This past Friday I decided to bring some sweet treats over to our local fire department. As we all are coming to realize, there are many people out in this world that are helping the rest of us to remain safe and sound in our homes. There are the fire fighters, police officers, and service men and women who are always out on the front lines protecting us from harm. And in a health crisis such as this one, the scientists, pharmacists, doctors, nurses and all the many ancillary health personnel are risking their safety, to increase our chances of staying healthy. I’ve taken to thanking the grocery store and Walgreens staff whenever I come into contact with them. And while they’re grateful to have a job, they’re all aware that they’re taking risks by doing their very job. On that note, I made this happy, light, spring dessert for the La Quinta Fire House. See if it looks like something you want to make for your family.

Lemon Blossoms

Yield 5 dozen minicupcake “blossoms”

Ingredients:

-one package yellow cake mix

-3 1/2 ounce package instant yellow pudding mix (I used three one ounce packages of sugar-free instant mix because the stores were all out of the regular stuff)

-4 large eggs

-3/4 cup vegetable oil

Glaze:

–4 cups confectioners’ sugar

-I lemon. zested

-1/3 cup fresh lemon juice

3 T vegetable oil

3 T water

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Spray miniature muffin pans with vegetable oil cooking spray.

3. Combine the cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, and vegetable oil, and blend with an electric mixer until smooth, about 2 minutes.

3. At this point the batter will be extremely thick, so taking a teaspoon, pull a piece of the batter out of the bowl and put it in each muffin tin, filling each tin to about halfway filled.

4. Bake for 10 minutes or so until the muffins are just barely golden, and toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the cupcakes.

5. Leave the cupcakes in their tins for about 1 minute. Then carefully turn them out into a tea towel.

6. Make the glaze by putting the sifted confectioners’ sugar, the lemon zest, juice, water and oil all I a medium mixing bowl. Mix with a spoon until smooth.

7. While the cupcakes are still warm, using your fingers, dip the cupcakes into the glaze covering as much of the cake as possible, turning them to coat. Place on a wire rack with waxed paper underneath, to make for easy cleanup. Let the glaze set thoroughly, about 1 hour before storing in an airtight container.

Once I cleaned up the kitchen, I packed up the lemon blossoms in a disposable 9 x 13 inch pan and drove over to the fire house. As it worked out the truck was just returning from a call so I was able to hand off the goods lickety split! I was so grateful to have an opportunity to do something sweet for this particular batch of helper!

Please note this recipe is from Paula Deen. It’s sooo delicious!