Buried Cherry Almond Cupcakes

Hello Spring!  We've missed you!  How about a cheery cherry cupcake to celebrate?

Cherries and almond extract blend together beautifully in this wonderfully, but not overwhelmingly sweet cupcake.  And as I'm a sucker for good frosting, and lots of it, I halved the cake recipe, but kept the frosting proportion the same.  Twelve cupcakes is really more than enough for a small dinner party anyway...the full 24 would have just gone to waste.

adapted from BHG

yields 12 cupcakes

The Ingredients:
for the batter:
1/4 cup butter
2 egg whites
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3 oz buttermilk
2 1/2 Tbsp maraschino cherry juice
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
12 maraschino cherries

for the frosting:
1/2 cup butter, softened
4 cups powdered sugar
3 Tbsp maraschino cherry juice
1/2 tsp almond extract
1-3 Tbsp milk

12 maraschino cherries with stems

 The Process:
Allow butter and egg whites to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, line twelve 2-1/2-inch muffin cups with paper liners.

Preheat oven to 350.

In a medium bowl sift together flour, baking powder, soda and salt. In a small bowl combine buttermilk and cherry juice; set aside.

In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar, vanilla, and almond extract and beat until combined. Add egg whites, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk mixture to batter, mixing until just combined.

Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each about half full.  Gently press a cherry into the center of each cup.

Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool cupcakes in muffin cups on wire racks for 5 minutes. Remove cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely.

Meanwhile, for the frosting:

Beat the butter with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Gradually add 1 cup of the powdered sugar, beating well. Beat in maraschino cherry juice and almond extract. Gradually beat in additional powdered sugar. If necessary, beat in additional juice or milk, a little at a time until frosting reaches spreadable consistency.

Pipe or spread the frosting on to the cooled cupcakes.  Top with a stemmed cherry.

Eggless Blackberry Boy Bait

I love alliteration, don't you?

I know. I know...egg-less doesn't fit in with the beautiful bounty of b's.  But it is the reason I first came upon the recipe.  You see, I had an itty-bitty box of breathtaking blackberries and nary a use for them.  They had been glowing, at their peak of ripeness.  I couldn't let these beauties go to waste.

Only, I didn't have any eggs.  Nada.  Zilch.  Ross made frequent offers to run to the store at 9 pm to gather what I lacked, but I vehemently refused.  We had planned our grocery shopping for the next day and I refused to let him make the extra trip for one ingredient.  I was determined to find an egg-less dessert. 

And I had wonderful success courtesy of the husband and wife team at Chef In You.

So what is a boy bait?  From what I've gathered among various sources, a 15 year-old girl submitted a butter-loaded blueberry cake a Pillsbury bake-off in 1954.  She dubbed it boy bait for its ability to lure in the opposite sex.  I'd go so far as to say this cake could lure in almost anyone.  It won second place.  To what?  I'm not sure.  Pillsbury's website is sadly lacking any reference to boy bait..

The treat is reminiscent of blueberry muffins--indeed it is traditional made with blueberries--but baked up in a single layer, allowed to cool and cut into squares.  This version earns its egglessness thanks to the addition of yogurt.  But all of the buttery goodness remains...

adapted from recipes at the Chef In You and Smitten Kitchen

serves 12+

The Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour + 1 tsp
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), room temperature
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup yogurt
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup fresh blackberries
1/4 cup cinnamon-sugar

The Process:
Preheat the oven to 350.  Butter a 9 x 13 baking pan and dust with flour.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugars, beating until fluffy, about 3-4 minutes.  Beat in 1/2 cup of the yogurt, 1/4 cup of the milk and the vanilla.  Fold in 1/3 of the flour mixture.  Add the remaining yogurt and mix well.  Fold in another third of the flour, followed by the remaining milk.  Add the remaining flour and mix until just combined.

Toss 1/2 cup of the blackberries with 1Tbsp of flour. Gently fold the berries into the batter.  Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan.  Distribute the remaining berries over the batter.  Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. 

Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cool in the pan for at least twenty minutes.  Remove the cake from the pan to a serving tray and allow to cool completely (if you can!)  The cake will be far easier to slice once cool. 

The Review:
My first attempt at this recipe was incredibly tasty.  But I did a very stupid thing.  Instead of using the 9x13 pan recommended, I reached for my 9-inch cake pan.  The batter filled the pan almost to the brim.  I feared an overflow and placed a cookie sheet on the rack below, lest the cake ooze all over the bottom of my oven.  I had to add nearly 15 minutes to the bake time.  The toothpick came out clean. 

The toothpick test deceived me.

The center of the cake quickly collapsed into a pile of nearly raw batter.  You can barely tell from the photos.  We still enjoyed it.  Well...most of it...

Attempt no. 2 was a much bigger success. My husband insists this treat is laced with crack...

Classic Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting

What sort of dessert do you request on your birthday?  For me, the cake of choice was usually yellow with chocolate frosting.  Apparently great minds think alike.  After much poking and prodding Ross finally requested a specific dessert.  Low and behold, it was the classic yellow cake with chocolate frosting.

I knew any old box mix would not do the big day justice (sorry Betty Crocker and Pillsbury!)  The cake had to be made from scratch.  Thankfully a post from Liz at the Skinny Chick Can Bake caught my eye.

Holy heaven, is this cake a winner!

adapted from Martha Stewart via That Skinny Chick Can Bake

yields one 2-layered cake

The Ingredients:
for the cake

1 1/2  cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2  cups cake flour 

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter ( 2 sticks), room temperature

1 3/4 cups sugar

4 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1 1/4 cups milk

for the frosting:

1 lb semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
6 Tbsp cocoa powder

6 tablespoons boiling water

1 1/2 cups unsalted butter (3 sticks),  room temperature

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

The Process:

for the cake:

Preheat the oven to 350.  Butter two 9-inch cake pans.  Line the bottom with parchment paper.  Butter the parchment and dust the entire pan with flour.  Set aside. 

In a medium bowl sift together the flours, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.

In a large bowl cream together the  butter and sugar until fluffy and well combined, about 4 minutes.  Beat in the eggs one at a time, making sure each is well incorporated before adding the next.  Mix in the vanilla.

With the mixer set to low, add one third of the flour at a time, alternating with the milk.  Mix well after each addition.

Divide the batter between the two prepared pans.  Bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.  

Allow to cool in the pans for 10 minutes.  Invert the pan to remove the cake from the pans and peel off the parchment paper.   Allow to cool completely on wire racks.

for the frosting:

In a large microwaveable bowl, melt chocolate in microwave, stopping and stirring at 30 second increments until the chocolate is melted and smooth.  Set aside to cool to room temperature, about 15 minutes...do not skip the cooling, especially on a hot day.  The frosting will not be a spreadable consistency otherwise.

Whisk the cocoa powder into the boiling water until smooth.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and powder sugar until fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.  Beat in the vanilla.  Add cooled chocolate and mix until well combined.  Add cocoa mixture and beat until the desired consistency is achieved.  

Assemble and frost the cake as desired.

The Review:

Ross had the privilege of sampling as I mixed everything.  It was his cake after all.  I had to ensure it would meet his approval.  Upon sampling the batter he exclaimed, is that the frosting! It's so good!"  The wheels are churning for later.  Has anyone ever attempted a cake batter frosting before?

The cake itself baked up beautiful and sat eagerly awaiting it's chocolatey covering.  

Here I ran into a few problems.  The recipe as written is not the problem in the slightest.  The problem stemmed from the sheer quantity of butter on a sweltering July day.  No amount of cooling outside of the refrigerator was going to keep the frosting from turning soupy during my feeble attempts at frosting (I'm getting better, but man, what I wouldn't give for an off set spatula!)

The problem I ran into with chilling the ingredients between steps was it cooled off TOO fast.  Rock hard to soupy to rock hard again.  I managed.  And the cake looked stunning in the end.  The finish beauty hung out in the fridge until the big moment.  I broke 4 candles trying to poke the candles into the chilled frosting.  30 candles ablaze, the frosting wasn't so stiff anymore!

But even better than the look of the cake was the taste. Having sampled along the way, I warned people about the sugar bomb they were about to partake in.  Only a few heeded the warning.  Everyone loved it.  There was nary a crumb left.  Only it is truly, very rich and very sweet.  A little bit goes a long way.

Next time...cupcakes...

Some of us need the built in portion control.