Looking a little seedy.

This burst of frugality was inspired by the theme ingredient: honey. I really love honey meringue frosting and since it would give me an opportunity to use up some extra egg whites, I figured I’d see how far I could take the concept of using only things I already had.

Seedy indeedy.

I thought about some things that go well with honey that I also happened to have. Lots of teas and flowers, obviously, but I wanted something different. Something special. Something that was just languishing in my kitchen cabinet.

It looks kind of fanciful.

A lone jar of tahini was my answer. Sesame and honey are awesome together! I boosted the intensely nutty sesame cake experience with a crunchy chewiness via some of the toasted sesame seeds that I always keep around.

A little monochromatic but look at that crumb!

Since the meringue frosting is so insanely sticky-sweet, I figured I’d tone it down by torching it a bit, but I wanted something else to cut through both the sweetness of the honey and the tender fatty richness of the cake itself.

Sunshiney!

I decided to go with  a nice sour lemon marmalade, with a little honey cooked into it to give it a nice floral note and tie the flavors together a bit. I think it does the trick quite nicely – though lemons were the only thing I didn’t have. Luckily they can be had cheaply in the store downstairs from my apartment, so it didn’t really matter.

Anyway, these cupcake are pretty crazy. The frosting is so light and billowy yet marshmallow-like in stickiness, and it completely collapses when you take a bite. The cake is just as insubstantial, due in part to the extreme fattiness of sesame seeds (also this recipe just makes crazy soft and tender nut or seed butter cake). This is why the directions call for repeatedly freezing the cupcakes during the decorating process. Altogether they’re a bit exotic and unusual, but definitely tasty. Don’t skip the torching step – even if you have to do it with a Bic lighter the toastedness is essential.

On a pedestal.

Burnt Honey Sesame Cupcakes with Sour Lemon Marmalade

First Make the Marmalade:

1. 1 lemon (weighing about 125g)
2. 250g water
3. 200g sugar (superfine if available)
4. 50g honey

Thoroughly wash the lemon. On a plate with a substantial rim (so you don’t lose any juice), use a sharp knife to slice the lemon very thinly, reserving the seeds. Chop the slices up further until you have very small pieces of outer skin attached to the flesh. Dump the lemon and juice into a small saucepan and cover with the water. Tie the seeds into a cheesecloth pouch and add to the pan. Bring to a simmer and cover, cooking gently until the rind is soft. Remove from heat and stir in the sugar and honey until the sugar is dissolved. Return to heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and cook on a low boil for about ten minutes, testing on chilled white plates to see if it’s set. Once it is, remove from heat and squeeze all the pectin you can out of the cheesecloth bag. Allow to cool fully before attempting to use.

Then Bake the Cakes:

1. 5 oz. (1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp) butter
2. 1 cup sugar
3. 1 egg
4. 2 tsp vanilla
5. 1 cup AP flour
6. 1/2 tsp baking soda
7. 1/4 tsp salt
8. 1/4 cup buttermilk (regular milk with a couple drops of lemon juice or white vinegar is fine)
9. 5 oz. (1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp) hot water
10. 1/2 cup tahini
11. 2 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds

Preheat the oven to 350F. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla, scraping down the bowl and making sure it is fully emulsified into the creamed mixture. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add it to the batter alternately with the buttermilk and hot water, scraping down the bowl often. Add the tahini and sesame seeds and beat on medium-high for a couple of minutes, until light and fluffy. Spoon into a lined muffin tin and bake 15-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of one comes out clean. Allow to cool fully before assembling.

Finally, Make the Frosting:

1. 1 cup honey
2. 2 egg whites, room temperature
3. Pinch salt

Place the honey in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. In the meantime, whip the egg whites and salt to medium-stiff but not dry peaks. Reduce the whipping speed to medium and pour in the boiling honey in one continuous stream. Return the speed to high and whip until stiff, glossy peaks form and the meringue is about room temperature or a little warmer.

To Assemble:

Freeze the cupcakes solid and trim any excess cake overhang with kitchen shears. Using a small circle cutter, cut the center out of each cupcake, reserving the plugs of cake and trimming them down to 1/4″ thick lids. Fill each cupcake with marmalade and top with lids. Freeze again until solid. Using a small spatula or a butter knife, spread the frosting on the cupcakes, leaving the sides thick and the top fairly flat. Using a kitchen torch or just a high powered gas burner, brulee the outer edge of the frosting on each cupcake, then sprinkle more toasted sesame seeds in the middle. Makes 12.

Quite elegant.

Well, if you’re like me and are lucky enough to have a store right downstairs that sells frozen passion fruit pulp, you can rush down and get all the ingredients to make this passion fruit ice cream within a few minutes, churn it and be enjoying a flavorful frozen treat in an hour or two. It’s an interesting recipe in that it uses the whole egg as opposed to just the yolks – I think it makes the texture a bit fluffier. I changed it up a little by using half-and-half, which also lightened the recipe somewhat. It’s incredibly simple and something I will be making again, though quite possibly with cacao nibs in it next time. Yum!

Have a little more time on your hands and a hankering for something classic? Want something to do idly while watching a TV show? Then maybe this other recipe can help you out…

Bet you never thought of making THIS at home.

That’s right. Homemade chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. Egg-free and full of awesome vanilla bean flavor! Totally worth the time and effort involved, especially since it makes a nice big batch.

Extra dough balls added for emphasis.

One thing you are going to need when making this ice cream is very high quality vanilla extract. Homemade is best – you know, put scraped beans in a jar and fill with vodka, use when dark and fragrant. It makes an excellent addition to any ice cream or sorbet where vanilla flavor and a little alcohol for softness is desired. If you haven’t had the foresight to make your own, just make sure to use real vanilla with a high alcohol content. You will also need a vanilla bean – buy them online in bulk, grocery stores are a rip off in this case.

As elegant as raw cookie dough gets.

And YES, this is an entirely egg free recipe. The dough is essentially a shortbread since there is no egg, and I decided that with the added richness from the butter, the base didn’t actually need to be a custard. The ice cream comes out very fresh and vibrantly vanilla-flavored, with no custardy richness to cover anything up.

Waffle cone not required.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream

First, Make the Cookie Dough Balls:

1. 1/2 cup butter
2. 1/2 cup sugar
3. 1/4 cup brown sugar
4. 1 tsp vanilla extract
5. 1 1/2 tsp water
6. 1 cup AP flour
7. Pinch salt
8. 1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp miniature chocolate chips

Cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Scrape down the bowl and beat in the vanilla and water until thoroughly combined. Scrape down the bowl again. Add the flour and salt and beat on low speed until just combined, scraping down and incorporating any flour left on the edge of the bowl. Fold in the chocolate chips.

This is the part of the recipe that takes some patience. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment or a Silpat. Grab a small piece of dough and pinch it into a rough cube, then gently roll it into a sphere. It should be about marble-sized – add or remove more dough as needed and re-roll. Line up the balls on the sheet as you go and freeze them once they’re all in place.

Then, Make the Ice Cream:

1. 2 cups milk
2. 1 vanilla bean, scraped
3. 1 1/2 cup sugar
4. Pinch salt
5. 2 cups cream
6. 2 Tbsp vanilla extract

Place the milk, vanilla seeds and pod, sugar and salt into the pot. Heat to a simmer, then remove from heat and cover. Steep at least 5 minutes. Remove the pods and wash them for use in extract or sugar. Pour hot milk into a bowl and chill over an ice bath. Whisk in the cream and vanilla extract, then churn in a machine or by hand. Fold in the cookie dough balls as you remove the ice cream to its container (if you’re doing it by hand, fold them in once it’s the consistency of soft serve). Freeze until firm and scoopable.

On another note, I’m FINALLY going to make a real effort towards making pastry technique videos. Really basic stuff, like folding, whipping, piping, handling dough…Things that have been drilled into me, but are important for anyone to know if they’re interested in pastry. I don’t have a fancy camera or any video skills whatsoever, but I’ll figure it out (actually I just told Z that he’d have to learn how to edit the videos and stuff). At least I’ve got a list of topics! :D

“But you are, my love, the astronaut

Flying in the face of science

I would gladly stay an afterthought

Just bring back some nice reminders”

I wonder if he's cold out there?

This cupcake is based on one of my favorite songs ever – “Astronaut” by Amanda Palmer. It’s a song that grabs your attention and I think it’s the best song she’s written. Heck, I think it’s one of the best SONGS, period.

Hey, at least you have ice cream!

But how was I going to convey the idea of an astronaut in a cupcake? Simple – astronaut ice cream.

Vanilla chunk.

Yes, that dehydrated Neapolitan stuff you get in the gift shops of children’s museums. I decided I’d get some, crush it up and use it to flavor the cupcakes, splitting the batter in half for chocolate and vanilla and saving strawberry for the frosting.

Mmm, chocolate.

It worked out exactly as I hoped and even though it took a bit of work (especially with the fact that I had scaled down the recipe a LOT since I don’t have so many people to share cupcakes with anymore), I think they are adorable, tasty and worth the effort.

Those are chunks of not-quite-crushed-enough ice cream in the frosting, not butter. My buttercreams are always perfect thankyouverymuch ;)

These would be really cute for a space-themed party…or for a bunch of NASA employees, I suppose.

Neapolitan layers!

I really like the last-minute touch of sprinkling extra crumbled ice cream on the frosting. They’re kind of craggy and look like moon rocks or asteroids and add a nice textural contrast and a little boost of ice cream flavor.

Have a scoop...

An extra special thank you to Natalie at Bake & Destroy for making the super spiffy astronaut toppers for me, and for throwing in the little earths to remind the astronauts of home!

Where will he go once the cake he's tethered to is gone?

Astronaut Cupcakes

First, Make the Cupcakes:

1. 1/4 cup butter, soft
2. 1/2 cup sugar
3. 1 cup cake flour
4. 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
5. 1/4 tsp fine salt
6. 1/2 cup milk, divided
7. 3 packages of astronaut ice cream (more if you want to decorate with crumbled ice cream)
8. 2 egg whites, divided
9. 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
10. 1 tsp cocoa powder

Preheat the oven to 350. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt, whisking until they are thoroughly mixed, then divide the mixture in half. Separate the three flavors of ice cream and crush each thoroughly (I used a mortar & pestle, which worked fine, you can use a small prep food processor if you like but crumble the ice cream a bit first and work light to dark – vanilla, strawberry, then chocolate – for the least amount of color contamination). Set the strawberry aside, and whisk the vanilla and chocolate into 1/4 cup milk each. In a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Remove half of the mixture and set aside. Add the vanilla milk and one half of the dry mixture into the butter-sugar mixture remaining in the mixer bowl. You’ll want to add them alternately, in three additions each, scraping the bowl down thoroughly after each addition. Once completely combined and homogenous, add one egg white and the vanilla extract and beat on medium-high for a few minutes, until the mixture has nearly tripled in volume. If you’re using a stand mixer and have only one bowl for it like I do, remove the batter to another bowl and set aside – no need to wash the paddle or bowl, just scrape thoroughly (if you have more than one bowl for your mixer or are using a hand mixer, just switch bowls). Return the reserved creamed butter mixture to the mixer and beat for a few seconds. Add the cocoa powder to the remaining dry mixture, then combine the chocolate milk, butter mixture and dry ingredients the same way you did for the vanilla, beating the egg in at the end. Spoon the chocolate batter into a lined muffin tin (white paper is important so you can see the different layers), filling them no more than one third full. Top with the vanilla batter. Bake for 15-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of one comes out clean. Allow to cool fully before frosting. Makes 10 full-sized cupcakes.

Then Make the Frosting:

1. 2 egg whites
2. 1/2 cup sugar
3. 1/8 tsp cream of tartar
4. 1 cup butter, soft & in small pieces
5. 3 strawberry sections of astronaut ice cream, finely crushed
6. Red food coloring

Place the whites, sugar and cream of tartar in a metal mixer bowl over simmering water and whisk constantly until the mixture comes to a temperature of 160. Immediately transfer to stand mixer (or just start using a hand mixer) and whip until it reaches stiff, glossy peaks and is a warmish room temperature. Switch to the paddle attachment and beat in the butter, adding a few chunks at a time (I learned in class that OMG you don’t actually have to stand around and wait for each piece to get incorporated before adding another…what gives, Joe?) and beating until the mixture is homogenous and fluffy. Sprinkle in the strawberry ice cream and a little red food coloring (just a tiny droplet if it’s liquid and a couple blobs if it’s gel) and beat until completely combined. Spread on cooled cupcakes, sprinkle with small chunks of ice cream and decorate with little astronauts (rocketships are also acceptable).

I was originally going to make a French buttercream (made with egg yolks) for this out of a need to use them up, but I decided to switch to a Swiss meringue moments before I started it. Why? Color, my dears. As incredibly wonderful as egg yolks, sugar syrup and butter are, such a lovely unnatural pink color cannot be achieved without a whiter base. And Swiss meringue is just so gosh darn sturdy! Plus, I have a little something in mind for the leftover egg yolks now…and no, it’s not ice cream.

What I’m Competing For:

Our Generous IronCupcake:Earth Prize Providers:

• The Demy™ by Key Ingredient
• Hello, Cupcake by Karen Tack & Alan Richardson
• Bella Cupcake Couture
• Cupcake Stackers by Gourmac
• The Cake Mix Doctor Returns! by Anne Byrne

Swirly, speckled and cute.

Though I like the way chocolate-dipped meringues look, I think chocolate plus meringues would just be too sweet and might mask the delicate blend of spices and tea in the chai. So I used (what else) cacao nibs!

Sweet little kisses!

These took two batches to get right – partly because of the weather and partly because of the spice blend. I originally wrote out a recipe using the blend I made for my stupidly wonderful chai custard, but between the small quantities required for a recipe like this and the fact that the spices are consumed directly and not steeped in something, some of the flavors were overpowering. Just a tiny bit of star anise and two too many peppercorns turned the meringues astringent and overly-spicy. Not what I was going for.

They smelled goooood.

It was also still very wet out when I made the first batch and they ended up a little runny in the oven, with caramelized bottoms and a collapsible texture. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Tasted even better than they smelled.

So I tried again, leaving out the anise entirely, upping the allspice, reducing the pepper to one tiny white peppercorn for just a bit of spiciness, and baking them on the first of a stretch of drier, more summer-like days. Perfection ensued.

So sweet, so light.

Chocolate Chai Meringues

1. 1 pod green cardamom
2. 1 clove
3. 5 allspice berries
4. 1 white peppercorn
5. 1 tsp English breakfast tea (or other plain black tea)
6. 1/8 tsp cinnamon (freshly grated, if you have cinnamon sticks)
7. 3/4 cup sugar (I used 1/4 cup vanilla sugar but I don’t think it made a difference)
8. 3 egg whites, room temperature (preferably aged at least a day, too)
9. Handful or two of cacao nibs, for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 175 (or 200 if your oven doesn’t go that low). Smash open the cardamom pod and place the seeds in a mortar and pestle. Add the clove, allspice, peppercorn and tea and grind until roughly broken up but not pulverized. Combine the sugar, tea and all spices in a food processor or heavy-duty blender and grind until the sugar is a fine powder and the spices and tea are also powdered and fully incorporated. Wait for the powdered sugar dust to settle before you remove the lid – it’ll settle all over your kitchen in a thin sticky layer if you don’t (not to mention breathing sugar dust is not as delicious an idea as it sounds). Whip the egg whites into a foam and, while continuing to whip, gradually add the sugar mixture until fully incorporated, then continue to whip to stiff peaks. Transfer the meringue to a piping bag fitted with a star or round tip (I like star tips for meringues but round also makes for precious kisses). Pipe kisses onto a baking sheet lined with parchment or a Silpat. You may need to use two sheets. Sprinkle a few cacao nibs onto each kiss and allow to sit for 5-10 minutes before baking to allow a skin to develop on the meringue. Bake for one hour, or until the meringues are dry on top and somewhat hollow-feeling. Turn off the oven and let the meringues sit inside for another hour or two. If they seem like they might get overdone when you turn the oven off, prop the door open while the oven cools to allow the heat to dissipate faster. Once the meringues are set and cool you can just pop them off the baking sheet and seal in an airtight container for a couple weeks – just keep away from humidity lest they become sticky (though the nibs will help keep them from sticking to one another).

These were received as well as they possibly could be. I put them in a big brown box (meant for candy and other edibles) and tied it with a lovely ribbon. I love meringues because they are pretty much the only thing I make (besides sorbets) that I can honestly answer “yes!” to when people inevitably ask “these are low-calorie, right?” (And fat free, aside from whatever’s in the nibs…which are ALSO quite healthy if you think about it!)

I know it's not the best photo, but the cherries really were that dark. Yum, cherries!

Anyway, you probably want to hear about THESE cupcakes. Well, they’re very VERY nice. Full of flavors I adore – cherry, sage, brown butter, vanilla bean. Yum!

OMG CHERRY.

I’ve wanted to try the combination of cherry and sage for a little while and am glad I got such a great opportunity to put them together. The sage compliments the cherry in a way that gives it an almost umami sensation. (And would rock in a pie. That may be coming soon.)

Crumbling the fried sage into a sweet sage-y dust would also work here.

Brown butter is a natural pairing with both sage and vanilla…which also goes perfectly with cherry. The cake is a spongy, incredibly fragrant little morsel, holding a filling of chopped, sage-infused cherries. And the frosting has the perfect balance between fresh and candy cherry flavor, reminding me of Cherry Garcia ice cream (plus butter). I based the recipe off of this one I found at Baking Bites, swapping out the vanilla extract for a vanilla bean infused straight in the milk.

Though often I like cupcakes slightly refrigerated to firm them, this one is perfect at summer room temperature, frosting all gooey and cake squishy.

One-bite cupcakes are so adorable!

Cherry-Sage Cupcakes

First, Make the Vanilla-Brown Butter Cakes:

1. 3/4 cup + 1-2 Tbsp milk
2. 1 vanilla bean
3. 1/3 cup (2.67 oz.) butter, soft
4. 1 1/3 cup AP flour
5. 1 tsp baking powder
6. 1/4 tsp fine salt
7. 1 cup sugar
8. 2 eggs

Place the milk in a small saucepan. Split and scrape the vanilla bean. Add the seeds and pod to the saucepan and simmer over medium heat until it barely comes to a boil. Remove from heat, cover and steep at least 10 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium-low, occasionally swirling the saucepan gently, until the butter is amber and toasty but not burnt. Pour into a bowl to cool, gently scraping any browned but not blackened bits from the pan into the bowl with a spatula.

In a medium-large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Set aside. In a smaller bowl, whisk the butter, eggs and milk. Pour the wet mixture into the dry and stir until just combined. Fill lined muffin tins 3/4 full. Bake 10-15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of one comes out clean. Let cool in tins for a couple minutes, then remove to rack to fully cool before filling and frosting.

Next, Deal with the Cherries:

1. About 50 cherries, washed, drained & pitted
2. 1 Tbsp sugar
3. 3 large sage leaves, washed & dried

Chop half the cherries into large chunks, about three or four pieces for each cherry. Place the chopped cherries into a small saucepan and add the sugar. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring gently, until the sugar dissolves, then add the ssge. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the cherries are soft, infused with the sage scent and there is a thin cherry syrup in the bottom of the pan. Set aside to cool.

Puree the other half of the cherries in a blender or food processor. Strain the puree – you should have about 1/4 cup. Set aside (if you refrigerate the puree it will gel so don’t be alarmed if you have to finish the cupcakes later – you can warm the puree slightly before adding it to the frosting to relax it).

Then, Fill the Cupcakes:

1. Cupcakes
2. Sage-infused cherries

Cut a cone out of the middle of each cupcake and fill the cavities with the cherries. Trim the cone so that you have a thin-ish lid and place on top of cherries. Set aside and discard of inner cake scraps however you please.

Might As Well Fry That Sage:

1. Fresh sage leaves, rinsed & gently patted dry (you’ll need as many leaves as you have cupcakes, in corresponding sizes, plus a few extra)
2. Canola or safflower oil, for frying
3. Sugar, for dusting

Coat the bottom of a small frying pan with oil and place over high heat. Once hot, drop in sage leaves. Once bright green and stiff (up to 30 seconds) remove with a heatproof slotted spoon to paper towels. Gently blot and toss with sugar. Allow to cool fully.

Finally, Make That Frosting!:

1. 3 egg yolks, room temperature
2. 3 Tbsp water
3. 1/2 cup sugar
4. 1 cup (1/2 lb.) butter, soft & cut in Tbsp
5. 1/4 cup cherry puree
6. 1/4 tsp natural almond extract
7. Red gel food coloring

Whip yolks in a stand mixer on high for 5 minutes, until light & foamy. Meanwhile, cook the water and sugar in a small saucepan until it reaches 248. Turn off the mixture and drizzle some of the syrup in, then turn on to quickly incorporate. Repeat until all the sugar is incorporated and whip the mixture until it reaches room temperature. Switch to the paddle attachment and beat the butter in one piece at a time, waiting for each piece to be fully incorporated before adding the next. If it curdles at any time, just wait it out and it will eventually become smooth and fluffy again. Beat in the cherry puree, then add the almond extract and gradually beat in the coloring a little at a time until you are happy with the color. Transfer the frosting to a pastry bag fitted with your favorite tip and swirl onto the cupcakes. Top each with a sage leaf.

Our June ETSY PRIZE-PACK is from artists:

• A sweet cupcake ID bracelet by INSANEJELLYFISH, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5021935
• A delicious treat from CIRCLEMONKEY http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5335273
• a sweet surprise from Sweet Cuppin’ Cakes Cupcakery,http://www.acupcakery.com/
• PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5243382, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice – sweet!