Lemon Blossoms for Thanksgiving

I can't believe it's almost Christmas and I haven't even blogged about Thanksgiving! It was a great Thanksgiving. Lots to eat and lots of time spent with family. My daughter came home for four days for Thanksgiving. Those of you who visit me regularly know that she brought home this sweet little angel.

This little cutie is Chorizo. I call her Precious. Precious is coming back tonight and will be here until Saturday, so I may not get a lot of blogging done as I'll be doing a lot of puppy playing.

But the real point of my post today is to share with you what I did on the last day my daughter was home at Thanksgiving. It was just the two of us and it started out with us sharing a bottle of the bubbly.

I absolutely adore Martini & Rossi Asti Spumante Sparkling Wine Champagne. My daughter bought a couple of bottles as we love to share Mimosas in the morning with French Toast, but due to Black Friday shopping (her) and puppy sitting (me) we never got around to a leisurely morning of Mimosas and French Toast.

So instead we baked. Ok, well I baked she played with the puppy, watched Cake Boss, hung out with me and drank Bubbly. It was fun and it kept the house warm and cozy. I'm not sure if that was due to the bubbly or the oven being on. But it was fun.

We baked Lemon Blossoms. My daughter had made these last Christmas and everyone fell in love with them. She left her mini muffin pan with me so that I could make them and it's almost Christmas again and I had never yet made them...so I did at Thanksgiving.

Voila! Lemon Blossoms...in all their glory.

Lemon Blossoms up close and personal!

These little gems are so easy to make and taste sooooooo delicious. I tweaked the recipe a little bit because I love the taste of lemon, so they were so lemony that people's lips puckered when they first bit through the crispy, crunchity, lemony glaze covering.

But they got over it soon enough and everyone loved them. I didn't take step by step photos cause there was a puppy to play with and a daughter to visit with and Bubbly to drink...but here's some photos of a few stages.

Hot out of the oven!

Popped out of the pan...PERFECTION!

A close up of PERFECTION!

Mmmm, the lemony glaze. Pardon the bits and pieces of previously dipped blossoms.
Loving the color of my lime colored bowl with lemon glaze in it!

Voila yet again...Lemon Blossoms!

One minor mistake I made that my daughter didn't point out until I had completely finished is that I didn't dip the whole mini cupcake in the glaze. I just dipped the top and let it run down the side. When she made them, she dipped the whole cake in there.

The recipe for these Lemon Blossoms are from Paula Deen from the Food Network website. Here's a picture of Paula Deen's Lemon Blossoms.


Recipe for Lemon Blossoms

Ingredients

• 18 1/2-ounce package yellow cake mix
• 3 1/2-ounce package instant lemon pudding mix
• 4 large eggs
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil

Glaze:

• 4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 lemon, zested
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 3 tablespoons water

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Spray miniature muffin tins with vegetable oil cooking spray. Combine the cake mix, pudding mix, eggs and oil and blend well with an electric mixer until smooth, about 2 minutes. Pour a small amount of batter, filling each muffin tin half way. Bake for 12 minutes. Turn out onto a tea towel

To make the glaze, sift the sugar into a mixing bowl. Add the lemon juice, zest, oil, and 3 tablespoons water. Mix with a spoon until smooth.

With fingers, dip the cupcakes into the glaze while they're still warm, covering as much of the cake as possible, or spoon the glaze over the warm cupcakes, turning them to completely coat. Place on wire racks with waxed paper underneath to catch any drips. Let the glaze set thoroughly, about 1 hour, before storing in containers with tight-fitting lids.

I'm linking up with Designs by Gollum for Foodie Friday.


The great thing is that Michael, our hostess for Foodie Friday also features a pretty pet in her Foodie Friday post... go see...hurry! WAIT, before you go, please feel free to comment and again if you like what you see and read, please sign up to follow. Have a great weekend all!