Mini Strawberry Lemon Cakes

Spring is finally here and I am excited...excited for warmth, excited for sunshine and excited for the produce such as fresh strawberries! I spent my first day of spring cleaning my and having a home spa day. I thought, why not have a kitchen floor so clean you can eat off it, and have spices and ingredients organized in a more efficient way to celebrate the new season! But I also took the time to pamper myself with a warm coconut oil hair treatment and a honey oatmeal mask...there are other good uses for baking ingredients afterall besides simply eating them!

Some fun was needed as well however, so I had to bake something delicious in celebration of spring arriving! Strawberries are the first fruit that came to mind, and so I created some little cakes featuring the fruit, along with some lemon to brighten them up!

I am going to have to wait a while for fresh strawberries in Minnesota, since they won't be here until late May most likely, but I do have frozen on hand, which was perfect for this recipe! I used pureed berries in the cake batter, as well as in a glaze when they finished baking to give them intense strawberry flavor. They tasted like little strawberry shortcakes without the whipped cream, the essence of sweet strawberry goodness!

They were little bites of happiness, and a brilliant pink color! Perfect to celebrate spring, but not limited to spring, since I am going to be making them again when the Minnesota berries are available! Here is the recipe if you would like to experience them for yourself! Happy Spring!

Makes 60 mini cakes

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and position rack in center of oven. Spray the wells of the mini cake pans with spray, and dust with flour, shaking out excess. Whisk flour, baking soda, salt, and sugar in a large bowl to blend well. Whisk strawberries, oil, vanilla extract, coconut milk, and lemon zest together in small bowl to blend well, then whisk into the flour mixture until well blended. Whisk in lemon juice and stir quickly (pale swirls will be in the batter, which is the baking soda reacting with the juice, which allows the cake to rise since there are no eggs). Transfer cake batter to prepared pan, dropping by 2 tsp fulls into each hole, and bake cakes until tester inserted into center of a cake comes out clean, and they are lightly brown, about 10-15 minutes. Cool cakes about 5 minutes, then invert onto a parchment lined rack and let cool completely on rack. To make glaze, whisk together berries, lemon juice, and vanilla along with about 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, and more if necessary to make a glaze consistency. Dip cakes into the glaze and place on a wire rack to let the glaze drip off and harden.