Can you guess what it is?

A definite favorite color combination of mine.

You’d probably guess that’s chocolate cake, but you’d be wrong. There’s not a bit of chocolate anywhere in that cupcake. Think fragrant, roasted, strong, caffeinated…

Yes, these are raspberry coffee cupcakes. And they are ridiculously delicious.

You’ve never had coffee and raspberry before? You’re missing out. Ever had a cup of espresso with a particularly fruity finish? Imagine if that finish kept going into full berry flavor territory…

Like the foam on a very special cappuccino.

Early on I decided that I HAD to make the cake itself coffee flavored. I luckily came upon a great recipe fairly quickly in my search. It results in soft, fragrant little cakes that are sturdy enough for even thick fillings…we’ll get to that in a minute.

Happy yummy dust makes it all that much better.

In keeping with the coffee theme I decided to top the cupcakes with a simple raspberry foam frosting and a dusting of instant espresso powder. It’s almost marshmallowy and smells incredible. I figured a buttercream would be too rich and I really love the cloudlike, organic swirls of simple meringues.

Raspberries, distilled into pure jellied awesomeness.

Now back to that filling. It’s stupid easy. All you need is a heaping cup of really nice raspberries (preferably from a farmer’s market, or even wild if you can find them) and a cup of sugar. Simple small-batch jam is one of my favorite summer cupcake fillings and this one REALLY delivers. The best part is, there’s no pitting, cutting or pureeing involved, since raspberries are so naturally delicate. In fact these cupcakes are shockingly easy and simple to make – the hardest part is making sure you have the aforementioned tasty berries and some nice instant espresso.

Does indeed go very well with a nice cup of coffee.

Raspberry Coffee Cupcakes

First, Make the Filling:

1. 1 heaping cup fresh or frozen raspberries
2. 1 cup sugar

Place the berries in a tall-sided medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Once the berries start getting juicy and bubbling slightly, mix in the sugar, mashing up the berries roughly, and bring up to a low boil. Keep boiling for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally with a silicone spatula or other heatproof instrument. Meanwhile, place a small white plate in the freezer. Once the 5 minutes of boiling have elapsed, place a small blob of the jam on the chilled plate. Once the jam on the plate is cool, poke it to see if it’s jelled or if it’s still liquidy. Repeat the cold plate test once every couple of minutes until the jam is sufficiently jelled. (If you happen to overcook it and make it too thick, you can always thin it out with a little hot water.) Remove the hot jam from the saucepan to a heatproof container and chill in a small ice bath to room temperature or cooler, then keep chilled in the refrigerator until needed.

Next, Make the Cakes:

1. 1/2 cup milk
2. 1/3 cup instant espresso (use something reasonably ok, not like instant Folger’s or something; I used some freshly-bought Medaglio D’Oro)
3. 8 oz butter
4. 1 1/2 cups sugar
5. 4 eggs
6. 1 tsp vanilla
7. 2 cups AP flour
8. 2 tsp baking powder
9. 1/4 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 375F. Place the milk and espresso in a small saucepan and heat until just steaming, stirring to dissolve the espresso. Set aside to cool. Cream together the butter and sugar in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer. Gradually add the eggs and vanilla, scraping down the bowl between additions. Sift together the dry ingredients and add to the batter alternately with the espresso milk, in 3 additions each, scraping down the bowl often and being careful not to overmix. Once everything is incorporated, bake in lined muffin tins for about 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into any of the cakes comes out clean. Cool completely before filling and frosting.

To fill the cakes as neatly as possible (tutorial coming soon!), freeze them solid once they are cool. Use a small circle cutter to remove the center of each and trim the “lid” of each cupcake to 1/2″ thick, reserving each alongside its cupcake. Fill the holes with the raspberry jam almost up to the top, then replace the lids and keep chilled until ready to frost.

When Your Filling is In, You Can Make the Frosting!:

1. 4 egg whites
2. 1 cup sugar
3. 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
4. 3 Tbsp raspberry juice (extracted from about 1/3 cup raspberries, strained of any seeds or chunks of fruit)
5. 1 tsp instant espresso

Place the egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar into the bowl of a stand mixer. Place the bowl over simmering water (make sure that the bowl doesn’t actually tough the water) and whisk often. Once the bowl’s contents are hot to the touch, begin whipping to soft peaks, then turn the mixer to medium speed and drizzle in the raspberry juice. Continue whipping to stiff peaks. Dollop onto filled cupcakes, sprinkling with instant espresso. Keep chilled. Makes 20.

Hooray for berries!

However, there are exceptions to every rule, and sometimes even a least favorite something has its place. One good place to stick your raspberries is in this awesome ice cream.

Tangy, sweet and cold.

Time for a bit of a segue: Some time prior to the making of this ice cream (which admittedly was probably like a month ago…oops) I had picked up some gooseberries at the Green Market. I totally loved them but was unsure what to do with them, so I appealed to Twitter for help. In response I was offered a copy of the newly released The Berry Bible, from the always awesome Natalie (thank youuuuu). I gladly accepted, and though it didn’t arrive at my door in time for me to utilize it in my gooseberry experiment,* it sure came in handy later when raspberries began popping up all over. The book itself is indeed a veritable religious text of all things berries, and like most berry-driven guides originates in the Pacific Northwest. Though it’s quite dry reading and the recipes are very specific to obscure berries and local ingredients, it’s still a nice book to have on the shelf beside some of my other definitive titles.

I left in the seeds for crunch and appearances.

I ended up adapting a recipe for buttermilk-loganberry ice cream and it was absolutely wonderful, a really nice thing to have around during one of the early heat waves of this ridiculous summer. It would be great with some peach puree swirled in, or just topped with warm stewed peaches.

What a way to cool off.

Raspberry Buttermilk Ice Cream (adapted from The Berry Bible)

1. 1 pint raspberries
2. 1 1/2 cups sugar
3. 2 cups buttermilk
4. 1 Tbsp vodka

Thoroughly but gently rinse the raspberries, then drain and pat dry. Puree just until there are no whole berries left. Pour the puree into a mixing bowl and whisk in the other ingredients. Churn in an ice cream machine or by hand and freeze until firm and scoopable.

* Zack ended up suggesting gooseberry pancakes (since gooseberries are somewhat blueberry-like), which I made using the standard pancake recipe in The Joy of Cooking and serving with homemade elderflower syrup. They were really tasty and something I’ll make again next year when gooseberries pop up again for a week or two…though I have a tweak intended for the pancakes, if I can get a special flour. Ooooo….

Ooh, springy!

Yes, salad. Not something you’d normally bother to post a recipe for, but it was so cute, so tasty, and such a happy coincidence of ingredients that I knew I needed to share.

Color means flavor!

It was actually SO tasty that I ate one four times in two days, until the magical combination of fresh pea shoots, sweet sugarsnaps, crisp seedless cucumber and brilliant red strawberries ran out. If i come across this combination all at once again I’ll replicate this salad for sure – I’ve still got plenty of the flavorful local honey and I always have Balsamic, extra virgin olive oil and black pepper on hand.

Sweet, leafy and crisp.

This salad is amazing served at any time of day…I ate it for breakfast a couple of times, as dinner once and as a late-night, post-work snack another night. Get the freshest ingredients possible and only buy strawberries that fill the air with their sweet berry perfume. Use good honey. Enjoy devouring springtime.

Amazingly addictive and happily healthy.

Springy Peaberry Salad

1. 1 pint strawberries
2. 1 smallish seedless cucumber
3. About 30 fat sugar snap peas
4. 2-3 cups pea shoots
5. 1/4 cup Balsamic vinegar
6. 3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
7. 2 Tbsp honey
8. Up to 1/4 tsp black pepper

Wash all the vegetables. Hull and slice the strawberries. Slice the cucumber in half lengthwise and slice each half in 1/4″ thick slices. Remove the stems and strings on the sugar snap peas and chop each in half crosswise. Place all in a large bowl. Combine the Balsamic, oil, honey and pepper in a small bowl and whisk vigorously until emulsified. Pour over the salad and toss well. Serve immediately. Serves four.

Ah, that even feels healthy to write about! Don’t worry, though, the next two posts will be all about the ice cream – one fruity with a somewhat curious recipe, the other an eggless but still VERY indulgent classic you probably never thought of making at home.

It took me a couple of weeks and a lot of practice but I finally got it.

The idea for this dessert came from a half-empty bottle of maple sugar. I really wanted to make frozen yogurt with it. Which turned out to be a fantastic idea – the extreme sweetness of maple is but a pleasant hint in the tangy frozen yogurt. Though I’ve had great success with making homemade yogurt, I’ve recently adopted Friendship as my yogurt of choice. It’s sold in the bodega downstairs from my apartment in quarts (the perfect size for blending with sweeteners, flavorings and dumping right in the ice cream machine), is much cheaper than other brands of yogurt, is all-natural and is the absolute thickest yogurt I’ve ever come across, easily beating out Greek yogurts that are four times the price. (Just a note, I don’t have sponsorship from these guys or anything, I just REALLY dig their yogurt.)

Sandy, yummy buckwheat flour.

Shortly after I had mentally filed the concept of maple frozen yogurt into a crevice of my brain, I was inspired by the tasty streusel we made at work for some pear cobblers and decided to play with a buckwheaty streusel to go with the frozen yogurt.

It's from a rectangular pan but I decided I liked triangular slices for this.

Shortly thereafter, I got pan-guilt and decided I NEEDED to use my rectangular tart pan more often – I’d only used it once! The shame!

Not enough apples...a pretty accident.

I also had a jar of tiny wild Maine blueberries that my aunt had preserved with sugar a little cinnamon. Last winter I enjoyed some with yogurt for breakfast many mornings, so I decided Maine wild blueberries were in. While I was at it, I figured an all-out tribute to my original home of Maine was in order, and ordered up a Benriner (I’ve actually already used it three times and it’s really fun) to add a layer of MacIntosh apples to the party. I sliced them paper-thin, and really could’ve gone thicker…after a day in the fridge the pie/tart thingy’s blueberry layer had soaked clear through the apple layer, turning the whole thing a tie-dye of purpleness. But I actually think the dessert is prettier this way…white apples would have made the dessert look kinda stormy; blueberry skies, on the other hand, are pleasant on both land and sea.

Wonderfully blueberry-ish, with tangy yogurt and crunchy, earthy streusel...yum.

Blueberry Sky Beach, Maine

Buckwheat Brisee Crust

1. 155g cake flour
2. 30g buckwheat flour
3. 1/2 tsp salt
4. 1/2 tsp sugar
5. 95g unsalted butter, cut into small chunks and frozen
6. 50 mL ice cold water

Sift together the dry ingredients and place in the bowl of a stand mixer or food processor, or on a bench if working by hand. Add the cold butter and beat, pulse or cut until the butter is the size of small lentils. Slowly add the water and gradually work it in until a rough dough forms. Don’t use all the water if you don’t have to. Work out any dry spots by hand by mixing with a bowl scraper or on the bench and wrap tightly in plastic. Chill thoroughly before using. When ready, roll out to desired shape and size at 1/4″ thick. Line your pan and bllind-bake in a 350F preheated oven until the crust is crispy but doesn’t take on much color. While hot, use the back of a wooden spoon or the end of a solid wooden pastry rolling pin to press down any bubbles in the middle. Allow to cool before filling.

Buckwheat Streusel

1. 155g AP flour
2. 40g buckwheat flour
3. 150g sugar
4. 1/4 tsp cinnamon
5. Pinch salt
6. 110g unsalted butter, melted & cooled slightly

Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl. Pour melted butter in and combine with hands until clumpy but still crumbly. Chill thoroughly before using. Once ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350F and spread the streusel evenly on a lined baking sheet. Bake, raking the streusel around every 5 minutes or so, until the streusel is crispy and a few pieces begin to take on color. Allow to cool before using.

Maple Frozen Yogurt

1. 1 quart good quality, thick natural yogurt
2. 1/2 cup maple sugar
3. 1/4 cup sugar
4. 2 Tbsp vodka (or maple liqueur if you’re lucky enough to have some on hand)

Whisk all ingredients until fully combined, then churn in an ice cream maker or by hand. Freeze until hard and scoopable.

The chippy garnish thing nestled in beside the frozen yogurt is a piece of blueberry bark that my mom sent me. It’s basically blueberries that were mashed and dehydrated. They add another textural element of crisp to the dessert, as well as an extra hit of blueberry flavor.

This dessert is very good – earthy and just sweet enough, with a lot of breakfasty flavors that remind me of where I came from. The streusel looks incredibly like the sand at the beach I used to visit with my family and eventually briefly lived near, which has been eroded like crazy over the last few years. I created my own little piece of the beach on one end of the plate and cut the rectangular tart into a wedge that I think resembled both a sailboat and the ocean, with the little squiggly fluted edge like a wave cresting towards the quenelle happily resting on the sand.

Aww, all flowery and stuff!

However, I was recently contacted by Lyns of Sweet Cuppin Cakes Bakery & Cupcakery Supplies. She had a new product coming into stock soon and needed someone to test it out. Who says no to experimenting with free baking supplies? Not me!

Smells like...cinnamon bagels?

The product in question was disposable paper loaf pans. I wasn’t really sure what to make to test them out, but I was inspired when I came across some fat, juicy dates in a store when I was casually wandering around the East Village a couple weekends ago. Ooh, dates! What goes well with dates? Hmmm…cinnamon, chocolate…walnuts…cranberries?

Unfold to serve? Heck yes!

Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time to pick up the liners at the post office for almost another week, by which time I had snacked all the dates away. No big deal – the bodega downstairs sells dates, too!…And for a dollar less. Great. (Don’t go to Gourmet Garage, people. Good deals are not to be had there.)

Yummy chocolate swirl!

I kind of threw a recipe together, based on a random date bread recipe I found and tweaked. I added the cranberries just because I could, and decided I’d add a chocolate swirl and some cacao nibs on top, because I add cacao nibs on top of everything I possibly can.

Man this stuff was good.

And what’s the verdict on the loaf pans? Well, they’re really handy. Especially at this time of year – not everyone adheres to the old neighborly practice of returning someone’s plate or pan filled with your own homemade goodies, and it can be a pain to unmold freshly-baked loaves for wrapping to give to those who may not return your beloved bakeware. Plus, you can simply pull apart the glued folds of the pan to serve the bread – no transferring to a board or platter necessary (though you could just unfold it on top of a platter if you’re dead-set on being festive, and then you wouldn’t have to wash the platter after).

Besides the handiness, the print is so cute that all you’d have to do to gift a loaf is wrap it in plastic and affix a bow to the top! Instant pretty gift!

Keep in mind that they are smaller than the standard loaf pan, so one normal quickbread recipe will fill two pans.

You served well, little date bread.

Cinnamon Chocolate-Swirl Date Bread

1. 1 cup boiling water
2. 6 oz. chopped dried dates
3. 2 oz. dried cranberries
4. 2 Tbsp butter
5. 3/4 cup sugar
6. 1/4 cup brown sugar
7. 1 egg
8. 2 1/4 cups AP flour
9. 1 Tbsp baking powder
10. 1/2 tsp fine salt
11. 1/2 tsp cinnamon
12. 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
13. 2 oz. chopped unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
14. Cacao nibs, for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 325. Place the dates and cranberries in a heatproof bowl and pour in the boiling water. Add the butter and stir to combine, then set aside. Beat the sugars and egg until light. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Remove 1 Tbsp and toss with the walnuts. Alternately add the water/fruit mixture and the flour mixture to the egg and sugar mixture until fully combined. Remove 1/2 cup of the batter and combine with the melted chocolate. Pour the batter into loaf pan(s) and swirl in the chocolate batter, then sprinkle with cacao nibs. Bake 45-55 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the center of a loaf comes out clean. Allow to cool before slicing.

I have one loaf pan left to use but I wish I also had more of this bread. It was excellent (too excellent, in fact – I forced myself to bring one loaf in to class to share, where it was appreciated by many). I couldn’t really locate the dates in it – they just kind of bake into gooey smears of sweetness – but the tart, plump little cranberries and crunchy bits of walnut were great contrasts to the sweet, bready goodness that made up the loaves.

I’m thinking a little pumpkin gingerbread action to use up the final loaf pan, maybe baking the remainder in muffin liners. I can bring the bread with me for Thanksgiving and not have to worry about eating ALL of it myself.