Raspberry Lemonade Cupcakes

Commencement at Harvard last semester was at the very end of May, but the weather was more like March. In spite of cold and wet, Clover, one of the restaurants in the square, had set up a lemonade stand on the side of the road. An employee was wrapped up in a raincoat against the drizzle, valiantly if somewhat unsuccessfully trying to sell various flavors of lemonade to the passing elderly alumni, who were far more interested in finding a hot cup of coffee than sampling iced lemonade. 

I'm back now, in Cambridge, and it's already getting getting a little chilly (though I've been assured by several people that low 70s is not cold at all).

Somehow the summer has passed in a blink, and I find myself wishing for a few more blazing hot days, for a bit more summer. I recall days in an air-conditioned office more vividly than the summer heat, sitting in front a computer more than sitting out in the sun, almost as if I haven't quite defrosted from the winter.

Anyways, these cupcakes are reminiscent of those lazy summer days, of more carefree summers when I would go to the pool almost everyday and had the time to read Georgette Heyer novels back to back, going through a hefty stack of books every week.  

I don't necessarily want those days back, the boredom, the ways the days began to blend into each other. But it's nice to think about those summers.

The whipped cream and chiffon cake base in these cupcakes make them as light as air, letting the flavors shine through without being weighed down by excessive buttercream and sugar. They're the perfect summer cake, light and fluffy, sweet, and brightly flavored.

Caroline

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Raspberry Lemonade Cupcakes

Yields: 15 cupcakes | Cake batter adapted from cooks.com

Ingredients
For the Lemon Chiffon Cake
1 cup cake flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup granulated sugar
4 eggs, separated
½ cup vegetable oil
zest of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
⅓ cup water
pinch of cream of tartar

For the Raspberry Lemon Curd
½ cup fresh raspberries
¼ cup lemon juice, freshly squeezed
zest of two lemons, grated
⅓ cup granulated sugar
3 egg yolks
¼ cup butter, cubed
pinch of salt

For the Raspberry Whipped Cream
½ cup fresh raspberries
⅓ cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions
For the Chiffon Cake

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Whip the egg whites in a clean glass or metal bowl on medium speed until frothy. Whisk in the cream of tartar. Whip the egg whites on high speed until they form stiff, glossy peaks. Set aside.
3. Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the sugar, egg yolks, vegetable oil, lemon zest, vanilla, and water.
4. Fold the the dry ingredients into the egg/oil/water mixture.
5. Fold a quarter of the egg whites into the batter to lighten it. Fold the batter into the remaining egg white mixture.
6. Spoon the batter into muffin tins lined with cupcake liners. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

For the Raspberry Lemon Curd

1. Push the raspberries through a fine mesh strainer over a cup or bowl. Discard the pulp.
2. Heat the raspberry juice and lemon juice in a saucepan until it begins to simmer.
3. Whisk together the egg yolks and sugar. While whisking constantly, slowly pour in the hot lemon/raspberry juice.
4. Return the mixture to the pan and cook over low heat it begins to thicken and coats the back of a wooden spoon. Stir in the butter and salt. Let cool thoroughly.

For the Raspberry Whipped Cream

1. Push the raspberries through a fine mesh strainer over a cup or bowl. Discard the pulp.
2. Heat the raspberry juice, lemon juice, and sugar over medium low heat. Let simmer for about 5 minutes. Let cool thoroughly, then refrigerate for at least one hour.. 
3. Whisk the cream cheese and raspberry juice together. 
4. Whip the cream until soft peaks form. Add the cream cheese mixture and whip until the cream forms stiff peaks. 

Assembly

1. Cut a cone-shaped hole in the center of the cupcakes. Be careful not to pierce the bottom. 
2. Remove the cone. Spoon or pipe 1-2 teaspoons of the raspberry lemon curd into the hole. Cut off the tip of the cone and replace the other half on top of the whole. 
3. Frost with the raspberry whipped cream. Repeat for the other cupcakes.

Upside Down Banana Cake

This isn't a fancy cake. No frosting, no layers, nothing glamorous about it. Deb from Smitten Kitchen calls these "everyday cakes," which I think is a perfect description. It's a tea cake, perfect for cold winter afternoons when you just want a big slice of cake.

This cake is really not so different from banana bread, just with the bananas on the bottom.

It's been a while since I've done a step-by-step recipe, but I've provided process shots for this post. I've stopped doing them in the past couple of months; it took too long, I guess, but I also started to concentrate on taking better photos of the finished product. There's still a lot of room for improvement, but food photography around here has made a lot of progress, I think.

Anyways, here's my upside down banana cake, step by step.

First, make the caramel topping for the cake. We're going to use the dry method to make the caramel, which means we'll melt the granulated sugar directly, rather than adding water first.

Place the granulated sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Use a fairly deep pot.

The sugar will begin melting. Give it a little stir to evenly distribute the heat.

It'll turn golden-brown...

Add the butter. Be careful here, as the sugar will bubble and spit.

Mix vigorously.

I forgot to take a picture of this, but spread the caramel evenly on the bottom of a greased 9-inch springform pan. Do the best you can, since the caramel will set very quickly.

Slice the bananas and place them on the bottom of the pan, on top of the caramel.

Whisk together your flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until it is light and fluffy.

Whip in the egg.

And the vanilla.

Fold in about 1/3 of the flour.

Mix in about 1/3 of the buttermilk. Keep on alternating between the buttermilk and flour, until it is all incorporated.

Plop that in your pan.

Bake, and you will get this beautiful, delicious, unassuming cake. (I lowered the baking time to 350 degrees from Smitten Kitchen's original recipe, since 400 degrees caused the edges to burn slightly and created a large dome on the cake.)

The buttermilk cake is soft and fluffy, and not too sweet, paring perfectly with the caramel and banana topping.

Enjoy, all! Happy Presidents' Day!
​Caroline

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Upside Down Banana Cake

Click here for the printer-friendly recipe
Cake batter adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients
For the Caramel Topping
⅓ cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons butter
¼ teaspoon salt
3 medium ripe bananas, sliced

For the Cake Batter
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk (or 1 cup milk mixed with 1 tablespoon lemon juice or vinegar

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a 9-inch springform pan.

Make the caramel topping. Place the granulated sugar in a large, deep saucepan over medium heat. The sugar will begin to melt. Give it a couple of stirs to evenly distribute the heat.

When the sugar turns golden brown, add the butter. Be careful; the sugar will bubble and spit. Stir until the caramel is smooth. Spread the caramel on the bottom of the pan. Work quickly, since the caramel will set quickly.

Slice the banana into ½-inch thick pieces. Place on the bottom of the cake.

Make the cake batter. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Cream the butter and sugar until it is light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla.Fold about ⅓ of the dry ingredients into the butter/egg mixture. Mix in ⅓ of the buttermilk.

Alternate between adding the two until both are entirely incorporated. Evenly spread the batter over the banana slices in the cake pan.

Bake the cake for 1 hour - 1 hour 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Petit Fours

Grab your tea sets and stick out your pinkies: we're making petit fours today! These little cakes are time-consuming, but completely worth it. They consist of  very thin layers of cake spread with jam, cut into small cubes, and covered with fondant. In other words, delicious and very cute!

We made these together over spring break, and it was a super fun project! It definitely went faster with both of us (Monica and Caroline) working on it together. So if you have a few free hours, you should definitely consider making these little treats.

First make, the cake. We used a half-recipe of Bakerella's pound cake, and baked it in a jelly roll for about 15-20 minutes. 

The cake is very thin and bakes very quickly, so don't let it go for too long. Ours was still pretty pale on top when it was done.

Trim off the edges.

Cut the cake into 3 even sections. A ruler is very helpful.

You're going to stack the cake, so brush jam on the bottom two layers.

Carefully stack the three layers.

Cut the cake into cubes. Our squares were about 1.5 x 1.5 inches, and yielded 32 little cakes.

Place them into a pan, and freeze them for about 10 minutes, while you make the fondant.

The fondant we used came from King Arthur Flour, and contained white chocolate, so it wasn't the traditional sugar-only fondant.

Melt the white chocolate. Mix together the powdered sugar, corn syrup, and hot water. We forgot the vanilla extract, but it would have been a nice addition.

Add the white chocolate to the powdered sugar mixture, and mix well.

Now you're ready to dip! We found it best to dip the four sides of the petit fours in the fondant, and then spoon a little over them to cover the top. The fondant sets very quickly, so you'll probably have to re-heat it in the microwave a couple of times.

Oh, and feel free to add some food coloring to the fondant. We went with pink (:

We added a few drops of color, dipped some cakes, and then added some more, so our cakes got progressive pinker.

Ombre Petit Fours (:

We drizzled some fondant over the petit fours for decoration. Then let them dry, serve them up on a fancy tea tray, and impress everyone!

And some Pass the Cocoa love (:

Enjoy!

-Monica and Caroline

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Petit Fours

Click here for the printer-friendly recipe of Petit Fours.
Pound Cake adapted from Bakerella, Fondant from King Arthur Flour

Ingredients
Cake:
½ cup butter, softened
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
3 eggs, room temperature
1 cup sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla
½ cup milk
1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt

Fondant:
4 cups powdered sugar
¼ cup corn syrup
¼ cup hot water
1 cup white chocolate chips
food coloring (optional)

For Assembly:
2 tablespoons jam, any flavor

Directions
For the Cake:
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Cream together the butter, sugar, and cream cheese with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Gently beat in the milk and vanilla.

Add the dry ingredient to the wet, and mix well.

Line a jelly roll pan with foil, and grease it well. Pour the batter in the pan, and spread it evenly.

Bake for about 15-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

Let the cake cool completely.

For the Fondant:
Melt the white chocolate chips, either over a double boiler, or in the microwave on LOW power.

Mix together the powdered sugar, corn syrup, hot water, and vanilla extract. Mix the white chocolate into the powdered sugar mixture. Add food coloring if using.

Assembly:
Trim the edges of the cake, and cut it into 3 even sections. Gently heat the jam. Brush two sections with jam, and stack the three layers of cake.

Cut the cake into small, roughly 1.5 inch, cubes. Freeze the cubes for about 10 minutes while you make the fondant.

Dip the sides of the cakes in fondant, then spoon a little of fondant over the tops to cover. The fondant sets quickly, so you will need to gently microwave it to reheat.

Drizzle extra fondant over the top for decoration, if desired. Let the fondant dry, and serve!

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