Cake Batter & Crumbs

Baked Alaska

For a long time now, my husband has been begging me to make Baked Alaska. He had it while on a cruise many years ago and loved it. I knew the basic components to it were cake, ice cream, and meringue. Other than that I wasn't sure how to actually assemble it and bake without it collapsing into an sticky, ice cream mess in the oven.The trick, I discovered, is to be patient and let it chill in the freezer before popping it into the oven.

I made a deal with him that I would make it as long as he helped, and he happily agreed. He picked the flavor combinations of strawberry cake and French vanilla ice cream. In the end, this turned out to be one of the very best desserts I've ever made. Fresh out of the oven, the cake was warm; the ice cream was slightly soft, and the meringue just pulled it all together. We both sat eating it in amazement at how good it was when we were so unsure during the entire process. Now, of course, he wants to make it again and again.

Base - Strawberry Cake
courtesy of DanaP on this website

**I halved the recipe to make only one 8-inch cake.

2 cups, (270 g) Self rising Flour
3 eggs
1 cup, (112 g) Vegetable Oil
1 cup, (198 g) Sugar
1 Pkg. Strawberry Jello
1/2 cup, (114 g) Buttermilk
1 1/4 cup of  Strawberries , Pureed [As it turned out I had forgotten to buy strawberries so I used around 4-5 tablespoons of strawberry jam and it was perfect]

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 8 in round pans. Sift flour into a bowl , set aside in another bowl beat eggs then add oil, sugar, gelatin, and buttermilk. stir until well blended. Add flour to the mixture and blend.
Drain 1/4 cup of juice from berries and save for icing. fold in berries . pour in pans and bake for 25 to 30 min, or till browned. Turn out on a rack to cool.

Middle - Ice Cream

While the cake is cooling, prepare the ice cream. Line an 8-inch pan with foil. If your ice cream is very hard, soften it a little in the microwave so that you can spread it more easily. Spread 1/2 gallon of ice cream into the lined pan and place in the freezer for an hour.

Top - Meringue
8 egg whites
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
pinch of salt
1 cup, (198 g) white sugar                                

Beat egg whites with cream of tartar, salt and sugar until stiff peaks form.

Assemble

Place the cake on an oven-proof dish or baking pan and turn out the ice cream on top, flipping the ice cream pan on top of the cake and lifting it off. Peel off the foil. Pile the meringue on top of the ice cream and cake, carefully sealing all sides.

Place in freezer for 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).

Bake the Alaska on the lowest shelf, 8 to 10 minutes, or until meringue is lightly browned. Serve immediately.

Valentine's Cupcakes

For Valentine's week, we had a red/pink themed lunch at work where everyone brought a food item in those colors. I chose to make mini red velvet cupcakes -- although a snow storm kept me from going to work the actual day of the lunch, so I missed out!

Anyway, these mini cupcakes were supposed to be of the red velvet variety, but they came out more chocolaty brown -- still delicious, but certainly not the pretty red color I was aiming for. I take all blame though, as I thought the batter needed more chocolate than called for and I also used both regular baking cocoa and dark baking cocoa.  More chocolate on Valentine's Day isn't necessarily a bad thing, right? The batter at least was a lovely shade of deep red, though the final product was decidedly not. Although, I really do think that if you hold them up to the light and squint just right, you can see a slight red coloring!

Topping these little guys is the traditional cream cheese icing, tinted pink (to fit our red/pink theme, of course) and on the tippy top I placed a little conversational heart candy. This particular cupcake, of course went to my husband!

Red Velvet Cupcakes
Adapted from Martha Stewart's Red Velvet Cake recipe
Makes 48 mini cupcakes

• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 1/2 cups cake flour, not self-rising
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 cups canola oil
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons red food coloring
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup low-fat buttermilk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons white vinegar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line mini cupcake trays with liners. Set aside. Whisk together flour, salt, and cocoa in a medium bowl; set aside.
2. Mix sugar and oil on medium speed in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk until combined. Add eggs one at a time; mix well after each addition. Mix in food coloring and vanilla. Add flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with the buttermilk and beginning and ending with flour, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down sides of bowl as needed.
3. Stir together baking soda and vinegar in a small bowl. Add baking-soda mixture to batter, and mix on medium speed 10 seconds. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake until a cake tester inserted into centers comes out clean, 15 minutes. Let cool completely in pans on wire racks.

Cream Cheese Icing

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 (8-ounce) cream cheese, room temperature
• 2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• red/pink food coloring

Place butter in bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, and beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add cream cheese, and beat until well combined and fluffy, about 2 minutes more. Add sugar and vanilla, and beat until combined, about 2 minutes.

Very Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla & Blackberry Buttercream

I saw these gorgeous blackberries at the grocery store and tossed them in my cart without having any specific plans for them. I decided they would look beautiful sitting surrounded by rich buttercream on top of vanilla cupcakes.

I wasn't feeling stingy with the vanilla that day and used 3 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract in the batter. These cupcakes have a wonderful strong vanilla flavor and full dense texture.

So, what better to pair with a dense vanilla cupcake than a heavy, rich buttercream! This is a classic buttercream using egg yolks, butter, and sugar that I found in the Taste of Home Baking Book that my parents gave me for Christmas. Yum! I frosted the tops of the cupcakes with the vanilla buttercream.

...and..

To bring in the blackberry theme again, I took out around 3/4 cup of the buttercream and folded some blackberry preserves. The buttercream turned this amazing shade of light purple with little darker specks of dark blue/purple. Using a pastry bag I filled the centers of the cupcakes with the blackberry buttercream.

I kept these cupcakes in the fridge and they lasted a good week. Just remember to take them out a few minutes before devouring them. Mmmmmmmm.

Very Vanilla Cupcakes
Makes around 18 cupcakes

1½ sticks unsalted butter
1¾ cups sugar
3 large eggs
3 teaspoons pure vanilla
½ teaspoon salt
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
2½ cups flour
1 cup milk

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners.

Cream together butter and sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Whisk together all of the dry ingredients -- salt, baking powder and flour. Add the dry ingredients in 3 batches, alternating with milk. Mix on low speed just until combined and then on medium for 2 minutes.

Divide batter evenly among cups. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick into center comes out clean.

Cool on wire rack.

Classic Buttercream

1 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
6 egg yolks, lightly beaten
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups butter, softened

6 tablespoons confectioners' sugar

In a heavy saucepan, bring sugar and water to a boil; cook over medium-high heat until sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat. Add a small amount of hot mixture to egg yolks; return all to the pan, stirring constantly. Cook 2 minutes longer or until mixture thickens, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat; stir in vanilla. Cool to room temperature.

In a mixing bowl with the whisk attachment, cream butter until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Gradually beat in cooked sugar mixture. Beat in confectioners' sugar until fluffy, about 5 minutes. If necessary, refrigerate until frosting reaches spreading consistency. Store in the refrigerator. Yield: 3 cups.

Blackberry Buttercream

Using around 3/4 cup of the classic buttercream, fold in 1-2 tablespoons of blackberry preserves.