Almond Cupcakes with Fudge Frosting

I love opposite flavors in baking; if I have a chocolate cupcake, I want vanilla frosting, and if I have a vanilla, yellow, or almond cupcake, I want chocolate frosting.  This cupcake has a very rich almond flavor, but if you prefer something milder, omit the bitter almond oil and just use ½ teaspoon of almond and vanilla extracts each.  The fudge frosting has been adapted in measurement to frost 24 cupcakes; look for the full recipe in another post!

Almond Cupcakes

Ingredients

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • ½ cup shortening
  • 1 ¾ cups sugar
  • ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ½ teaspoon almond extract
  • ¼ teaspoon bitter almond oil
  • 4 egg whites
  • 1 1/3 cups sour milk (see how to make this below!)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line two muffin tins with paper liners.

Make sour milk; place1 ½ tablespoons lemon juice in a glass measuring cup and add enough milk to equal 1 1/3 cups of liquid total.  Let stand for 5 minutes.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl.

Beat shortening in a mixing bowl for 30 seconds.

Add sugar and flavorings, beating until combined.

Add flour and sour milk, alternatively, until just combined.

Fill liners halfway and bake for 21-23 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool completely before frosting

Fudge Frosting

Ingredients

  • 2 1/3 cups powdered sugar
  • ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • ¼ cup butter, softened
  • 1/6 cup boiling water (just under 2 oz. in a glass measuring cup)
  • 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

Preparation

Combine powdered sugar and cocoa powder.

Add butter, boiling water, and vanilla.

Beat on low speed until ingredients are just combined, then increase speed to medium and beat for 1 minute.

Lemon Squares

I love lemons!  I love them in cooking, in baking, on tea towels, in my kitchen décor…I just love them, for their sunny yellow rinds and their fresh, tart flavor.  Lemon squares are, to me, a classic American dessert, a staple at bake sales and church picnics.  Every woman in American probably has a recipe for lemon squares somewhere in her arsenal.  I know I have several, and yet, until today, I’d never made them from scratch.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup flour
  • ½ cup butter, softened
  • ¼ cup powdered sugar
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • Zest of 1 small to medium-sized lemon
  • 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 2 eggs
  • Powdered sugar for dusting

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a mixing bowl, combine flour, butter, and powdered sugar and mix on low speed until small, pea-sized crumbs form.

Press into bottom of an 8x8x2 baking dish.

Bake for 20 minutes; meanwhile, prepare filling.

Beat granulated sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, baking powder, salt, and eggs until pale yellow and somewhat fluffy (but not meringue-like fluffy), about 3-5 minutes.

Pour over hot crust and bake for 25 minutes, until no indentation remains when touched lightly in center.

Cool and dust with powdered sugar.

Go Giants! New York Style Cheesecake

The Super Bowl is tomorrow, and because we’re rooting for the Giants in our house, I’ve prepared a New York style cheesecake to celebrate.  I’m not sure what makes a cheesecake “New York style,” but this was fairly easy to prepare, except for the crust.  This was my first graham cracker crust, and I definitely improvised and deviated from the original recipe to get the consistency and amount I needed, but it turned out just fine.  The true test will be if it tastes good, but we won’t know until tomorrow, as cheesecake must be refrigerated overnight before serving.  We’ll add some fresh whipped cream, blueberries, and strawberries tomorrow.

Graham Cracker Crust

Ingredients

  • 18 graham crackers
  • 12 tablespoons butter
  • 2 tablespoons sugar

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Melt butter in a saucepan or microwave.

Break graham crackers into smaller pieces and place in a food processor, then process to crumbs, with no large pieces remaining.

Mix graham cracker crumbs and sugar together, then stir in butter until the mixture is evenly moistened.

Press crust mix up the sides and along the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan.  I used my hands and the bottom of a glass to get the crust as flat as possible.

Bake for 10 minutes.

Cool completely on a wire rack before adding filling.

Cheesecake Filling

Ingredients

  • 3 packages cream cheese, 8 ounces each, softened
  • ¾ cups sugar
  • 1 tablespoon flour
  • 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 large egg yolk
  • ¼ cup milk

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

In a mixing bowl combine cream cheese and sugar, beating until fluffy.

Add flour and vanilla, beating until well combined.

Reduce speed to low and beat in eggs and yolk, one at a time, until well combined.

Add milk and beat until just blended.

Pour batter into prepared crust and bake for 55-60 minutes, until set but slightly jiggly in the center.

Cool completely on a wire rack, then refrigerate overnight before serving.

Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream

My friend Alex wants chocolate raspberry cake for her wedding – not a chocolate cake with raspberry filling, but a literal chocolate with raspberry flavoring in the batter.  Several bakers have told her this isn’t possible, so I decided to prove them otherwise.

Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes

Ingredients

10 tablespoons butter, slightly softened

1 ¼ cups sugar

4 eggs

¼ teaspoon almond extract

2-3 teaspoons raspberry extract (depending on your preference)

1 ½ cups flour

¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

¾ cup milk minus about 2 teaspoons (depending on how much raspberry extract you use)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line two muffin tins with paper liners.

Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Mix in eggs, almond extract, and raspberry extract.

Add flour mixture alternatively with milk, beating until just combined.

Using a cookie scoop for even portions, scoop batter into muffin tins.

Bake 20-25 minutes, until tops spring back when lightly pressed.

Cool on a wire rack.

Vanilla Buttercream

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened

3 to 3 ¼ cups powdered sugar, sifted

¼ teaspoon salt

1 to 2 tablespoons vanilla extract

2 tablespoons milk

Preparation

Place butter in a mixing bowl and beat for a few minutes using the paddle attachment.

Add 3 cups powdered sugar.  With your mixer on low, incorporate the powdered sugar into the butter.  (Hint: I find that placing a kitchen towel over the mixer during this stage prevents a powdered sugar blizzard.)

Increase speed and add 1 tablespoon vanilla, salt, and milk.

Beat for 3 minutes, then taste.  If you’d like a stronger vanilla flavor, add the second tablespoon of vanilla, along with the additional ¼ cup of powdered sugar.  Beat until combined.

For thinner buttercream, add additional milk, one tablespoon at a time, until you reach the desired consistency.

 

Homemade Vanilla Extract

On a weekend getaway to Williamsburg, Virginia, I spotted vanilla beans at the Raleigh Tavern Bakery.  On the packaging was a recipe for homemade vanilla extract, and I’ve adapted it as follows; I usually have one bottle in use and another steeping in my cupboard.

Ingredients

1 vanilla bean

Good-quality vodka

Preparation

Place the vanilla bean in a bottle with a good seal.

Pour in enough vodka to cover the bean and store in a cool, dark place for 3 to 4 months.

 

Russian Tea Cakes

These classic powdered sugar-covered treats are also known as Mexican Wedding Cookies, but my husband calls them Nut Bombs.  One Christmas during my childhood, my mom Genny (who fully admits that she’s no Betty Crocker) attempted to bake a batch.  I’m not sure what went wrong with her recipe, but they turned out like rocks and she called them Christmas Bombs.  I must have told Mike this story way back when we were just dating, but it stuck with him.  This past Christmas, a colleague of Mike’s asked if I could bake these for her, and when he told me what she wanted, he said, “you know, those nut bombs.”

Today’s batch is for my sister-in-law Kristin.

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened

½ cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

¾ cup finely chopped walnuts

2 ¼ cups flour

¼ teaspoon salt

powdered sugar for rolling

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Beat butter, ½ cup powdered sugar, and vanilla together until creamy.

Stir in nuts, flour, and salt until dough comes together; you may need to reach in with your hands and knead the dough a bit.

Shape into balls using a small cookie scoop.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until bottoms are light golden brown.

Let cool about 4 or 5 minutes, then roll in powdered sugar and place on a wire rack to cool.

When completely cool, roll in powdered sugar again.

Italian Polenta Cookies

This recipe came from the Martha Stewart Cookies book.  The cookies are meant to be piped into an S-shape before baking, but either Martha’s recipe needs a bit more liquid or she gets the world’s strongest man to do her piping, because the dough was far too thick to pipe.  Alternatively, I rolled the dough into balls and shaped it into logs, then twisted the logs like bread sticks.

Ingredients

  • 1 3/4 cups flour
  • 1 cu polenta
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 1 tablespoon lemon zest
  • 1 egg, plus 1 egg yolk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line several baking sheets with parchment.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, polenta, and salt; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, combine butter, sugar, and lemon zest and beat on medium for about two minutes, until fluffy.

Add egg and yolk, one at a time, beating after each addition.

Add vanilla and beat.

Add flour mixture in thirds, beating after each addition to combine.

Roll dough into walnut-sized balls, then form a log and twist it like a breadstick.

Bake for 15-18 minutes, until edges are golden.

Cool on baking sheets on wire racks for 10 minutes; remove from sheets and cool on wire racks completely.