Celebrating with Extraordinary Cakes Lemon Ricotta

There are times when it's absolutely appropriate to spend a week making a complicated and multi-layer cake, and I decided that my 23rd birthday was one of those occasions. I love excuses to break out the expensive bottle of wine I've been saving, wear my favorite dress and get my best friends together to enjoy a beautiful day. This Lemon Ricotta Cake was my favorite treat when I worked at Extraordinary Desserts in San Diego, and I was excited to see it in Karen Krasne's Extraordinary Cakes cookbook.

Ricotta cake is brushed with lemon simple syrup, then layered with lemon whipped cream, lemon curd and fresh blueberries and blackberries and topped off with lemon buttercream frosting. This dessert is pillowy and creamy with contrasting sweet and tart, the perfect way to celebrate a summer day.

The recipe calls for making the lemon curd from scratch, but you could easily use store-bought. The hardest part of the recipe is orchestrating the many components and making sure they're ready at the right times during the assembly process. I won't even try to reprint the multi-page recipe here, but when you buy the book (because you should!) make sure you read through everything multiple times so you have the complete picture.

Cupcake mix two ways

In the midst of finals, I wasn't exactly swimming in free time to bake and decorate desserts for my dear boyfriend's birthday party. I knew there had to be some kind of shortcut to delicious cupcakes with that homemade taste, and with some research I discovered quite a few suggestions about how to hack the traditional boxed cake mix and turn it into something wonderful.

I ended up trying the simplest of all the recipes, which is to add buttermilk in place of the water when mixing the matter - and boy did it make a difference! Instead of airy sponges, the cupcakes emerged moist, dense and (almost) as good as from scratch. Of course, I always make my own buttermilk with low fat milk and white vinegar, so I never have to go spend extra money on premade - the ultimate shortcut!

While I've seen margarita and champagne cupcakes, I've yet to come across those inspired by our favorite bourbon cocktail - the Old Fashioned. The recipe for happiness is bourbon, Angostura bitters, simple syrup, maraschino cherry and a twist of orange. Excited yet? I tweaked a yellow cake mix with orange zest and juice, brushed on a bourbon simple syrup and topped with bitters buttercream and a maraschino cherry. Success!

To round out the lineup, I decided to honor Cinco de Mayo with some Mexican chocolate cupcakes. A little bit of spice and warmth from the cinnamon contrasted nicely with the sweetness of dulce de leche caramel. These were definitely a crowd pleaser with their indulgent flavors.

Old Fashioned Cupcake
Makes about 16 cupcakes

Orange Zest Cake
1 box yellow cake mix
buttermilk (or add 1 Tbsp white vinegar for every 1 C milk, let sit for at least 5 min)
finely grated zest of one medium orange
1/4 C freshly squeezed orange juice

Directions: Follow directions on cake mix box, replacing water with the same volume of buttermilk. Beat in orange zest and juice with the rest of the batter.
Fill cupcake liners almost to the top, and bake until the top springs back to the touch. Let cool completely before frosting.

Bourbon Simple Syrup
1/4 C water
1/4 C granulated sugar
4 Tbsp bourbon or other whiskey

Directions: Mix water and sugar in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Let cool completely and then stir in bourbon. Using a pastry brush, brush a small amount of mixture on top of each cooled cupcake.

Bitters Buttercream
Adapted from Serious Eats
8 dashes Angostura bitters
2 Tbsp Bourbon or other whiskey
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
3-4 C powdered sugar, sifted

2-3 Tbsp milk

Directions: In an electric mixer, beat butter until light and fluffy. Gradually add powdered sugar, scraping down the bowl as necessary. Add milk and more powdered sugar until you reach the desired consistency. Add bitters and mix thoroughly.

Mexican Chocolate Cupcake
Makes about 16 cupcakes

Mexican Chocolate Cake
1 box milk chocolate cake mix

buttermilk (or add 1 Tbsp white vinegar for every 1 C milk, let sit for at least 5 min)
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions: Follow directions on cake mix box, replacing water with the same volume of buttermilk. Add cinnamon with dry ingredients.
Fill cupcake liners almost to the top, and bake until the top springs back to the touch. Let cool completely before frosting.

Dulce de Leche Buttercream
From Bakespace
3/4 can of dulce de leche

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
2-3 C powdered sugar, sifted
2-3 Tbsp milk

Directions: In an electric mixer, beat butter until light and fluffy. Gradually add powdered sugar, scraping down the bowl as necessary. Add dulce de leche and beat to combine. Add milk and more powdered sugar until you reach the desired consistency.

Summer in San Francisco

I know that my baking's been on a bit of a hiatus - moving to San Francisco meant packing up my Kitchenaid for a few weeks while I unpacked, got settled in my new apartment (and waited for my oven to get fixed) and figured out a way to schedule breaks from intense studying. BUT - I'm back! And what better way to return to the kitchen than with this fantastic recipe.

The weather's taken a turn for the warm up here in the city (shocker) and nothing sounded better to me than the crisp tang of lime. This recipe that I found for a cupcake with ricotta cheese and lime zest and juice is one of the best I've ever tasted, and I'm so excited to share it with you. I upped the lime content by adding twice the zest, and I think it was perfect. The cake is light with a nice crumb, and I think that the ricotta really lived up to its reputation as a great way to make fluffy baked goods fluffier! It's the perfect end to a summer BBQ (or accompaniment to a margarita?)

For the frosting, I chose the white chocolate buttercream that I used for my whoopie pies. I think the sweetness of the white chocolate nicely balanced the tartness of the lime, and it stands up a little better to room temperature than a whipped cream frosting.

So wherever you are - laying in front of the fan or bundled up in a sweatshirt dreaming of the sun - enjoy this cupcake and think of summer!

Lime Ricotta Cupcakes
From Kayotic Kitchen
Makes 18 cupcakes


2 1/2 C all-purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 C sugar
7 oz butter, softened
1/2 C + 2 Tbsp ricotta cheese
4 eggs, separated
4 limes

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line cupcake tins with liners or nonstick spray. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt and set aside. Grate limes and add to flour mixture, juice 2 limes and reserve juice. Cream together sugar and butter in an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add ricotta and beat until well incorporated and very light. Add egg yolks and beat to incorporate. Alternate adding flour and lime juice, starting and ending with flour. Reserve this batter, wash out your electric mixer if you don't have a separate beater.

Add a pinch of salt to the egg whites and beat at high speed until you make soft peaks. Fold egg whites into batter, making sure to incorporate very gently to maintain the air in the mixture!

Fill cupcake tins 2/3 full and bake for 25 minutes, or until the top of the cupcake springs back to the touch. Let cool completely before frosting. Store in a cool place, don't frost until you really need to!

Baking pyrotechnics

Well, almost. While visions of impressive, show-stopping flames jumping out of my cupcakes danced through my head when I first read this recipe, the result was more of a subtle, often hilarious experiment in lighting things on fire.
I must say that the recipes for chocolate cupcakes and buttercream are DIVINE, and especially the cupcake is probably the best chocolate one I have ever made (and the easiest)! The recipe calls for cutting strawberries in half and filling them with a strong liquor (over 80 proof), then lighting the wells of alcohol on fire. Megan and I were skeptical about the idea of using a lighter as the recipe suggested, as we thought the butane would "flavor" the strawberry, but our attempts at using matches yielded strawberries that tasted like, well, like licking an ashtray. Moral of the story: save some strawberries to eat on the side and toss the burned out ones as soon as you can. Gross. But we did have a fun few minutes playing with matches, and turning off the lights and watching our cupcakes flame was pretty darn cool. Try this recipe out the next time you're bored and hungry - it provides entertainment and SUPER yummy cupcakes to boot!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream and Flaming Strawberries
From Sprinkle Bakes
Yields about 20 cupcakes

Cupcakes
3/4 C unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
1 1/2 C sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
3/4 C hot water
3/4 C heavy cream
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract

Frosting
2 sticks butter, softened
4 C powdered sugar
4 Tbsp sifted cocoa powder

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare muffin tins with liners or nonstick spray. Sift together cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until smooth. Divide batter between muffin tins, filling a little over half full. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the top of the cupcakes spring back to the touch. Let cool completely before frosting.

Using an electric mixer with a whisk attachment, cream together all frosting ingredients - begin with low speed and move to high speed. Beat until fluffy and light, then pipe or spread onto the tops of the cupcakes.

Wash and hull strawberries carefully, so you don't have holes for the alcohol to leak out. Press each strawberry into the frosting with the hollow end up, then fill with a small amount of 80+ proof liquor (apparently Bacardi 151 is the best) just before lighting. Use a grill lighter or matches to light the flame! Turn off the lights and prepare for the oohs and aahs :)

Whoopie!

I'll admit that I'm pretty late to jump on the whoopie pie bandwagon, and I'm also embarrassed to say that  I had never actually tried one before tonight. With that said, it's better late than never - because they are FANTASTIC!

My roommate Helene (yes, you got a shout out) donated a tin of Sprinkles red velvet cupcake mix for the week's baking endeavors, and I decided to use them for my whoopie pies. An easy easy trick for making the cake part of the pies is to use a regular cake mix and add another 1/2 C of flour to the dry ingredients. You need to make the cake denser so it doesn't spread out too much and make flat pies! It's super simple, and the result with the Sprinkles mix was absolutely delicious.

As for the filling, the classic pairing with red velvet is cream cheese frosting. However, dearest Helene can't eat cheese, so I tried a new recipe for white chocolate buttercream. AMAZING. Bear in mind the classic points in making buttercream - make sure the bowl is completely dry, the butter is room temperature, and even if the mixture looks a little curdled, keep whipping until it comes together. No sweat!

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies 

Directions: Mix boxed cake mix as usual, but add 1/2 C flour to the dry ingredients. Drop rounded spoonfuls of dough on a parchment-lined baking sheet and make sure they're relatively smooth and round. Bake for 6-8 minutes, until the center of the cake springs back when touched. Cool completely before filling.

White Chocolate Buttercream
From Ptit Chef
Makes enough frosting for a batch of whoopie pies from one cake mix

1/2 C sugar
3 egg whites
9 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1/8 C white chocolate, melted and cooled to room temperature

Directions: Combine sugar and egg whites over a double boiler over medium-high heat. Whisk very frequently until the sugar is totally dissolved into the egg whites. You should be able to rub your fingers together in the egg without feeling grains of sugar. Pour into a dry mixing bowl and whisk on high speed until the egg is room temperature and soft peaks are beginning to form. Add butter in small chunks, incorporating completely between each addition. Keep whisking at high speed until frosting consistency forms. Add chocolate and incorporate completely. If any textural issues occur, just keep whisking until it resolves!

Pipe frosting onto flat side of one cake piece, then sandwich with another matching sized piece. Press slightly so the frosting reaches the edge. Take a bite, and experience pure bliss.

Peanut Butter Cup(cakes)

I've always maintained that the most genius combination of flavors ever discovered is peanut butter and chocolate. Some may call it unsophisticated - but I call it delicious! This last week, I was lucky enough to receive a little sis in my sorority, and lucky for me (and her), her favorite candy is Reese's peanut butter cups. What better project for me to undertake than to recreate it in cupcake form?

The peanut butter cupcake comes from a previous recipe I used from Martha Stewart, and it is just plain fantastic. It gets dry and crumbly if you bake it just a little too long, so make sure you bake them just until the top of the cupcake springs back to the touch. Also, be sure to use homogenized peanut butter (not the kind that has the oil separated on top) because otherwise it will separate in the batter too.

As for the frosting, I found a recipe for a dark chocolate ganache frosting that is absolutely divine. It hardens to a ganache texture when it cools because there is so much chocolate in it, so if you're looking for a soft creamy frosting this isn't it. However, it tastes like the inside of a truffle - and that on top of a peanut butter cupcake is hard to beat.

Peanut Butter Cupcakes
See my PB&J Cupcake post!

Chocolate Ganache Frosting
From How Sweet It Is


For ganache:

12 oz. milk or dark chocolate  (I can only use dark!)
1/2 cup heavy cream

4 tbsp butter

1 tsp vanilla

For frosting:

1/2 cup butter

3-4 cups powdered sugar

Directions: In the top of a double boiler, melt the chocolate almost completely, stirring often. Remove from the heat and stir until fully melted.  Gradually add the heavy cream and stir to incorporate into the chocolate until smooth. Allow to cool to touch, about 30 min. When cooled, gently stir in softened butter 1 tbsp at a time.  Stir in vanilla.  

Allow to cool for a few hours. Whip butter in bowl of a stand mixer, then add chocolate ganache.  If it's too thick, slowly reheat in the microwave until it's smooth.  Slowly mix the two on low speed. Gradually add powdered sugar until desired consistency is reached.

Another birthday, another cupcake!

It's technically not Ian's birthday until the 28th, but he leaves tomorrow for Oregon and we decided to take him out to dinner for his birthday this week! Obviously I had to start the celebration with the gift of a dessert, and we all definitely enjoyed the concoction I developed. On his request I found a recipe for mocha cupcakes, and put together a Kahlua frosting with dark chocolate ganache underneath. I must say that the end result was one of the prettiest if not most delicious cupcake I've ever made - light, fluffy and sophisticated in flavor.

It's definitely up to you how much coffee and chocolate flavor you want to add to the cake and the frosting. I think the frosting could have had some melted dark chocolate added to it in order to enhance its richness, but the buttercream with just cocoa powder and Kahlua was still excellent.

Also, I put a thin layer of dark chocolate ganache on top of the cupcakes before frosting them, and decided that it would have been even better with a thicker layer. This requires the ganache to be pretty cooled, so in general try to cool the bowl in the fridge before using (but obviously don't cool it too much)!

To assemble these amazing little creations, make the cupcakes, let them cool, then top with a thick layer of ganache and let that cool. Finally, frost with Kahlua frosting and top with shaved dark chocolate!

Dark Chocolate Mocha Cake
From Evil Shenanigans
Makes about 9 cupcakes

3/4 C all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 C sugar
1/3 C cocoa powder
4 Tbsp butter, melted
1/3 C buttermilk
1 egg
1 egg white
1 tsp vanilla
3 Tbsp strong coffee (I used freshly brewed espresso)

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare cupcake pan with liners or nonstick spray. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder. Whisk together with sugar. In a separate bowl, beat together butter, buttermilk, eggs, vanilla and coffee. Gradually add in dry ingredients and beat until well blended. Pour into pan and bake for about 20 minutes, or until cake springs back when lightly touched and tester comes out clean.


Dark Chocolate Ganache
Makes enough to top 12 cupcakes (plus some extra - great to reheat and serve over ice cream!)

1/4 lb butter
1/2 C dark chocolate, chopped


Directions: Put butter and chocolate in a bowl and microwave for 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until mixture is melted. Use a spoon or whisk to blend together until well combined. Refrigerate until ganache is stiff enough to spread thickly on top of cupcake but not hard.

Kahlua Frosting
From 30 Chocolate Treat Recipes
Makes enough for 12 cupcakes

3 Tbsp butter, softened
1/2 lb powdered sugar (1/2 box)
1 1/2 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 1/2 Tbsp Kahlua
2 Tbsp hot coffee (I used espresso)

Directions: Cream butter with electric mixer. Add powdered sugar and cocoa, then gradually beat in Kahlua and coffee. Store in refrigerator if needed.

A very happy birthday

I have to begin this post by raving about my friends. I don't know where I'd be without them, other than a very unhappy and not fun place. My boyfriend is also kind of the coolest person I know. They are without a doubt the greatest birthday present I could ever receive, and I get to have that gift all year long! The second greatest present I could receive (besides a trip to Paris, which I don't expect anyone to get me because that's ridiculous) is...

THIS BAD BOY

Let's just say that I was more than a little excited and speechless, and I'm really glad I didn't have to get married in order to register for this Kitchenaid mixer as a gift. Seems like a lot of trouble for an appliance, but it certainly crossed my mind...

I'm going to save you my ravings about it and simply say this - it is the single most useful thing a person who bakes can own. I've had a hand mixer for a long time, but this will expand my baking escapades considerably!

My birthday was a spectacular weekend spent at home with friends and family and in Napa with my two best girl friends. In celebration (and because I really wanted to try this experiment), I made two different kinds of cupcakes. It was a very successful endeavor and I will definitely be keeping these in my cupcake arsenal! I love summer fruits and berries, and my two absolute favorite are raspberries and peaches. There was no other logical choice than to bake with both of them, and I created raspberry cupcakes with lemon cream cheese frosting and "peach cobbler cupcakes" (cinnamon and peach cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese frosting). I used the same white cake and cream cheese frosting base for both of them, and added ingredients as needed after both were made. Light, refreshing and absolutely fantastic :)

White Cake base 

Makes about 12 cupcakes

 

1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 C sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk (or milk + 1 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar or lemon juice)

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt. In a large bowl, beat together sugar, butter and eggs until smooth. Add vanilla extract. Alternatively beat in flour mixture and buttermilk, making three additions of flour mixture and two of milk.

For RASPBERRY cupcakes: Rinse about two cups of fresh raspberries and pat dry. Add to batter and beat until berries are slightly broken up and the batter has turned light pink.

For PEACH cupcakes: Skin a ripe peach and cut into small cubes. In a food processor, puree the fruit. Add peach puree and 1 tsp cinnamon to the batter and beat until incorporated.

Scoop batter into prepared pan. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean and tops of cupcakes spring back when lightly touched. Let cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool completely on rack. Frost.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Makes enough frosting for about 12 cupcakes

16 oz cream cheese (2 packages), softened

1/2 C butter, softened

2 C powdered sugar, sifted

1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions: Beat together cream cheese and butter. Add powdered sugar gradually until frosting is formed. Beat in vanilla extract. You can refrigerate/freeze this as needed!

For LEMON frosting: Beat in approximately 1/4 C lemon curd (to taste).

For CINNAMON frosting: Beat in approximately 1 tsp cinnamon (to taste).

  

Purple

I really really like the color purple. A lot. I'm not going to elaborate more because it's kind of obscene, but it seemed a natural choice to blend my loves of purple and baked goods into the tour de force of this blackberry cupcake. I originally developed this recipe to enter it into a contest to have it served at the Emmys, which I'm not going to win, but I'm SO glad I did because it's hands down the best cupcake I've ever made. I tweaked some of the proportions to get a super light and fluffy cake, and changed around the frosting to maximize the texture and white chocolate flavor. In the end, my experimenting was a big fat success that had its fair share of speechless test tasters. Bottom line? Make it. There's no better way to celebrate summer than with the combination of fresh fruit and a dollop of frosting :)

Blackberry Cupcakes
Adapted from Une-Deux Senses
Makes 12 cupcakes
1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 C granulated sugar
1/2 C unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 C blackberry coulis (recipe below)
1/2 C buttermilk (you can substitute whole milk + 1 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar or lemon juice - just mix and let sit at room temperature for at least 5 minutes)

Blackberry jam

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare a cupcake pan with liners or nonstick spray. Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl and set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together melted butter, sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth. Whisk in blackberry coulis. Alternate adding dry ingredients and buttermilk so there are three additions of dry and two of buttermilk. Divide batter into pan, filling 2/3 full. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the top of the cupcakes springs back when lightly touched. Remove from pan and let cool completely. Using a small paring knife or apple corer, cut out a small space in the center of each cupcake and fill with blackberry jam. Frost and enjoy!

Blackberry Coulis
Makes about 3/4 cup

6 oz blackberries
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 C water

Directions: Mix all ingredients together in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Let simmer for 5 minutes and remove from heat. When cooled, puree in a food processor and strain.

White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
Adapted from AllRecipes
Makes enough for 12 cupcakes

2 oz white chocolate
8 oz (one package) cream cheese, softened
1/2 C unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 C powdered sugar
2 Tbsp heavy cream

Directions: Melt white chocolate over low heat in a small bowl over simmering water (double boiler). Allow to cool to room temperature. In another bowl, beat together cream cheese and butter until smooth. Mix in white chocolate and vanilla. Gradually add powdered sugar until mixture is fluffy. Beat in heavy cream. Store refrigerated!

Summer in a cupcake

When I saw this recipe, I knew I had to try it! The only hitch was that it called for matcha (a finely milled Japanese green tea). When I finally found it at Whole Foods, it cost $26 for a couple of ounces... so the plan definitely needed to change. I wanted to preserve the spirit of the original recipe, so I decided to infuse the milk with green tea from tea bags instead. It definitely didn't turn the cupcake green like the matcha would, and wasn't a very strong flavor, but I decided it was definitely a valuable addition. The cake didn't taste like vanilla and had a bit more sophistication and subtlety. If you happen to already have matcha at home, I would encourage you to try it (add 1 Tbsp to the dry ingredients). 

Green Tea and Strawberry Cupcakes
Adapted from Sweetest Kitchen
Makes 12 cupcakes

3/4 C + 2 Tbsp cake flour
1/2 C + 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 C sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 C unsalted butter, softened, cut into 1-inch cubes
2 eggs
1/2 C whole milk
3-4 bags of green tea
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Strawberry jam or preserves

Directions: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside. Microwave the milk until hot, then steep with 3-4 green tea bags (make sure it can sit for at least 6 minutes). Combine flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Add butter, mixing until the cubes of butter are peanut-sized or a little smaller. In another small bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, and vanilla. With mixer on medium speed, add wet ingredients in 3 parts, scraping down sides of bowl before each addition; beat until ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat. Divide batter evenly among cupcake liners, filling about 2/3 full. Bake until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Once cupcakes have cooled completely, use a sharp paring knife or apple corer to cut out a small circular area of the cupcake center. Fill hole with strawberry jam.

Strawberry Buttercream
Adapted from Martha Stewart
Makes about 2 1/2 cups

2 egg whites
1/2 C + 2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened, cut into small pieces
3/4 C fresh strawberries, pureed

Directions: There are a couple of things that I learned while working in the kitchen for the good folks at Sugar Butter Flour, and they definitely will save you a LOT of wasted egg whites and sugar. First off, make sure you put the egg whites and sugar in a heatproof mixer bowl that is COMPLETELY DRY. Even the slightest drop of watter in the bowl will make it impossible to whip the eggs correctly. Heat the bowl of egg whites and sugar over a pot of simmering water (make a double boiler). Whisk pretty constantly until sugar dissolves. You'll know it's at the right point when you can't feel any sugar crystals when rubbing the mixture between your forefinger and thumb. It's the right temperature when you can hold your finger in the bowl for a few seconds before it gets too hot.

Remove from heat and beat on medium-high speed until stiff, glossy peaks form. Reduce speed to medium, and add butter, 1 piece at a time, beating well after each addition. With mixer on low, add strawberry puree, and beat until smooth. Use immediately, or cover, and refrigerate for up to 3 days.


This, folks, is stiff and glossy!

Snickerdoodling

It was the lovely Megan's birthday yesterday, so in celebration I decided to try a combo of cinnamon and sugar that, to my knowledge, has not yet been attempted. Snickerdoodle cupcakes with snickerdoodle cookie dough inside, plus a vanilla buttercream frosting topped with more cinnamon. Did you just start drooling? Because I did...

You may also be thinking to yourself right now that I'm obsessed with cinnamon - true, but I also too lazy and cheap to buy more spices. I've finally exhausted the possibilities, however, so the next recipes will perhaps contain nutmeg or something similarly exotic :) 

There's really something to be said for making cake batter from scratch; I often convince myself that it would be easier to just use a boxed mix, but the times I do take the extra half hour to put together a mix myself I end up being so much happier! This is possibly the best cake batter I've ever made - something about the buttermilk and whipping it with a whisk makes it incredibly light and fluffy. Even after a couple of days when it's been sitting in a box, it's denser but still fantastic.

There are three steps to this recipe
1. Make the cookie dough and freeze it in balls
2. Make the cake batter and bake the cupcakes
3. Frost and sprinkle with cinnamon!

Not difficult, but a tad time consuming.

Snickerdoodle Cookies
Yields about 24 cookies
Originally from Allrecipes.com

For the cupcakes, add the cinnamon from the topping to the dough itself (omit the sugar) and do not bake!

3/4 C granulated sugar
1/4 C butter, softened
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg

1 1/3 C all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt

1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp cinnamon


Directions: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cream sugar and butter with an electric mixer, then add egg and vanilla. Add dry ingredients gradually until dough forms. Form into balls about 1 1/2 inches in diameter and roll in cinnamon sugar topping. Place on parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes until set.

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes
Yields 12 cupcakes
Recipe adapted from Mermaid Sweets

For cookie dough cupcakes, fill the cupcake tin halfway with batter, press a frozen dough ball into the center, then cover the tops of the dough balls so the tins are about three-quarters full.

1 1/2 C all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 C granulated sugar
1/2 C (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 C buttermilk (or add 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice or apple cider vinegar to 1/2 C milk)

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, butter and eggs until smooth. Whisk in vanilla extract. Alternatively whisk in flour mixture and buttermilk, making three additions of flour mixture and two of milk.
Scoop batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar topping mixture on top of cupcakes. Bake in preheated oven for 20 - 25 minutes or until golden brown and tops of cupcakes spring back when lightly touched. Let cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool completely on rack. Frost when completely cool.

Snickerdoodle Frosting
Makes frosting for 12 cupcakes
From Martha Stewart

6 oz (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
8 oz powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (to taste - I put in more)

Beat butter with a mixer on medium-high speed until pale and creamy, about 2 minutes. Reduce speed to medium. Add sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, beating after each addition, about 5 minutes. Add vanilla, and beat until buttercream is smooth. Use immediately, or cover and refrigerate for up to 3 days. (Bring to room temperature, and beat on low speed until smooth before using.)