Cream-Filled Vanilla Cupcakes With Strawberry Buttercream

The flu hit our house like a ton of bricks this week and it hasn't been fun. Lily turned into a snot-machine (a cute snot machine, but still!) and all mama and daddy could do was pass each other some Kleenex and Theraflu and snuggle in bed all day long singing her favorite songs off-key.

Oh, and during those magic times when the drugs kicked in, we baked cupcakes. The cupcakes weren't actually for us, though. They went to a bridal shower for my sister's best friend, whom I've known since she was four years old. Sometimes, when I look at her, all grown up, engaged, almost married, I still see the four year old who helped me tease my sister mercilessly. (Well, she still does that. Good to know that some things don't change, huh!) So when I promised to bake her some cupcakes, I knew that these had to be special. I picked a simple Martha Stewart recipe for cupcakes, but then -- oh, then! -- I filled them with rich pastry cream and topped them with even richer strawberry buttercream made with fresh strawberries and the best butter I could find. Oh YEAH.

What can I tell you? These were really good! Actually, people at the bridal shower were asking my sister (I couldn't go - damn flu!) whether I had quit my job at the law firm to open a cupcake shop. Hehehe. The cupcakes had a nice, light crumb, and weren't too sweet - which is exactly what I was looking for. It's a great basic cupcake recipe that lets you play with fillings and toppings. I definitely recommend it!

Vanilla Cupcakes
(Makes 24 cupcakes) [made about 27 for me, but I didn't overfill]
(Martha Stewart)

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups milk
Pastry Cream (I used the Tartine recipe for light pastry cream)
Strawberry Buttercream (recipe below)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two standard 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners; set aside. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside. Cream butter and sugar on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing well after each egg. Add vanilla. Reduce speed to medium. Mix in 3 batches of flour mixture, alternating with 2 batches of milk. Raise speed to medium-high; mix until thoroughly blended, 10 to 20 seconds.

Fill each muffin cup about 3/4 full with batter. Bake until a cake tester inserted into centers comes out clean, about 17 minutes. Let cool in tin on wire racks 10 minutes. Remove cupcakes from tin and decorate.

If filling with cream, use a small spoon or the tip of a knife to make a small hole in the center of each cupcake, going about half way through the cupcake. Fill the hole with cream and then pipe buttercream on top.

Strawberry Buttercream
2 sticks (16 tbsp) of butter, room temperature
1 cup strawberries, pureed (I measured out the strawberries first and then pureed them)
3-4 cups powdered sugar

Cream the butter in the mixer on medium-high speed for about 3 minutes. On slow speed, gradually add about 2 cups of powdered sugar and turn back up to high for a few minutes to really incorporate the sugar. Turn to slow speed again and fold in the strawberries. Add more sugar until desired consistency is achieved. Once all the sugar is incorporated, turn to medium-high for a few minutes to mix well.

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Kahlua Chocolate Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake

So it turns out that babies are kind of needy (who knew?!) and it took this mama a whole five and a half months to get back into the kitchen. I assure you, nothing less than the promise of alcohol and chocolate could have done it, both alcohol and chocolate being essential parts of the unofficial "Mommy Survival Pack." Earplugs and grandparents are also part of that pack, in case you were wondering. (haha, hi Mom and Dad!)

I have to warn you right off the bat - this cake uses *sounds of horror* the Dreaded Cake Mix of Dread. So, if you are a cake purist, avert your eyes now! Before I had a kid, I swore that I'd never use cake mix, but when your little helper insists on eating your utensils, it's either that or no cake at all, and believe me when I tell you that this cake is so worth it. The recipe comes courtesy of a fancy restaurant in LA which my mom and I went to on one of my "leave the baby to fend for herself with Daddy" excursions. I generally don't ask for recipes from chefs, especially at nice restaurants, because it feels somehow very personal, like asking to see someone's diary. Yet, this cake was so deliciously rich, with just the right undertones of coffee and liqueur enveloping your taste buds in moist, silky, slightly bitter chocolaty heaven, that I braved my own shyness and asked. The pastry chef actually came out to us and we chatted for a while, and she hand wrote this recipe for me. Frankly, I was amazed at her graciousness and warmth as she talked about the recipe, the restaurant and herself to two total strangers. I guess that experience adds a special richness to this cake, because being given something as a gift elevates it from a merely excellent cake to a lovely memory.

Kahlua Chocolate Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake
(makes 1 bundt cake, 2 9" round cakes or 24 cupcakes)

1 box Duncan Hines Devil's Food Cake mix (or any other chocolate cake mix)
3 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup (8 oz) full fat sour cream
1 cup Kahlua
8 oz bittersweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F and butter a bundt cake pan really well.

In a large mixer bowl, combine cake mix, eggs, vegetable oil, sour cream and Kahlua. Mix on slow speed for 30 seconds and then on medium-fast for 2 minutes.

Stir in chocolate chips.

Bake for 45-60 min for bundt cake; 25-35 min for 9" cakes; 20-25 min for cupcakes. Check that a tester comes out clean or with only a few crumbs attached. It's ok to slightly underbake this cake, but do not overbake.

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The Perfect Breakfast Muffin

For some time now, I've been on a quest to discover the perfect breakfast muffin. Though I love the rich, buttery taste of a good cafe muffin as much as the next girl, and much more so with a good sprinkling of streusel and sparkly sugar on top, I don't want to eat this every day. Maybe I've grown up (oh, these dreaded words) and maybe I've just become more picky about what I put in my body and when, but for breakfast, I want something that's not only good, but also that's good for me.

People, oh, people. These are the proverbial IT. When I took the first hot muffin out of the oven, soft and sweet-smelling, deeply golden and flecked with dark, jewel-like nuggets of cranberries, and when I took that first bite, chasing it with a cool gulp of fresh milk, I had to sit down for a moment because I was a little overwhelmed by how much I loved these.

It's the whole package, the earthiness of whole-wheat flour, the complex not-too-sweet sweetness of brown sugar, and that smell - the homey, vanilla-y, spicy smell of a freshly baked muffin. It got to me. I'm sold. Bring it on. (In the interest of full disclosure, I have to tell you that I immediately ate three. These are addictive, especially when warm.)



The Perfect Breakfast Muffin
Hacked quite a bit from Gourmet, May 1998
Makes 18 muffins

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cups sugar (1/3 brown, 1/3 white)
1/4 pound carrots (about 2/2.5 cups, coarsely shredded)
1/2 cup pecans, roughly chopped
1/2 cup raisins, dried cranberries, dried cherries or chopped dried apricots
3 large eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup plain yogurt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large apple (coarsely shredded) [I used Gala]

Preheat oven to 350°F. and butter or line eighteen muffin cups.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt, and then whisk in the sugars.

Coarsely shred the carrots and chop the pecans. Add the carrots, pecans and dried fruit to the flour mixture and toss well.

In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil, yogurt and vanilla extract. Peel and core the apple and coarsely shred. Stir the shredded apple into the egg mixture and then add to the flour mixture, stirring until batter is just combined well and there aren't any large dry spots.

Divide batter among muffin cups and bake until puffed and golden and the tester comes out clean, 15-20 minutes (I had to bake for 25).

Cool muffins in cups on racks 5 minutes before turning out onto racks to cool completely. Muffins keep in an airtight container at room temperature 5 days [I also flash freeze mine in a tray and then drop into a large freezer bag so I can take one out for breakfast every day].

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Nutty, Chocolaty, Swirly Sour Cream Bundt Cake

There is a reason I come back to Dorie Greenspan's "Baking" again and again. It's not only because the recipes are simple, easy to understand, charming and delicious. On a basic level, I love this book because the recipes always work. After a disaster with [unnamed magazine]'s recipe for cookies which looked and tasted like cardboard, and chocolate ganache which was so sweet that I had to throw away the whole batch (throw away a batch of cookies! nooo!), I felt in need of some therapy, so I sidled up to "Baking," stroked the cover lovingly and opened it to the bundt cake page.

Now, there was no photo of this bund cake in the book. I think it was a deliberate ploy to give your imagination room to run free, because when I saw the name, "Nutty, chocolaty, swirly sour cream bundt cake," my mind kind of exploded into bliss and I had to take a moment to calm myself down before running to the kitchen to take the butter out of the refrigerator.

Holy bundt cake, GOOD LORD YES. This cake was everything I had dreamt of and more. I used to think that bundt cakes were dry and boring, in need of coffee or tea to choke them down. The error of my ways is clear to me now. Dry? Boring??? This cake is anything but. The smell alone is enough to drive anyone crazy, and the taste, with the orange and the sour cream and the chocolate and the pecans/raisins/cinnamon trifecta, and mmmmm..... so much happiness.

Nutty, Chocolaty, Swirly Sour Cream Bundt Cake
Dorie Greenspan's Baking

The Swirl
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (or 1/3 c. mini chocolate chips)
1/3 cup plump moist raisins (dark or golden, or may use dried currants)
2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
freshly grated nutmeg, a pinch
salt, a pinch

The Cake
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 orange, zest of
8 ounces butter, at room temperature (2 sticks)
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream
powdered sugar, for dusting

Position oven rack in center; preheat oven to 350°; butter a 9- to 10-inch Bundt pan, dust the interior with flour and tap out the excess; do not place the Bundt pan on a baking sheet.

Make the swirl: add all the ingredients to a bowl; stir to mix.

Make the cake: whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl. Working in the bowl of a stand mixer, rub the sugar and zest together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and aromatic. Add in the butter; with the paddle or whisk attachment beat on medium speed for 4 minutes.

Add in eggs one at a time, beat for 1 minute after each egg goes inches. Beat in the vanilla; decrease mixer speed to low and mix in the sour cream. Still on low speed, add in the dry ingredients and mix only until they disappear into the batter.

Give the batter a last stir or two with a rubber spatula, then scoop about 1/3 of the batter into the Bundt pan. Evenly sprinkle on half of the swirl mixture, then spoon in the rest of the batter. Make a shallow indentation with the back of a spoon in the center of the ring of batter and fill it with the remaining swirl mixture, then cover the mixture lightly with the batter on the sides of the indentation—the batter probably won’t cover the mixture completely and that is fine.

Bake for 60-65 minutes, or until a pick comes out clean.

Transfer pan to a rack and let the cake rest for 10 minutes before unmolding it onto the rack to cool to room temperature. Just before serving, dust the cake with powdered sugar.

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Cornbread

I have a small confession to make. *Deep breath* I don't really like traditional Texan cornbread. You know, the kind that's made entirely with cornmeal and has like one teaspoon of sugar, if that? The kind made in a cast iron pan with a healthy slather of bacon grease? Yeah, that kind. It turns out that I'm a California girl to the tips of my toes and I need the sweet cushioning of flour and sugar, and the thought of bacon grease scares me more than just a little. Look, we all have our faults, ok? Count this as one of mine. You still love me, right?

If you're like me, this cornbread is the recipe for you. It's soft, moist and yet sturdy enough to cut into squares - though I do advise you to make those squares larger rather than smaller; it's just "corny" enough, especially with the addition of sweet corn kernels; and its sweetness is there, but just hanging out in the background, making this cornbread a perfect vehicle to sweep up some tangy sauce at a summer BBQ.

Last but not least, this recipe's beguiling simplicity (a five minute mixing effort with a wooden spoon) creates a platform for ideas to run free. If you're a real Texan, you might want to turn away now, because I know this will hurt you. I dreamed of adding roasted and chopped poblano peppers to the batter, of spicing it up with jalapenos or throwing in little delicious salty nuggets of pancetta, and maybe, just maybe swirling in some softened goat cheese. I don't know what ideas I will come up with for a second rendition of this cornbread - all I know is that I'm making a double batch and not looking back.

Cathy Justice's Best of Show Blue Ribbon Cornbread
via Dorie Greenspan

1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/16 teaspoon salt (I used 1/2 tsp.)
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg, slightly beaten
3/4 cup canola oil
1 cup sweet corn kernels

Heat oven to 425F and prepare an 8x8 baking pan.

In a large bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients. In a smaller bowl (I used a measuring cup), whisk together all the wet ingredients until smooth. Pour over the dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon or a spatula only until the dry ingredients are moistened. Batter will be lumpy, but that's ok. Gently stir in corn kernels.

Pour out into the baking pan and bake for 30 minutes, until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

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Mixed-Berry Muffins and a Blog-a-birthday

Have you ever noticed that time has a sneaky way of moving forward? Like one day, it's Thanksgiving, and the next day, you wake up and it's the middle of February and your blog has turned two years old? No? Well, that just totally happened to me. And to celebrate, I decided to bake blueberry and raspberry muffins.

I'm not really strict about my breakfast being, well, breakfast. I don't mind a cinnamon bun or a leftover slice of cake with a glass of milk. Sure, I'd like to pretend that I eat healthy granola with skim milk as my first meal of the day, but most of the times, that just doesn't happen, so after a while of it not happening, I just embraced indulging myself a little in the mornings. I hear indulging yourself is the new black this season (and if it isn't... well, it SHOULD be!)

These muffins are a perfect little indulgence. They are delightfully soft, lightly sweet, and I can see them being a breakfast companion as well as taking center stage as mini-muffins for a brunch or a shower party. They are certainly pretty and festive, perfect slightly warm and with a tall glass of milk, and they make me smile in the mornings. Next week - next week I'll go back to yogurts and granolas and fruit - but for now, during my blog-a-birthday week, I can't think of a better way to start my day than a warm little nugget of cake studded with sweet berries and aromatic with vanilla.

Mixed-Berry Muffins
adapted from the Magnolia Bakery Cookbook
makes 12-16 muffins

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups buttermilk (or whole milk)
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups mixed berries (I used blueberries and raspberries)

Preheat oven to 350F and prepare 12-16 muffin cups.

Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and whisk together. Make a well in the center and stir in the wet ingredients until just combined (do not overmix). The batter will be lumpy, but that's ok.

Toss the berries with a little bit of flour, just to coat, and gently fold into the batter. Divide between the muffin cups and bake for 20-30 minutes, until the tops are very lightly golden and a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out with moist crumbs attached. Do not overbake

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Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Hello loyal readers! This is Irene's little sis, dropping by for a guest post. As you can imagine, having an incredibly talented sister who forces you to taste-test her mouth-watering creations is a tough job, but someone's gotta do it, right? In all honesty, I have always been amazed by my sister's ability to juggle being not only a lawyer, wife, sister and daughter but also history buff, chef and artist. She continues to inspire me to test my own limits, which of course extends into my most recent venture into the world of cooking! [Ed. note: in the interests of modesty, I wanted to take this part out, but... vanity prevailed :)]

Ok, enough gushing about Irene. Let's talk about what really matters: me...oh wait, I mean...food. As a future doctor and an avid runner, I am very passionate about health, but I also love yummy food. It turns out the two actually go hand in hand! A few weeks ago, I developed an all-consuming, wake-you-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night craving for banana bread, but resisted baking any because a) I was too lazy and b) I was a little worried about my restraint around a batch of freshly baked banana bread (I'm not a saint here people!). Enter my sister! After I confessed my unrelenting craving to Irene over the phone, she immediately invited me over to her house for a baking session, with a twist. Knowing me as well as she does, she suggested that we "healthify" our banana bread by modifying a recipe she found online.

And that is how our delectable, indulgent, guilt-free banana bread recipe was born! While my first impulse was to replace all of the tasty (aka unhealthy) ingredients with their healthier counterparts, my sister gently urged me to consider substituting only half of each ingredient. Having learned through many past experiences that the advice of my older, wiser sister will never steer me wrong, I quickly obliged and followed along with her suggestion. Best.Decision.Ever. If any baked good could solve our economic crisis or fix the health care system, it would be this banana bread. Ok, a little dramatic? Let's just say thoughts of banana bread are no longer waking me up in the middle of the night, but instead are gently lulling me to sleep and keeping me safe and warm at night. Still too dramatic? It's THAT good! I'll let my sister take over with the details because, let's face it, I mainly sat around eating chocolate chips and gossiping as she did the measuring, mixing and cleaning. [Ed. note: hehehe, I so totally made her do the dishes.]

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
adapted from http://gourmeted.com/2009/02/21/thesss-nanas-banana-bread/

As you can imagine, the original version of this bread is pretty darn good. Believe it or not, our alterations (less butter, less sugar, whole wheat flour, buttermilk instead of cream) didn't change the taste one little bit, except to make the texture even softer. How can something with so little butter taste so awesome? I have no idea, but it did. We were really good about making the substitutions, too... until, that is, we threw in the giant chocolate chips. :)

2.5 tbsp (34 g) butter
34g unsweetened apple sauce
1/3 cup granulated sugar (or Splenda for baking)
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
2 egg whites
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups mashed, very ripe bananas (about 4 medium bananas)
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole-wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup large bittersweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F and prepare a 9x5x3 loaf pan.

With a hand mixer, beat the butter in a large bowl with the apple sauce until light and fluffy. Add the sugars and beat well to incorporate. Add the egg, egg whites and vanilla and beat to blend.

Mash the bananas really well and add, beating for 30 seconds on high speed to blend.

Whisk all the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl an add to the banana mixture, alternating with the buttermilk (add half of the dry ingredients, beat just to blend, add buttermilk, beat just to blend, add the rest of the dry ingredients and beat just to blend). Do not overmix. Mix in the chocolate chips.

Pour batter evenly into the prepared pan. Bake until browned on top and a tester inserted into the middle comes out clean, 1 hour to 1 hr and 15 minutes (ours baked slightly longer than that, but start checking at the hour mark).

Cool completely and serve (the banana bread will be too soft to cut into when hot). The original recipe recommends that you give this bread a rest overnight, but I can't tell you if that's a good idea or not - our loaf didn't make it that far.

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Amazing Spiced Pumpkin Bread

Guys, I've always been straight up with you, right? This thing we have here, you and you and you and me, it's a relationship based on trust, right? So trust me now when I tell you - this is the pumpkin bread dreams are made of.

I won't beat around the bush - if you're not fond of pumpkin-based sweets, try to fast forward yourself to about Christmas, when it's cold for real and chocolate is the only answer. But if you crave that subtle, golden sweetness that pumpkin brings to desserts, if you love the way it makes quickbreads taste undeniably - but not overwhelmingly - of fall and hearth, of gently falling leaves and crisp blue skies, this is the pumpkin bread for you.

I felt a bit like a witch mixing up this bread. It really doesn't take very long, but the spirit of Halloween was in me, with the orange batter and all, and I kind of prolonged the pleasure by singing "double double toil and trouble" while stirring. I also pretended that the toasted walnuts and dates were eye of newt and [unmentionable] part of frog... that got me some reeeeally weird looks from A. You would think he'd be used to it by now! Seriously, though, please please make this bread. It's soft, it's moist, it's fragrant and goes amazingly with a cup of tea or coffee. And, as an added bonus, it's dairy free. I mean, it just doesn't get any better than this.

Spiced Pumpkin Bread
adapted very lightly from Bon Appetit, Nov. 1995
(makes two loaves)

1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs, room temperature
16 oz. pumpkin puree
3 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, toasted (optional)
1 cup coarsely chopped pitted dates

Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare two 9x5x3-inch loaf pans.

Whisk the sugars and oil in large bowl to blend. Make sure to get at all the clumps of sugar. Whisk in eggs and then pumpkin puree until the batter is uniform and all the ingredients are thoroughly combined.

In another bowl, whisk flour, spices, baking soda, baking powder and salt to combine. Stir into pumpkin mixture in 2 additions, folding only until the flour disappears. Stir in chopped dates and walnuts.

Divide batter equally between prepared pans. Bake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes. Transfer to racks and cool 10 minutes (this is an important step because the bread is too soft to cut right out of the oven and will break - ask me how I know). Turn loaves out onto racks and cool completely. (You can eat one loaf and freeze the other - I generally slice the bread and then triple wrap in plastic wrap. That way, I can just toast the slices and it's ready to go).

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Banana-Poppy Seed Muffins

I want to share some wonderful news with you - last week, I became an aunt of a beautiful baby girl! She has ten perfect fingers and ten perfect toes and is otherwise absolutely adorable, squeezable and kissable. And she already likes her auntie, which she demonstrated by not screaming her head off when I picked her up. That scored some big brownie points in my book.

My favorite thing to bring to new moms is food. I figure that by the time I get there, the baby clothes cuteness is wearing a bit thin and a hot dinner is more welcome than another pink onesie. Although, I do have to admit that the charm of pink onesies cannot be denied.

I looked through my cookbooks for just the right thing to make, and when I came across these muffins, I knew that this was "it." Everyone likes banana muffins, and the poppy seeds give them an interesting twist that keeps the bit of crunch without making me worry about nut allergies. The addition of whole wheat flour and four bananas keep them on the healthier side, hearty enough for breakfast or just a snack while still moist and delicious. Lastly, I was attracted to the fact that, if wrapped individually, these muffins can be thrown into the freezer - a quick reheat in the microwave or toaster oven and you have a freshly baked muffin anytime you want. I might just be tempted to make another dozen or two for myself!

Banana-Poppy Seed Muffins
from my favorite cookbook of the moment, Once Upon a Tart (it's wonderful, seriously)

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
1/2 cup of sugar
4 very ripe bananas, mashed (the authors emphasize that the bananas must be very ripe, even black)
2 large eggs
1/4 cup cold milk
2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 400F and butter or spray 12 regular or 6 extra large muffin cups.

Whisk the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt and poppy seeds together in a medium bowl.

In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar until very light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the mashed bananas and continue mixing on high until the bananas are blended in completely. Lower the speed to low and mix in the eggs, one at a time, until incorporated (about a minute), and then mix in the milk and the vanilla.

Gradually add in the dry ingredients just until the flour disappears - do not overmix.

Divide the batter among the muffin cups and bake for 30-40 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.

To freeze, allow muffins to cool to room temperature. Then wrap each individually in two layers of plastic wrap. Alternatively, set the unwrapped muffins on a tray and freeze for an hour or so (flash freeze), and then store in a freezer-safe ziplock bag. As far as I can tell, they will keep for about 2 months.

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Cherry Coffee Cake

Before I go on a trip, I like to cook what I call "clean the refrigerator" meals. In my head, I pretend that I'm being inspired by my ingredients, but really, I'm just in a mad rush to use up everything because I hate seeing food go to waste. I've actually been pretty good about it this week, so today, the tally of perishables in my refrigerator was: half a bag of cherries, two eggs and some milk on the bottom of the carton. HMMMMMM.......... Can you guess what I made with it?

Tomorrow, we are leaving for a whole week to a place where I anticipate reading at least three big, fat books and not wearing real shoes. It may not be everyone's idea of a perfect vacation, but I can't wait. I made this coffee cake to take with us on the drive, but the smell was so divine, so golden sweet and promising with its subtle notes of vanilla and baked cherries, and the crumb was so fine and so light, that we kind of ate half of it right away, hardly waiting for it to cool. Oops. I'm not sorry, though -- it was totally worth it. Have a lovely week, everyone! If there's an internet connection, I promise to check in!

Cherry Coffee Cake
via A Series Of Kitchen Experiments (check it out - wonderful blog! I simplified the recipe a little, so if you want to do the original recipe, please follow the link!)

1 and 1/2 cup of fresh cherries, halved and pitted
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
2 cups of all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
a pinch of salt
3/4 cup of butter, softened
3/4 cup of sugar
2 Eggs
1/2 cup of milk

Preheat the oven to 350F and spray or butter an 8x8 square baking pan.

Pit and halve the cherries and set aside. Cream the butter and sugar together until very light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Add in eggs one at a time and beat briefly, just to to combine. Add in vanilla extract and beat briefly to combine.

Whisk the flour, salt and baking powder together. With the mixer on low speed (or with a wooden spoon), add half the flour mixture and mix just to incorporate the flour. Do not over-mix the dough. Add milk and mix to combine. Add the rest of the flour mixture and mix just to incorporate all the ingredients together.

Carefully, fold in the cherries.

Bake for 45-60 minutes, until the edges are golden and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

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Strawberry Scones

Do you know what I love about scones?

1. One bowl, one spoon, your hands. Yep, I love anything that requires less than three utensils. What can I say, I'm a wuss when it comes to washing the dishes!
2. Anyone can do it. Scones were probably my first ever baking project (that turned out successfully - we won't talk about what came before that, it ain't pretty). Maybe that's why I have a soft spot for them.
3. Quick and freezable. Can I tell you, it takes me about 3 minutes to put scones together, and I can make a big batch and freeze half for unexpected company. Now that's what I call a totally awesome recipe!
4. Hello, delicious! Strawberry, blueberry, raisin, buttermilk, cheddar, herb, and just plain, they are all winners to me. My name is Irene and I'm a scone-aholic.

Because you guys are really important to me, I suffered on your behalf and tried out about six different scone recipes. There were cream scones from Dorie Greenspan's Baking and buttermilk currant scones from Tartine. There were non-traditional scones with eggs and scones so dry I had to practically drown them in Devonshire cream and lemon curd (it was terrible, I'm still scarred). However, one emerged victorious, and it was, strangely, not from a cookbook or an award-winning chef, but one that was hidden in a dark corner of my recipe binder, given to me years ago by a friend. The paper, bent into quarters from being tucked into the pocket of my jeans, just said: "Strawberry scones," followed by a few lines of instruction. I was intrigued. I was curious. And after I made them, I was sold. This is hands down the best scone I have ever tasted, anywhere.

Tender, moist (even on the second day!) and delicately sweet, studded with ruby red strawberries and sparkling with a simple topping of vanilla sugar, oh, these made me so happy! I used buttermilk, which gave them a nice tang to contrast with the sweetness of the strawberries, but I would love a re-match with blueberries and cream or cherries with a sprinkling of cornmeal. There are six left in the freezer now. Do you think I can count myself as "unexpected company"?


Strawberry Scones
(makes 6 large scones or 12 minis)

1 cup strawberries (or other fruit)
3 tablespoons sugar (granulated)
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter, in cubes, slightly softened
2/3 cup half-and-half or cream or cold buttermilk

Topping:
1 tablespoon sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a cookie sheet.

If using larger fruit, cut into bite-sized pieces. Sprinkle fruit with 1/2 tablespoon sugar; set aside. Be sure to make the pieces small, or they tend to fall out of the dough. They'll still be plenty prominent in your finished scones.

Combine remaining sugar with flour, baking powder and salt. Add butter, using a pastry cutter or 2 knives to cut in butter (you may want to use your fingers to be sure butter is evenly mixed into flour). Stir in fruit; then add cream/half-and-half/buttermilk all at once. Use spatula to gently stir dough until it holds together.

Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead a few times to incorporate dry ingredients. Be gentle so you don't break up the berries and don't overwork the dough. Sprinkle dough with flour if it gets sticky.

Press (pat) the dough into a circle 3/4 inch thick. If any berries peek out, push them into dough. Cut circle into 6-8 wedges, then transfer wedges to the cookie sheet, leaving at least 1/2 inch of space between them. Bake 15 minutes.

Sprinkle with sugar and bake 5-10 more minutes or until the tops are beginning to brown and spring back when you push them (this took another 15-20 minutes in my oven, but keep a careful watch and check every 5 minutes - you do not want dry scones!). (The sprinkling of sugar over the top for the last few minutes of baking creates a simple, sparkly topping.)

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Raspberry Madness Coffee Cake

So you know how everyone has a *thing* for a certain kind of food? Like, some people can't pass up chocolate and Nutella makes them weak at the knees. Some swoon for truffles and some will go to the ends of the earth and beyond for that really good croissant or cupcake. Me? I'm weird. Chocolate leaves me fairly indifferent and ice cream will get only very polite attention. Cheesecake might make me stop for a moment and contemplate, but eventually I will probably pass it up. But a really good roasted chicken -- the kind that warms the house and smells of garlic, lemon and herbs -- now that, that will get me running and pushing everyone out of the way. Also, my grandma's kugel and my mom's buttermilk-ricotta tart with raisins (that I will tell you about pretty soon, it's awesome), and, strangely, coffee cake. I love coffee cake. What is it about this unassuming little cake that gets me so excited? I don't know, but if there is coffee cake around, especially laced with a hefty dose of raspberries or blueberries, and maybe swirled with cream cheese, don't leave me alone with it unless you want to come back to some crumbs and a sheepish face. I can't control myself, people, I've tried.

Surprisingly, I've never actually made a coffee cake. Oh, I've made bundts and apple cakes and muffins, but for some unknown reason, an honest to goodness coffee cake has eluded me. Until last weekend, that is. You see, when you've had a hell of a week, and work felt like a boxing rink with you as the referee, emails as boxing gloves and no rules, and the weekend just added to the exhaustion, all you really want is to curl up on the couch with a steaming cup of hot tea and a big (and I mean BIG) slice of raspberry coffee cake and shut the world off. If the world had an off switch, that is. Which, when I'm alone with my coffee cake, it apparently does. You've been warned.

For my maiden voyage in coffee cake making, I chose Deb's Big Crumb Coffee Cake because, frankly, I trust a New Yorker to choose a coffee cake, and especially I trust Deb to choose any kind of food. Now, the cake part of this cake was really delicious - soft, moist and fragrant, with a lovely crumb that cushioned the ungodly amount of raspberries I dumped into it. But I have a bone (a crumb?) to pick with the topping. Maybe it's because I didn't use brown sugar, but raw Hawaiian sugar, and maybe it's because I'm the only person in the universe who likes less crumb and more cake (I accept my limitations in this regard), I have to say that, while the topping was very good, it left me craving my aunt's cherry coffee cake where she uses the cold-diced butter method for the streusel rather than this melted-butter one. Next time, I am keeping the cake part of the recipe and re-doing the topping in the way that comforts me the most and gives that extra bit of a crunch that I was missing (my aunt dices cold butter with flour, sugar and cinnamon - oh, it's so good). Overall, though, I have to say my first experiment with coffee cake can be deemed a great success, so thanks Deb for another winner of a recipe!


Raspberry Coffee Cake
via Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:

Butter for greasing pan

For the raspberry filling:
1/2 lb fresh or thawed raspberries (this works out to be about a cup, but I used a cup and a half)
1/8 to 1/4 cup of sugar, depending on the tartness of the fruit

For the crumbs:
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (I didn't use this)
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup melted butter
1 3/4 cups cake flour (or all purpose worked well too)

For the cake:
1/3 cup sour cream
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup cake flour (again, all purpose was just fine)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons softened butter, cut into 8 pieces.

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease an 8-inch-square baking pan. For filling, toss the raspberries with sugar. Set aside.

2. To make crumbs, in a large bowl, whisk together sugars, spices, salt and butter until smooth. Stir in flour with a spatula. It will look like a solid dough.

3. To prepare cake, in a small bowl, stir together the sour cream, egg, egg yolk and vanilla. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add butter and a spoonful of sour cream mixture and mix on medium speed until flour is moistened. Increase speed and beat for 30 seconds. Add remaining sour cream mixture in two batches, beating for 20 seconds after each addition, and scraping down the sides of bowl with a spatula. Scoop out about 1/2 cup batter and set aside (note: the batter will be very thick and hard to spread, and there won't be much of it - that's ok).

4. Scrape remaining batter into prepared pan. Spoon raspberries over batter. Dollop set-aside batter over raspberries; it does not have to be even.

5. Using your fingers, break topping mixture into big crumbs, about 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch in size. They do not have to be uniform, but make sure most are around that size. Sprinkle over cake. Bake cake until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean of batter (it might be moist from raspberries), 45 to 55 minutes. Cool completely before serving.

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Chocolate Mascarpone Brownies

When I go to Europe, I often hear American food described derisively as "burgers and fries," and gourmands kind of wrinkle their noses at it as if omg! burgers! who eats that?! (I bet they secretly do). To me, however, American food is the stuff of summer BBQs, the sunshine and warmth of sunsets on a back patio, the comfort of family and friends - in a word, it's timeless. Certainly, American food is not so delicate as French food and not so exotic as Korean, for example, but there is so much flavor there that I return to it over and over again when I have the luxury to cook to please only myself.


Which brings me to this cold spell Los Angeles is having - rain pattering on the roof, rolling gray clouds and temperatures below 60 (that's COLD for around here!). At times like these, I want something that will be the taste-equivalent of a fleece blanket, and I want it fast. Wherein come these brownies. People: I am not a chocolate person, but these are divine. Meltingly soft when warm and dense and fudgy when cold, intensely chocolaty at every temperature, it was actually torture to package them away for early Valentine's Day gifts. I really hope giving away chocolate puts out some cosmic karmic good vibes, because whew, I suffered when they left my hands, I really did.


First, you start with a lot of chocolate, cocoa powder, sugar, eggs and butter, and then, because clearly, that's just not enough, you add in some creamy mascarpone cheese and a bit of flour to hold it all together, and THEN (yes, you heard me right, there's more), you make a chocolate ganache that covers the brownies with a shiny blanket of awesomeness. Let me pause a moment to let that all sink in. Yeah. They were that good.

Chocolate Mascarpone Brownies

Brownies:
1 cup unsalted butter
3 ounces best quality semisweet chocolate (I use 70%), finely chopped
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup mascarpone cheese, softened
3 large eggs, at room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt

Ganache:
6 ounces best quality semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
6 tablespoons heavy cream
3 tablespoons unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 325F and butter an 8-inch square baking pan.

For the brownies: In a small saucepan (or in the microwave), melt the butter and bring it to just below a boil; put the chocolate in a mixing bowl and pour the hot butter over the chocolate. Let stand for 30 seconds and then whisk until smooth and chocolate has completely melted.

Sift in the sugar and cocoa powder and fold into the chocolate.

Beat in the mascarpone cheese, eggs and vanilla, mixing until smooth. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and the salt and then gently fold them into the batter.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. Cool for 10-15 minutes while you make the ganache.

For the ganache: Place chopped chocolate in a mixing bowl; in a small saucepan, bring the cream and the butter to just below the boiling point, over medium heat. Pour this hot cream-butter mixture over the chocolate and let stand for 30 seconds, then stir until smooth; ganache is now ready to use and can be spread over the brownies.

Should you wish to wait a bit, make sure the ganache is warm when you spread over the brownies, as it does firm up which makes spreading hard to do.

Don't cut into the brownies until ganache has firmed up; I find it best to put the brownies into the fridge to speed this along; once the ganache is firm the brownies do not need to be kept in the fridge, though.

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