking soda, and lemon juice make these Mini Lemon Drop Cakes so moist and fluffy. Be sure to use egg and sour cream at room temperature.
Also, you don’t need to over-mix the batter if you want to try these soft, buttery mini cakes.
How to make Mini Lemon Drop Cakes?
- Preheat oven to 325°F. Add 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1 cup sugar, ½ tsp salt, ½ tsp baking soda to the bowl. Combine.
- In a small saucepan, heat ½ cup unsalted butter until melted. Add ½ cup water to the melted butter. Stir and bring to a boil.
- Add this hot butter mixture to the dry ingredients. Mix using an electric mixer until just combined. Don’t overmix the batter.
- Add ¼ cup sour cream, one egg, 1 tbsp lemon zest, 1 tbsp lemon juice to this mixture. Beat until smooth.
- Grease mini muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray. Scoop batter into prepared mini muffin pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes. When mini lemon drop cakes are ready, let them cool for 5 minutes in the pan. Then, transfer to the cooling rack.
- Prepare the glaze while mini lemon drop cakes are cooling. Add 1 ½ cup powdered sugar, 2 tbsp lemon juice, 2 tbsp milk, 1 tsp lemon zest, 1 tbsp melted butter to the bowl. Mix until combined. Then, heat for 10-15 seconds in the microwave.
- Dip each mini cake into the lemon glaze.
- Return mini lemon drop cakes to the cooling rack, let the glaze harden.
Recipe tips;
- Don’t overmix the batter, otherwise, the mini lemon drop cakes won’t be so soft.
- You don’t need to use muffin liners. Just grease a non-stick mini muffin pan with cooking spray and you can be sure that they won’t stick to the pan.
- If the glaze is hardened or thickened, just heat it in the microwave before dipping mini cakes into it.
Freeze Mini Lemon Drop Cakes;
You can freeze these Mini Lemon Drop Cakes. It is better to freeze them without the glaze. How to freeze these mini cakes? It is easy.
Let them cool completely to room temperature. Then, wrap them in plastic wrap or place them in an airtight container and freeze them for later.
You can defrost them at room temperature, in the microwave, or in the oven.
Personally, I like to defrost them in the oven. Also, you can prepare the glaze while mini cakes are defrosting.
How do you fix sunken Mini Lemon Drop Cakes?
Your Mini Lemon Drop Cakes can be sunken if you underbake them.
Be sure that you preheat the oven to 325°F. Also, you shouldn’t open the oven until the mini cakes rise a little and become golden.
Try to not open the oven before 10 minutes have passed.
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MINI LEMON DROP CAKES
Ingredients
For the mini cakes:
- 1 cup all-purpose flour;
- 1 cup sugar;
- ½ tsp salt;
- ½ tsp baking soda;
- ½ cup butter;
- ½ cup water;
- ¼ cup sour cream;
- 1 egg;
- 1 tbsp lemon zest;
- 1 tbsp lemon juice.
For the glaze:
- 1 ½ cup powdered sugar;
- 2 tbsp lemon juice;
- 2 tbsp milk;
- 1 tsp lemon zest;
- 1 tbsp butter, melted.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F.
- In a bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda.
- In a small saucepan, melt butter. Add water, stir and bring this buttery mixture to a boil.
- Add this hot buttery mixture to dry ingredients. Using an electric mixer, mix until just combined.
- Add sour cream, egg, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Beat until smooth.
- Grease mini muffin tin with cooking spray. Add batter to the prepared muffin tins. Bake in the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let them cool for 5 minutes in the mini muffin pan. Then, transfer them to the cooling rack. Let them cool to room temperature.
- While they are cooling, prepare the glaze. Combine powdered sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, milk, and melted butter. Heat for 10-15 seconds in the microwave.
- Dip each mini lemon drop cake into the glaze (bottom side down). Then, return to the rack. Serve when glaze hardens.
Nutrition
All I can say is Oh My Gosh! Fabulous! The icing could not be better! I did 1 1/2 batches of the icing after reading other comments which I’m glad I did. I also used the 1/4 cp of water & 1/4 cp lemon juice in the cake recipe because I REALLY like lemon flavor. 😁
I live in Colorado, and only remembered about altitude adjustment as I was putting these in the oven! Of course they sank in the middle. My tea party friends were on their way to my house for a meeting, so there was no time to make anything else! Out of desperation I filled the sunken middles with lemon curd, and hey presto! They were awesome! We will be serving them this way at our tea in July!
Oh my gosh these are so yummy. Very simple to make and look scrumptious. Definitely my go to from now on. Perfect for parties who just want a bite of sweetness. 😊
These mini cakes are decadent!! Light and velvety and full of flavour…I can’t stop eating them. Definitely a keeper
This was super easy and delicious!!! I know it’s kinda a summer recipe but it’s the first time I was able to get Meyer lemons here in Canada and wow I love the outcome!!!
So glad you loved it Dianne! Thanks so much for the 5 star rating!
Absolutely delish, 10 stars!!! These will be a go to for sure.
How wonderful, Debbie! So glad you decided to give it a try! and thanks so much for the 5-star rating!
I made these in small heart-shaped pans and increased the baking time. Instead of the lemon glaze, I made raspberry buttercream to put on the hearts for Valentine’s day
I made these for the 1st time with my granddaughter on a Gramma day, my son LOVED them so much he now asks for them all the time and THE only thing he wants for his birthday. Thank you!!! Made them almost exactly, I added more lemon zest and more juice.
How wonderful, kim! So glad you decided to give it a try!
Hi there, thanks so much for this recipe. I made a couple of changes too, we have a severe egg allergy in the house. So I subbed 1/4 c applesauce and added another 1/2 tsp baking soda. Still turned out wonderfully light.
Thanks for the suggestions. So glad you decided to try it again and customize it to your liking. 🙂
These were delicious & a big hit at a party! I will definitely make them again. Thanks for the recipe!
~Amber
So glad you loved it! Thanks so much for the 5-star rating!
These are delicious, like a little burst of sunshine in your mouth. Thank you for sharing your recipe, it is a keeper.
So glad you loved it! Thanks so much,
These were a hit at our house! Perfect for summer dessert and easy to make. Never made much of anything lemon. I will have to say, they are probably one of my favorite desserts. Will be making these for our next church meal. Thanks for sharing.
Oh my goodness you are so kind. Thank you for coming back to leave a review!
Came out perfect and I used stevia in place of the sugar !
So glad you were able to customize it to your liking!
I made them with gluten free flour and they came great. Thanks
So glad you were able to customize it to your liking! Thanks so much for the 5-star rating!
I made these but used limes…they were delicious and a big hit. I highly recommend using a nonstick pan and spray with a baking spray with flour. I used a non stick pan and sprayed it and they stuck a little..the second batch I used the spray with flour and they popped right out of the pan. Will definitely make again
So glad you were able to customize it to your liking! Thank you for coming back to leave a review!
I have to eat gluten free. I wonder if using a GF substitute for the flour would work. I would also want to substitute some lemon juice for the water as it sounds like it would not be that lemony.
So glad you were able to customize it to your liking!
Absolutely delicious! They didn’t pop right out of the pan as I had hoped; however, were easily released with a knife. Great flavours!
That sounds amazing!
I’ve been looking for a mini muffin pan that has straight sides like your appears (rather than slanted). What brand or where can I find that pan?
Hi, Karen,
It’s a Purex muffin pan. You can use a muffin pan with slanted sides.
How many teaspoons/tablespoons? Is the scoop you use to put the batter into the pan? Thanks
Hi Pamela,
Just fill the muffin pan no more than 2/3.
Is it fine to replace the sour cream with buttermilk?
Hi Chloe, I didn’t try buttermilk, so I can’t suggest it to you, but id love to know how it’s turned out for you, Thanks
I made these with my grandsons on Zoom, then took them to a wedding breakfast shower. They were a big hit!
Haha! Thanks so much Sue, That definitely sounds like a winner!
Delicious, I used cupcake pans (10 cupcakes) & baked 25 minutes. I will make these again & will line the pan bottoms with some parchment & spray with Pam. They did stick a bit, I think because it was a larger, heavier cupcake compared to a mini. Nice texture & so lemony🍋🍋🍋 Thanks for sharing your recipe!
Hi Geri,
Thank you for the kind words! I’m so glad you decided to give it a try again and enjoyed it.
These lemon cakes are so delicious. It took no time preparing them. Great recipe!
Thanks for coming back to let me know how much you enjoyed it! I appreciate the 5 stars.
Made these Lemon Drop cakes today, while they are delicious the recipe barely made 24 cakes. Very moist, instead of adding 1/2 cup of water I used 1/4 c water 1/4 c of lemon juice. That much more lemony,
Hi Dianne,
Perfectly, Thanks for coming back to let me know how much you enjoyed it.