Bridesmaid’s luncheons, cocktail parties or large group gatherings all call for crowd-pleasing desserts in bite-sized servings. Lemon squares, brownies and cookies are all nice choices as pick-up desserts, but my Citrus Drops top them all in presentation and ease of preparation.

This cake-mix recipe allows you to turn out 96 individual citrus cakes in under an hour. An orange or lemon cake mix is combined with lemon instant pudding, eggs, water and sour cream to for a rich, dense batter. The batter is baked in miniature muffin tins for one-bite citrus morsels.

The Citrus Drops get added citrus tang when they are dipped in a special orange glaze right after baking. The glaze is a simple mixture of powdered sugar, orange juice concentrate and melted butter. These Citrus Drops please children as well as adults, and can be absolutely addicting. Serve them at your next group function and watch them disappear.

• 1 18.25-ounce Orange Supreme or Lemon cake mix
• 1 3.4-ounce package lemon instant pudding mix
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 16-ounce box confectioners’ sugar
• 1 6-ounce can orange juice concentrate, thawed
• 3 tablespoons melted butter
  

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray 2 24-cup miniature muffin tins with nonstick cooking spray. Place cake mix, instant pudding mix, eggs, water and sour cream in the bowl of a heavy-duty stand mixer or large bowl. Beat with the stand mixer or an electric hand mixer on medium, until well blended and smooth. Spoon batter into prepared muffin tins and bake 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from oven and place on oven racks. Continue baking batches until all batter is used. You should have enough batter for 96 muffins.

While muffins bake, combine confectioners’ sugar with orange juice concentrate and melted butter. Beat until smooth using a hand whisk or electric mixer. As the batches of muffins come out of the oven, dip them in the glaze by inserting a fork in the top of the muffin and dipping the bottom and sides in the glaze. Place on parchment-lined baking sheets, top side down, until glaze is set. These can be prepared several days before serving. Store in a container with a tight-fitting lid.

Makes 96 Citrus Drops.