Lemon Cup Custard for Tuesdays with Dorie & Little Lemon Tea Cakes

The name Lemon Cup Custard, our recipe of the week for TWD chosen by Bridget of The Way the Cookie Crumbles, got me in the mood for lemon big time! I love lemon, but I knew after reading the P&Q re: Lemon Cup Custard that this probably wouldn't be a favorite for me, I am not an egg fan, and this dessert was described by Dorie (yes, thee Dorie) as eggy. It's how it should be, okay? Eggy just gets me, I would love to love eggs, but for some reason never have, and on the few occasions I've had them I get tummy troubles, no flan, creme brulee, quiche (which always sounds so good with those savory combinations such as spinach mushroom and wild rice quiche -- man that sounds delicious -- but I just can't do eggy).


When I was in high school doing a short 'homestay' trip in Denmark the very sweet family that I stayed with knew no English, but they did know that their 'exchange student' (I wasn't really an exchage student for a whole semester or anything, just some time in the summer) had the box checked 'vegetarian' on the forms, so they made lots of egg dishes as a substitute for meat (I'm guessing?) Our first night there the family made a huge dinner centered on a giant eggy quiche type dish with oodles of eggs. I would never want to appear rude so ate the whole giant helping they served me, and I got sick, green around the gills, people asking if I needed to go to the hospital sick. All for the eggy.


Anyway, I don't want to ever miss a TWD so I soldiered on making these Lemon Cup Custards. I halved the recipe and skipped the straining and water bath, just really didn't think it mattered that much since these were just for us at home and not a special dinner party or something. I am hoping my kids might like them but they are sitting in the fridge right now, not sure what the reaction will be but I will let you know if we have any custard fans, don't worry!

A fun thing about making this recipe was that I got to use my cute little baking flower pot cups :)

These are the baked custard photos, the first photo was before going in the oven, sorry my pictures are all out of order, I just like that first one best!

Since I was in the lemon mood thanks to the title of this recipe I made some Lemon Cream Cheese Tea Cakes in my new Nordic Ware Seashell Tea Cakes Pan I know on amazon it says Sea Shell TeaCakes, but the pan packaging says Seashell Tea Cakes, really, why do I even notice these things?



Anyway...I bought this (gasp) nearly $40 pan when it came out months ago and have never used it. I'm not feeling guilty though because I know when summer rolls around I will be using it more, think of all the cute beach themed parties, making sea shell chocolates with the kids, etc., right?

So here is a random lemon muffin recipe I fiddled with that turned out surprisingly delicious...

Lucious Lemon Cream Cheese Tea Cakes


1 egg
1/4 cup sugar
1 - 8 ounce package cream cheese at room temperature (really it does need to be soft, I know I sometimes try to cheat and microwave cream cheese, but I've gotten into the habit of really letting it get to room temperature on its own and the results are so much better)
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
zest and juice from one lemon


Mix the egg and sugar until well combined. Whisk in the cream cheese, milk, oil, and lemon juice and zest. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt, and mix until well combined. Spoon into tea cake pan...



Bake at 350 for 10 minutes, this makes about 3 pans worth of mini tea cakes (about the size of a mini muffin, maybe a touch smaller). Sprinkle with powdered sugar when cooled and removed from pan.

Thank you for visiting TWD friends, I hope you all enjoyed your custard for me :) now time to start working on to our next TWD pick, French Yogurt Cake -- ohh la la, that one sounds delicious!