Lemon Angel Food Cupcakes

 

 

A few weeks ago, I was feeling very devilish when I bought a 6-pack of Crumbs cupcakes.  All six weren’t for me, but I may have eaten the lion’s share.  Hence, my feeling sinful.  I didn’t go to confession over this transgression but I did start thinking about making my own delicious but not so “bad for you” cupcake.  I didn’t know what sort of flavor cupcake I wanted to bake.  I wasn’t sure if I would make a buttercream or cream cheese frosting.  I only knew it had to be yummy.  Time passed and I started thinking about a cake from a bakery in Pelham Manor, NY.  The bakery is near my home in the Bronx, and used to bake the most delicious brownies and cakes I had and have ever tasted.  Two cakes in particular were so delicious that when asked what I wanted for a birthday gift, I said year after year that I wanted either the bakery’s Oreo cake or their strawberry banana cake. No gifts necessary, just the joy of eating a big slice of one of those cakes was celebration enough.  Unfortunately, several years ago the bakery closed then opened again under new management.  New management, made less than perfect brownies and didn’t make my beloved birthday cakes at all!  So all I’ve thought about for years is how I could recreate one of those cakes.

The strawberry banana was my favorite.  It was two layers of soft, light, moist cake with bits of strawberry and banana in cream slathered between them. On top was more cream studded with whole strawberries.  Each bite sort of melted in my mouth, leaving me only wanting more.  Are you picking up what I’m putting down yet?  This was the best cake EVER!  I started looking online for similar recipes so I could bring some strawberry banana joy back into my life.  I found a couple that sounded like they would come close to my cake.  I soon realized the cake was probably an angel food cake because it was so light and moist.  Too many recipes used banana creme pudding, but I knew the filling wasn’t a pudding.  This cake was all about the whipped cream.  Finally I settled on a recipe, bought the berries and banana, a carton of heavy cream, then remembered I didn’t own 9-inch cake pans.  I don’t own any round cake pans.  I have plenty of  rectangle pans of varying sizes, but I really didn’t want a sheet cake  of two different sizes.  All wasn’t lost.  I decided to make cupcake versions of this elusive cake.  I found a recipe that sounded good on cookinglight.com no less.  I figured that meant I could eat about half a batch and still feel angelic.

I followed the cupcake recipe exactly (even sifting the flour and sugar 3 times to ensure a light airy cake), but I used the whipped cream topping with fruit folded in that I remember from my favorite cake.  The lemon rind in the batter makes for a fragrant and delicious cake and the whipped cream is so refreshing. Remember that angel food cake has no butter, shortening, or oil in it and there is just a little sugar in it and the whipped cream.  You probably shouldn’t eat half the batch in one sitting, but you can definitely Enjoy!

 

 

Makes 16 cupcakes. 

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes: Cupcake Recipe from Cooking Light

• 1/2  cup  cake flour (about 2 ounces)
• 3/4  cup  powdered sugar
• 3/4  cup  egg whites (about 5 large eggs)
• 1/8  tspn  salt
• 3/4  tspn  cream of tartar
• 1/2  cup  granulated sugar
• 1/2  tspn  vanilla extract
• 2  tspns  grated lemon rind

For the whipped topping:

• 1/4 lb Strawberries
• 1 Banana
• 1 cup Heavy Cream
• 2 Tbs. Powdered Sugar
• 1 tspn. vanilla extract

 

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Place 16 paper muffin cup liners in muffin cups. Set aside.
3. Lightly spoon cake flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Sift together flour and 3/4 cup powdered sugar into a medium bowl; repeat the procedure 2 times.
4. Beat egg whites and salt with a mixer at high speed until frothy (about 1 minute). Add cream of tartar, and beat until soft peaks form. Add 1/2 cup granulated sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until stiff peaks form. Sprinkle flour mixture over egg white mixture, 1/4 cup at a time; fold in after each addition. Stir in vanilla and rind.
5. Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups. Bake at 350° for 18 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from pan; let cool completely on a wire rack.

Make the whipped topping:

1. Mix cream in stand mixer or with hand mixer on high until it just starts to thicken.  Add in sugar and vanilla, and continue mixing until thick stiff peaks form.  Do not over mix cream as it will start to resemble butter.
2. Thoroughly rinse strawberries then hull them (remove the green tops). Roughly chop strawberries, reserving about 4 whole strawberries for topping. Peel and dice banana. Gently fold chopped fruit into whipped cream.
3. Pipe or spread whipped cream on top of cupcakes.
4. Thinly slice reserved strawberries, and use slices to top cupcakes.

 

TIPS: 

The trick to getting the cream to whip up thick quickly is to put the mixing bowl and whisk in the fridge or freezer before using.  As long as the cream is very cold from the fridge, though, your whipped cream will turn out fine.

The whipped cream and fruit can be piped out of a pastry bag using a large piping tip to allow fruit to pass through. I just used a spatula to spread it on the cupcakes and think that works fine for a casual look.

Cupcakes must be refrigerated and will keep for 1 day. These are best served the same day they are made, but the cupcakes could be stored unfrosted. Refrigerate the whipped cream without any fruit in an air tight container, and assemble everything before serving.

I bought the stand alone cupcake liners from Marshall’s for only a couple bucks.  They worked pretty well for not being in a cupcake pan. Contact the company to find retailers near you @ Cupcake Creations.

Chocolate and Butterscotch Chip Cookies (Cozy Comfort Food part 2)

An after-school snack, perfect picnic dessert, holiday treat- these are just a few of the things I think of when I think about chocolate chip cookies. Oh, and I think of them often. That’s why I decided they should be included in my comfort food recipe collection this week. Just the sight, scent or thought of them can put a smile on most people’s faces. Whether they’re from a packaged supermarket brand, a frozen tube of dough, or fresh from the bakery, I love chocolate chip cookies.   A few years ago, though, I wanted to master homemade cookies that I could eat all by myself  share with family and friends. Once again, the Martha Stewart Living Annual Recipes 2003 Cookbook came to my rescue. This recipe is pretty simple and is a good base for adding other ingredients like chopped nuts.  With the relatively large amount of butter these cookies will be thin and crispy making them the perfect cookie for dipping in milk. Click Here For Soft Chewy Cookie Recipe  I almost forgot to mention the butterscotch chips. Mmmm mmm mmm. Okay I mentioned them. Kidding, they can be found in the baking aisle of most grocery stores, but if you can’t find them, this recipe is perfect with the chocolate morsels alone.

4 notes:

• If you don’t have a mixer or don’t really feel like lugging out your stand mixer, the batter can be prepared by hand (the way your mother did with a spoon) pretty quickly and easily.
• Margarine can be substituted for the butter
• If you’re like me and always forget to take the butter out of the refrigerator beforehand so it can be room temperature, you can microwave it for about 20 seconds.  Just soften the butter, don’t melt it.
• Because these cookies  will spread in the oven, they bake quickly. They should be ready in 8-10 mins, not 12 (sorry Martha).

Recipe from Martha Stewart Living Annual Recipes 2003.

Makes about 4 dozen

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) butter, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup butterscotch chips
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, and set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about three minutes. Add eggs and vanilla; beat until well combined. Add the flour mixture all at once, and beat until just combined. Stir in chips.
3. Drop tablespoons of batter onto prepared baking sheets, two inches apart. Bake until golden brown, about 12 minutes (more like 10 mins.). Transfer to a wire rack to cool on baking sheet, one minute, then transfer cookies to rack to cool slightly. Repeat until all batter has been used.

 

Cherry Cheesecake redux (filed under Serendipity)

Okay, if you are reading this post, then you just found out that I am not perfect.  Alright you may not have just found that out. You learned I burned the heck out of my gingersnap cookie crust for the cherry cheesecake http://wp.me/p17DQY-2Q  and were curious to see how I recovered from such a blunder. Well, voila!!!

Like a trooper, I went back into the kitchen and started over, sort of.  There was no need to make another cheesecake because the filling came out perfectly sweet, creamy, and smooth.  The only problem was the cajun crust that could have been used as a doorstop. Okay so I gathered my ramekins and dessert dishes and tried to recover this cheesecake.

I sprayed non-stick cooking spray into 6-7 oz ramekins. Then I crumbled 2-3 vanilla wafer cookies into the ramekins and baked the wafer cookie crust in a 300 degree oven for about 10 minutes just until the crust was set.

Once the crust was set, I used an ice cream scooper to place 2 scoops of the Cherry Cheesecake in the ramekins and almost forgot about the previous cheesecake incarnation because these looked so darn cute.

If  something like this happens to you, and you don’t even want to look at the oven, you don’t have to.  I also crumbled some wafer cookies into ice cream dishes and scooped the cheesecake on top of that.  That was just as cute and yummy.  One could also layer a bit of cheesecake with ice cream in a dessert dish like a trifle or parfait.