My first cupcake

Hard to believe, but I never baked cupcakes before. What is the difference between muffins and cupcakes? Cupcakes have a sweet creamy frosting, but muffins not? So, maybe it is still not even a real cupcake ;-)

Nevertheless, today I took Giada’s di Laurentiis strawberry jam filled cupcake recipe she linked to on twitter (Jade’s favorite Easter treat) and got started. Loved that it has quinoa flour as ingredient, and Giada is pretty reliable with the quality of her recipe (or also Ina Garten). However, half of the batter I used to make tiny tea cakes. This was another adventure; I had bought this beautiful pan years ago but so far I had no succeeded to actually get tea cakes out of the pan (they always got stuck). This time it finally worked! However, the impressions on the tea cakes are still not pronounced. But, at lest they came out and they taste very good. Progress. The other half of the batter became the original cupcakes. Not sure if I add frosting. Eating a cupcake is already going like into sugar overdrive. Nevertheless, I proudly present my first cupcake!

Tea cakes / cupcakes (make 24 tea cakes and 6 cup cakes): (adapted from link)

• 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup quinoa flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1 cup organic cane sugar
• 1 stick butter, at room temperature
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• ½ cup whole milk, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• ⅓ + 6 ts cup strawberry fruit spread or jam

Frosting (optional)

• 1/2 stick butter, at room temperature
• 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 3 TB whole milk, at room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoons strawberry fruit spread or jam

Mini Teacakes and Cupcakes

Place an oven rack in the center of the oven and reheat the oven to 360 degrees F. Spray a teacake pan liberally with baking spray (combination of oil and flour) and set aside. Line a 6-cup muffin pan with paper liners and set aside.
Whisk together the flours, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. In a stand mixer, add the butter and sugar and beat on medium speed until well combined and fluffy. Add the eggs, milk, vanilla and strawberry jam and combine well. Spoon-wise add the dry ingredients on low speed of the stand mixer, and mix until just blended. Spoon half of the batter into the prepared tea cake pan, and fill each tea cake about 3/4. Bake at 360F for 15 min. Remove from oven, and cool for 2 min. Remove from the pan. Let cool and dust with confectioners sugar.

Use the prepared muffin pan and fill each cup with ca. 2 tablespoons of batter. Spoon 1 teaspoon of the strawberry fruit spread into the center of the batter of each cupcake. Spoon the remaining batter on top to cover the fruit spread completely. Bake until puffed and the cake springs back when touched, 15 to 17 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely, about 30 minutes.

Frosting

Beat the butter in a medium bowl until light and smooth, using stand mixer. Beat in 2 cups of the powdered sugar, milk and vanilla until smooth and creamy. Stir the strawberry fruit spread and the remaining 3/4 cup powdered sugar into the other bowl of frosting and stir until smooth. Frost the tops of the cupcakes with strawberry frosting using a small spatula. Allow the frosting to set for 20 minutes before serving.

Stout chocolate cake 2.0

After my success with the first version of the stout chocolate cake, I made another one last weekend. Unfortunately, contrary to the first one the second cake came out bland and soggy. I scratched my head --- what had gone wrong? Did I underbake it? For the second cake I had completely followed Heidi’s recipe but for the first one I had improvised and added my own tweaks. So, how to recreate my original version? After some thorough analysis and inspecting the photos for additional clues I was able to recreate the cake.

Changes: I had added a few ingredients to bring out the chocolate flour, such as espresso powder. It is also important to simmer the beer, butter, cacao powder and espresso powder together on very low for about 15min. I do not reduce the mixture to half of the original 2 cups of stout, but with all ingredients, including butter and chocolate, I still have 2 cups of liquid. To make up for the extra liquid, I add an extra 1/2 cup of flour. Also, I only use all-purpose flour since it just rises better than whole wheat in my experience. Instead of 340ml yogurt, I only use 170ml (1 container). I also add molasses and vanilla extract. This time I followed my original recipe, and the cakes were rising well in the oven, and the texture is light, yet moist, again and only lightly sweet but chocolate-ly taste is back. I am always amazed that slight changes can make such huge differences in flavor and texture, when baking. It is an art and a science.

So, here it is, stout chocolate cake, 2.0. Enjoy!

Stout chocolate cake, 2.0

Cake:

• 2 cups St. Pete’s cream stout beer, reduced only to 1 1/2 cups of stout
• 8 tablespoons/1 stick of unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup Dagoba authentic cocoa powder
• 1 TB instant Megdalia d’oro espresso powder
• 2 1/2 cup King Arthur Flour all-purpose flour
• 1 cup organic cane sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
• 3 large eggs
• 140 ml Brown Cow Maple cream top yogurt (1 container)
• 3/4 cup Maine maple syrup (I use the whole foods brand and Stonewall kitchen)
• 1/2 TB vanilla extract
• 1/2 TB organic black strap molasses

Chocolate Buttermilk Icing:

• 3/4 cup / 2.75 oz / 75 g powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup / 25g natural cocoa powder (non-dutched)
• 2 tablespoons buttermilk
• flaky sea salt, to serve

Preheat oven to 360F, with a rack in the center. Spray a regular sized and a small bundt cake pan with baking spray. If you use another cake pans, just make sure to avoid filling the pan(s) more than 2/3 - 3/4 full. Adjust the baking time as well - baking until the cake begins to pull away from the sides of the pan, and the center tests clean when you insert a knife.

In a saucepan simmer the 2 cups of beer down to 1 1/2 cup. Add in the stick of butter cut into pieces, and whisk in the chocolate powder and the espresso powder. Continue simmering on very low for another 15 min. The mixture develops a strong, rich chocolate aroma (make sure to not to scorch it by simmering on too high). Remove from heat, measure that it makes 2 cups, and let cool.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a standmixer with the paddle attachment, combine the eggs, yogurt, and maple syrup. Mix until nicely blended and uniform in appearance. Gradually add the (cooled) stout mixture, while still mixing. Add the flour mixture, tablespoon by tablespoon/

Transfer the batter to the prepared pans and bake for 45 minutes if using the bundt pan. You really don't want to over bake this cake - err on the slightly moist side if anything. Remove from the oven, and turn out onto a cooling rack after seven minutes.
Once the cake is completely cooled, whisk the icing by combining the powdered sugar, cocoa, and buttermilk. The icing should end up smooth and creamy looking. Run the icing around the top with an offset spatula and let it set.

Bundt cake hunt

Yesterday I had planned to do my taxes and some work; then the weather turned out nice and I changed plans: antique hunting for a bundt cake pan along the coast; it was a nice day for a drive. Coastal Maine is full of antique stores and road-side flea markets and with my new search focus I was eager to visit them again. After I filled my car with gas, I waivered on the plans. ”That’s gonna be an expensive bundt cake pan….”. In the end I decided to start with the local antique stores and get some work done, basically stay local for the day. Much to my delight I found almost exactly what I was looking in the second store: a beautiful bundt cake pan in good shape and…..  it was only $7. I was almost giddy with excitement. I also found a pretty old muffin pan in another store. It rounded out the beautiful day. 



This morning, I woke up to warm sunshine and the day started out with my first outdoor run for the year. Although, it felt chilly when I started, a sleeveless jog felt perfect on the way back. Naturally, I was curious how a bundt cake would look like made in the new (0ld) pan, and due to the great feedback at work of the ‘manly’ chocolate stout cake I had  brought 2 weeks again, I decided to make another one. 

I soaped and scrubbed the pan, and started thinking who might have baked cakes with it before? A happy grandmother for her family? Was it passed down through generations? What had it seen? Which families? Which kitchens? Which cakes were baked? The bundt cake pan could easily be from 1910 and so it could have seen a lot. 

It made me smile. 



As usual I made a big cake and 2 small ones (for taste test  before I hand it to the crowds, or not), and the cake turned out great. This time I used a chocolate stout that I picked up at Trader Joes last week and made the original glaze with confectioner’s sugar, cacao and yogurt. 

There is not much left of the little cake. 

Hazelnut orange quinoa pound cake

After a few days in the 80s last week, guess what’s going today? You are right, it is snowing again! We expect 5 inches of snow tonight. I was sure it wasn’t over yet…. Global climate change? More like global climate chaos. And what do I do? I bake again. Both last cakes, the stout chocolate cake and the Gugelhupf, I took to work, and they were gone in 60 seconds. This time I am only making a small one, a gluten-free one, for a friend of mine who was recently diagnosed with gluten intolerance. It is one of my favorite cakes, gluten free or not --- with quinoa flour, hazelnut flour and orange zest it just has a luxurious flavor and texture. 

Hazelnut orange quinoa pound cake

• 6 TB of butter, at room temperature
• 2 large organic free-range eggs
• 1/3 cup plain low-fat yogurt
• zest of one organic orange
• juice of 1/2 orange
• 1/3 cup hazelnut flour
• 1/3 cup quinoa flour
• 1/3 cup brown rice flour
• 1/2 cup organic cane sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon Fleur de sel
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• Confectioner’s sugar

Preheat the oven at 350 F. Spray a small round bundt cake pan with baking spray. In a bowl, mix the different flours, the baking powder, and the Fleur de sel. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, cream the room temperature butter with the sugar until creamy and fluffy (placing a stick of butter in the microwave for 15 seconds brings it to the right consistency if you take it right out of the fridge). Add one egg at a time, waiting until the first one is well incorporated before adding the second. Add in the yogurt, vanilla orange zest and orange juice. Add the dry ingredients and mix until well. The dough will be a bit sticky.

Fill the bundt cake pan with the dough (it will be about 3/4 full) and bake the bundt cake for about 35-40 minutes, or until the blade of a sharp knife inserted in the middle of the cake comes out dry. Let cool for 5 minutes before unmolding, leaving the cake to cool on a rack. To serve, dust with confectioner’s sugar.

Gugelhupf, Take 2

Rainy days can have something cozy about them, puttering around in the kitchen, cooking quinoa and lentils for the week, cuddling with the cats, watching old movies, writing letters. And taking glamour shots of the Gugelhupf from last night.  

 

Gugelhupf

There we go again: late night baking. Ever since I laid eyes on Heidi’s chocolate cake I not only coveted the cake, but also the bundt cake pan. She found hers in an antique store so I made it my mission to scour all of Maine’s antique places along Rt 1 this summer for old bundt cake pans. Since I am not that patient I bought the Nordic Ware heritage bundt cake pan from Williams Sonoma, which is beautiful. Tonight it looked at me like it needed to be inaugurated, with a German bundt cake, the classic marbled Gugelhupf. I made another small one for taste testing. It is wonderfully light. 

4	extra large eggs
1 1/2 cups (325 g)	sugar
1 ts.	pure vanilla extract
16 TBS (2 sticks)	room temperature butter
3/4 cup + 1 TB	milk (or butter milk)
3 cups (440 g)	all-purpose flour
1 ½ ts. 1/2 ts	baking powder baking soda
1/4 ts	salt
1 TB	spiced rum
4TB 1 ts	cacao  instant espresso powder
	baking spray

Preheat oven to 350F. Have all ingredients at room temperature (especially  eggs, butter and milk). Sift together flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Also, sift together the cacao powder and instant espresso in a small cup, and stir with the 2 TB of milk until smooth. Using a standmixer with a flat beater, beat the butter until it is creamy and smooth, ca. 30seconds. Add the sugar and continue beating until the mixture is creamy and fluffy (ca. 5 minutes). Add the eggs, one at a time. Stop the standmixer once in a while to scrape down the sides. Once the eggs are incorporated, add in the vanilla extract and the rum. Turn the stand mixer off,  add in the sifted flour in 1 cup parts. Once sifted in, mix in by hand with a silicone spatula. Turn on the stand mixer again, and incorporate. Turn speed to very slow, and add in 1/3 of the milk, and then speed up again. Alternate between flour and milk, and beat each addition until it is fully incorporated.

Pour 2/3 s of the batter into a separate mixing bowl, and mix the remaining batter with the cacao powder/instant espresso/milk mix. Prepare the bundt cake pan with a baking spray and pour in half of the 'white' batter first, then add the 'chocolate' batter and finish with the remaining 'white' batter. Draw a skewer once through the batter for a beautiful marbeling (or not).

Bake the bundt cake at 350F for 55-60min or a tooth pick inserted in the center comes out clean and the Gugelhupf removes slightly from the sides of the pan. Transfer the cake pan to a cooling rack and let it cool for 10 min. Turn the cake pan, and slightly tip on the pan until the Gugelhupf comes out. Cool the Gugelhupf on the cooling rack for at least 2 hours. Sift confectioners sugar for decoration.  Serve with a side of coffee and maybe some fresh whipped cream with a dash of sugar and vanilla extract.

Makes at least 16 portions.

Chocolate Stout Cake

Ever since I laid eyes on Heidi’s Chocolate Bundt Cake, I knew I had to make it. Today, I finally bought the remaining ingredients I did not have, a bottle of cream stout beer and yogurt, I even made it maple yogurt. After a long day at work it was the best thing to do to relax and take my mind off things: an elaborate rich novel cake. Cake with dark beer and chocolate? Sounds good to me.

I made the original recipe, and since I own only smaller bundt cake pans, I made 2 smaller ones sand 1 tiny one (guess, who ate half of that cake already?). You cannot really taste the beer in the cake, and I think the cake might be best after a few days. But even out of the oven, it is delicious and light.