Vanilla Cupcakes with Raspberry Butter-cream Frosting

Made these for a friend's Birthday party. I used a basic vanilla cupcake recipe and added scrapings of a vanilla bean for added flavor but honestly the cupcakes are just vehicles for delivering the gorgeous buttercream. This Rapberry buttercream recipe is from The Sweet Melissa Baking Book. You get enough buttercream to frost about 20 cupcakes. 

Raspberry Buttercream

Ingredients

1 cup fresh raspberries 

2 tablespoons raspberry liqueur

2/3 cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar

¼ cup water

3 large egg whites, at room temperature

¾ pound (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

Fresh raspberries, for garnish

Method:

In a small bowl, combine the fresh raspberries with the raspberry liqueur.

In a small heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium-high heat, combine the 2/3 cup of sugar and the water and cook to 240 degrees on a candy thermometer, about 7 minutes.

Meanwhile, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whip attachment, beat the egg whites on high speed until they hold soft peaks.  Slowly add the 3 tablespoons sugar and beat until there are medium stiff – but not dry – peaks of meringue.

When the sugar syrup reaches 240 degrees, decrease the speed of the mixer to medium, and immediately but slowly pour the hot liquid sugar in a steady stream down the side of the bowl and into the meringue.  (Or, if the syrup is not yet 240 degrees when the meringue is ready, turn off the mixer until it is.  Then turn on the mixer to medium and add the syrup).  Beat together until stiff glossy peaks form.

With the mixer on medium speed, add the butter in pieces to the meringue.  The mixture will break, but just keep beating and it will come together beautifully.

Pour the raspberries and the raspberry liquid into the buttercream and beat on medium-high speed until combined.

If using the buttercream immediately, set aside at room temperature.  If not, refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.  If the buttercream has been chilled, let it reach room temperature before beating it in the electric mixer.  The buttercream will break, but then it will come together beautifully.

Once the cupcakes have cooled just pipe or spread a liberal amount of buttercream on each cupcake, adorn with a fresh raspberry and serve at room temperature. If you refrigerate the cakes make sure you leave it out at room temperature for 30 min before serving the cakes.

Pain Perdu or French Toast Cake

This cake is inspired by Ina Garten's French toast recipe. I liked the idea of making a cake with real french toast flavors. So I converted a simple Vanilla cake recipe and the result was a really moist cake (I guess because of the yogurt) with beautiful specks of orange from the zest and black from the vanilla bean in vanilla sugar. This cake was surprisingly moist even the next day, but tastes best warm drizzled with raspberry sauce. I had this slice of heaven for breakfast with coffee.

Ingredients

½ cup room temperature Butter  

1/2 cup Vanilla sugar

3 Eggs

180g or (1 +2/3 cup) Self raising flour

125ml of Greek style yogurt or Sour Cream

11/2 teaspoons Vanilla extract

1⁄2 tsp ground Cinnamon

¼ tsp ground  Nutmeg

1 tsp Maple syrup

1 tsp Orange zest

Method:

Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius. Sift the dry ingredients. Combine all the ingredients into a food processor and pulse for a minute. Make sure everything is well combined. Pour into an 8" greased round tin. Bake for about 35-45 min or until skewer inserted comes out clean. I like it with a drizzle of Raspberry Sauce.

For the Sauce

Blend handful of fresh or frozen raspberries in a blender along with a tsp of lemon juice, 3 tbsp sugar & 1tsp of raspberry liqueur and strain.

Outrageous Hazelnut-Banana-Chocolate Muffins

The best way to use up over-ripe bananas and also end up with something fabulous to have with a hot cuppa coffee. Baked these earlier today and wanted to share the pictures.

White Chocolate-Pistachio-Cornmeal Biscotti

Biscotti are twice baked cookies and are very dry in texture but taste great dunked in coffee. In Italy it is served with a dessert wine called Vin Santo. 

I must admit that these are the best biscotti I have ever tasted partly because of the cornmeal used in the dough. The combination of Pistachio with White chocolate....Well lets just say it's marriage made in heaven.  You should easily get about 40 biscotti with the recipe below.  Do slather them in (melted) white chocolate and sprinkle with nuts for added luxury.

White chocolate-Pistachio-Cornmeal Biscotti (Adapted from Better Homes)

Ingredients

3/4 cup room temperature softened Butter

1/2 cup granulated Sugar

1 tsp Baking powder

1 Egg

1 tsp Vanilla extract

1 cup Cornmeal

11/2 cups All purpose flour

11/2 cups Pistachios or Almonds (put the pistachios in a freezer bag and bash them with a rolling pin)

200gms White chocolate buttons

Method:

Preheat oven to 180C. Beat butter until softened. Add sugar and baking powder and beat until combined, scraping the bowl. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract. Add the cornmeal and flour along with the nuts and half of the chocolate and stir. Shape the dough into two or three loaves. Place on a greased baking tray at least 3-4 inches apart and bake for about 20-25 min. Cool for about 30 min and then cut each loaf carefully using a serrated knife into ½ inch slices and carefully arrange them on the baking sheet. Bake them for about 8-10 min and turn the cookies and bake them for another 8-10 min. Cool on wire rack. melt the reserved white chocolate and dip the biscotti and sprinkle with nuts. Store them in airtight containers for up to 3 days.

Quick and Dirty Mango Chutney (Pachidi)

Ingredients

1 large Slightly Ripe Mango skinned chopped

3-4 tbsp brown/dark muscovado sugar or more if you like it sweet

4 slit green chillies

Salt to taste

1-2 tbsp Oil for seasoning

Nigella/Kalonji or mustard seeds for seasoning

Dries Neem flowers (Opt)

Method:

Cook the mangoes with green chillies and salt in a cooker or microwave with a few tbsp of water till done. Now add the sugar and let it simmer for a few minutes while you get the seasoning ready (You could add a few tbsp of Vinegar and lemon juice at this stage if you like your chutney a bit tart and want to store it longer.). Heat oil in a pan and splutter the kalonji seeds or mustard seeds along with neem flowers (if using) and add this to the mangoes. Mix well. You could adjust salt and sugar at this stage and transfer into a sterilized jar. This can be stored for about a week in the refrigerator. You could add a few tbsp of Vinegar and lemon juice if you like your chutney a bit tart and want to store it longer.

Note: Neem flowers give it a sort of bitter taste that I like and they look gorgeous in the chutney. Fresh neem flowers are found in abundance in India during summer and are rich in anti-oxidants. Fresh flowers can be dried just like herbs and stored. 

Traditionally this Chutney  or Pachidi is made with Jaggery which is an unrefined sugar.