Is it too autumn for Lemon Raspberry??

When I live somewhere more conducive to growing fruits and vegetables, I swear I want a whole backyard full of the junk. Strawberries, raspberries, oranges, grapefruit, avocados; everything!

As it is, the only fruit I have access to in the late summer is raspberries that grow at my mom's. I got a decent bowlful in August and went in search of something new.  What I found wasn't a solely raspberry concoction but it sounded too good not to try.

As advertised at Erica's Sweet Tooth (thank you for publishing the recipe!), these came out lovely and delicate but with just the right balance of flavor.  The 'lemon' cupcakes have only a hint of zest in them and make a stable but light counter to the berry filling. And my family loved the raspberry cream cheese frosting.

All around a hit!  Recipe at Erica's Sweet Tooth.

Fancied Up Chocolate Raspberry

I have a 14 year old nephew that's kind of a foodie. He wants to be a chef. But he also likes a lot of different foods so when I asked him what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday and he said the same chocolate/raspberry one I'd made for another friend before, I wasn't challenged. It was a smidge disappointing. So I went in search of at least prettying it up. I found a beautiful picture on flickr of a chocolate raspberry cake that I've, regrettably, lost the link to. I attempted to duplicate it and didn't quite succeed but my nephew liked it a lot so that was my main goal.

The thing I didn't prepare for was how time consuming every bit of this cake was. From the ganache to cutting the three layers to making the raspberry filling then chocolate buttercream then whipped cream THEN white chocolate marble decoration. so much work. But I'm glad it came out nice. And it was just as yummy as chocolate and raspberry always are. Win!

And it's six layers with three ganache fills and two raspberries. Mmmm!

Chocolate & Raspberry always works

I saw the movie Hot Fuzz the other day and while it was awesome, one moment stuck out: Nick Frost's character was munching away on a chocolate cake with some sort of red filling. I was asked to make a cake for my friend's birthday and that's the first thing I proposed.

This was another one of those collecting pieces of recipes from all over to create something. I get nervous when I do this; it feels like creating a Frankenstein monster. Who knows if it'll be okay or such a disaster, the townsfolk start gathering their pitchforks. Thankfully, it was the former.

I went with the trusty Ina Garten but, more importantly, a chocolate cake she'd featured in her show from a "Beatty", that had unheard-of positive reviews. 5 stars, almost across the board. And I could very well go to Food Network.com and add my own rave review because this cake was phenomenal. It was moist but not too dense, perfectly chocolately without being overpowering. Absolutely terrific.

Now, for the red filling, I had to start scouring the web in search of what existed in my mind but which I wasn't sure I'd seen materialized outside of a Simon Pegg movie. A few came up that never sounded exactly right but then I finally stumbled on a straightforward Raspberry Filling recipe from Wilton.com, strangely enough. I'd never used any of their recipes before but this appeared so easy and I was going for a simple taste that wouldn't complicate the cake. It came out exactly as I'd hoped, thickened by the corn starch and tart but still sweet and seriously hard to stop eating.

To even out the tartness of the raspberry filling and the richness of the chocolate, I added a layer of whipped cream. Chocolate ganache topped it off and voila! Chocolate raspberry cake! It was a hit with the birthday girl and my family. I was honestly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. It took some time to prepare all the components but it was absolutely worth it!

BEATTY'S CHOCOLATE CAKE WITH RASPBERRY FILLING

Source: Ina Garten

Butter, for greasing the pans

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans

2 cups sugar

3/4 cups good cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup buttermilk, shaken

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Chocolate Ganache (recipe follows)

Raspberry Filling (recipe follows)

Whipped cream (recipe follows)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter 2 (8-inch) round cake pans. Line with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.

Assemble the bottom of the cake, flat side up, with a layer of raspberry filling then whipped cream (recipes follow). Set top cake layer on the filling layers. Refrigerate to set filling layers to cakes.

Make chocolate ganache then let come to room temperature. You may need to let it sit in the fridge as well (continue stirring every five minutes or so to allow to chill evenly). When it is a thick, spreading consistency, spread evenly over cake. It will be a thin layer (ganache is dense and strong) so it is easiest to pour all ganache in the center and slowly work out and down the sides with a flat spatula.

Serve soon or refrigerate if storing. Whipped cream will not keep long.

RASPBERRY FILLING

Adapted from: Wilton.com

1 pkg (16 ounces) frozen raspberries packed in sugar thawed

1/3 cup granulated sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Makes: Filling serves 2 cups.

Drain raspberries, reserving liquid. Add enough water to liquid to equal 1 1/4 cups.

In large saucepan, combine liquid, sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice; mix well. Heat and stir until mixture boils and thickens. Cool completely.

WHIPPED CREAM

1/2 cup heavy cream, well chilled

1 tbsp confectioners' sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Place a mixing bowl and beaters from electric mixer in the freezer or refrigerator until well chilled, about 15 minutes.

Combine the heavy cream, confectioners' sugar, and vanilla extract in the mixing bowl.

With an electric mixer on low speed, begin beating the cream, gradually increasing the speed to high as cream thickens. (Do this slowly, or the cream will splatter.)

Beat until the cream is thickened, past soft peaks. It should have some structure so it can stand on its own as a layer under the top of the cake.

CHOCOLATE GANACHE

Source: Ina Garten

1/2 cup heavy cream

8 ounces good semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 teaspoon instant coffee granules

Cook the heavy cream, chocolate chips, and instant coffee in the top of a double boiler over simmering water until smooth and warm, stirring occasionally.

Simple

I am embarrassed, of course, at my lack of updating. But trust in the fact that it's not that I've been baking up a storm and just neglecting my blog; I haven't been baking ANYTHING. It's all the XBox's fault; I got one for Christmas and never got off of it.

I finally found the motivation to bake something and had to scrounge up what I had in the house. That ended up being the most basic of basics: vanilla pound cake. It needed something extra, though, and I immediately thought of berry compote (because I had frozen mixed berries).

I grabbed a high rated recipe from All Recipes and you know what? I'm kind of starting to get irritated with All Recipes. Or, at least, the people reviewing on it. I made this highly rated recipe and it is utterly mediocre. I mean, to have that many stars, you'd think it'd be mouth wateringly AWESOME. But it's just not. It's bland and absolutely NEEDS the compote or other accompaniment. I always thought of a good pound cake as one so buttery and delish, it melts in your mouth a little. Because of all the butter. Delicious butter... But this one doesn't.

The berry compote, however, I got from Williams-Sonoma and it IS good. I think I'm going to stick to legit sources from now on... I won't be making this pound cake again but the compote is a keeper. I used a bag of frozen mixed berries that included raspberries, blueberries and marrionberries.

Together, they're good, but maybe that's because you're mostly just tasting the compote...


Cream Cheese Pound Cake III
Source: All Recipes, Submitted by: Nanci

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1 1/2 cups butter
3 cups white sugar
6 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract


1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (160 degrees C) grease and flour a 10 inch tube pan.

2. In a large bowl, cream butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add sugar gradually and beat until fluffy.

3. Add eggs two at a time, beating well with each addition. Add the flour all at once and mix in. Add vanilla.

4. Pour into a 10 inch tube pan. Bake at 325 degrees F (160 degrees C) for 1 hour and 20 minutes. Check for doneness at 1 hour. A toothpick inserted into center of cake will come out clean.


Berry Compote
Source: Williams-Sonoma

6 cups mixed berries
5 Tbs sugar
2 tsp lemon juice

In a saucepan over medium heat, stir together the berries, 2 Tbs. of the sugar and the lemon juice. Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until most of the berries have broken down and the mixture is thickened, about 30 minutes; reduce the heat if the compote sticks to the pan. Remove from the heat and let the compote cool to room temperature.

Flourless Chocolate Cake... (aux framboises?)

Whoops; I just discovered Blogger had some weird setting locking down comments previously. Long story short, they're open now for everyone. :)

So, maybe I bit off a little more than I could chew which is funny (but not really) being written in a food blog. Nevertheless. It all started with raspberries...

I found a good amount on sale at the grocery store and grabbed them promptly (sale!). When I got home, however, I realized I had no idea what to do with them. I racked my brain, trying to come up with something to make. It was quickly becoming a crummy week (therefore I wasn't in the mood for pink, happy, light and fluffy cupcakes) so something darker was definitely on my mind. The very first thing I thought of was a dark, smooth chocolate cake with the raspberries as a sweet and tangy sauce to contrast with the full chocolate flavor. I found exactly what I was looking for in The Best Recipe book in the Ultimate Flourless Chocolate Cake; described as a "dense, buttery" dessert with a creamy texture. Perfect.

The ingredients are deceptively simple. I guess it's that way to offset the intense preparation of the cake itself. Water baths, exact timing, careful extraction. All problems I simply never had with plain ol' cupcakes. But the cake part was, uh... cake compared to the sauces and I had decided were to accompany the dessert.

The raspberry was also way too much work (blending sugar to make it superfine, straining the overdone mix) and the recipe was annoyingly vague. If I were to try it again (unlikely), I would definitely trust my instincts and let it cook much less (a minute, maybe); just enough to let the sugar dissolve and marry with the raspberry juice. I let it cook too long, too much of the water cooked out and it was way too thick. In retrospect, I may have been able to add hot water and return it to the stove to dilute more juice from the pulpy leftovers but I didn't think of it at the time. Live and learn.

The Vanilla Custard Sauce was not what I was looking for but ended up tasting fine all the same. I'd never made a custard-y anything before so the prospect of adding warm cream to egg yolks was terrifying (ew, cooked egg!). It was a chore but the result was satisfactory. Although, again, I would hesitate when faced with making it once more. So much stress.

I will say this, however: the vanilla sauce definitely compliments the thick chocolatey "cake" and the cake is a bit overwhelming without SOMETHING to accompany it. Fresh berries would work well in contrast, especially strawberries. Ignore the pictures; I would drown the cake in the vanilla sauce. (It just wasn't as pretty.)

This really is exactly what I had in mind when I concocted this little (week-long-stress-a-thon) dessert but it was so involved, I don't see myself attempting fancy schmancy dishes like it often. I took a stab, it came out right (exhale) and now I'll return to our regularly scheduled program of comfort food like cakes and cookies.

ULTIMATE FLOURLESS CHOCOLATE CAKE
(From The Best Recipe by Cook's Illustrated)

Serves 12 to 16

8 large eggs, cold
1 pound bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch chunks

(1/4 cup strong coffee or liqueur optional)

Confectioners' sugar or cocoa powder for decoration


1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Line bottom of 8-inch springform pan with parchment and grease pan sides. Cover pan underneath and along sides with sheet of heavy-duty foil and set in large roasting pan. Bring kettle of water to boil.

2. Beat eggs with handheld mixer at high speed until volume doubles to approximately 1 quart, about 5 minutes. Alternatively, beat in bowl of electric mixer fitted with wire whip attachment at medium speed to achieve same result, about 5 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, melt chocolate and butter (adding coffee or liqueur, if using) in large heatproof bowl set over pan of almost simmering water, until smooth and very warm (about 115 degrees on an instant read thermometer), stirring once or twice. (For microwave, melt chocolate at 50 percent power for 2 minutes, stir, add butter, and continue heating at 50 percent power, stirring every minute, until chocolate and butter have melted and are smooth, another 2 to 3 minutes total.) Fold 1/3 of egg foam into chocolate mixture using large rubber spatula until only a few streaks of egg are visible; fold in half of remaining foam, then last of remaining foam until mixture is totally homogenous.

4. Scrape batter into prepared springform pan and smooth surface with rubber spatula. Set roasting pan on oven rack and pour in enough boiling water to come about halfway up side of springform pan. Bake until cake has risen slightly, edges are just beginning to set, a thin glazed crust (like a brownie) has formed on surface, and an instant-read thermometer inserted halfway through center of cake registers 140 degrees, 22 to 25 minutes. Remove cake pan from water bath and set on wire rack; cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate overnight to mellow (can be covered and refrigerated for up to 4 days).

5. About 30 minutes before serving, remove springform pan sides, invert cake on sheet of waxed paper, peel off parchment pan liner, and turn cake right side up on serving platter. Sieve light sprinkling of confectioners' sugar or unsweetened cocoa powder over cake to decorate, if desired.

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VANILLA CUSTARD SAUCE
From Bon Appetit 1992 Yearbook

1 1/2 cups whipping cream
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
4 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar

1. Place cream in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Scrape in the seeds from the vanilla bean; add pod. Bring to simmer. Remove from heat. Cover and let stand 1 hour to let flavors marry.

2. Whisk yolks and sugar in medium bowl to blend. Bring cream mixture to simmer over medium-low heat. Gradually whisk hot cream into yolks.

3. Return mixture to saucepan and stir until the custard thickens and coats spoon (about 4 minutes). Do not boil. Strain into bowl. Cover and chill.

Makes 1 cup.

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I was not impressed with the raspberry sauce but it does offer a sharp contrast to the smooth chocolate and vanilla so I do recommend some fruit sauce or fresh fruit to accompany the dessert, ultimately.


COULIS AUX FRAMBOISES - RASPBERRY SAUCE

1-1/2 cups raspberries
1/2 cup superfine sugar
1 vanilla bean


1. Put the raspberries and the sugar in a saucepan. Place the pan over med-high heat and bring to a boil.

2. Cut the vanilla bean in half lengthwise. When the raspberries have released some liquid, add the vanilla.

3. Cook, stirring and mashing the berries, until it is reduced by about 1/3.

4. Strain the raspberries through a strainer, pushing on the pulp.