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Posts tagged ‘raspberry’

Jun 4

8 Comments

Chocolate Raspberry Cream Cake

My current favorite show on TV is MasterChef Australia. I watch it almost religiously each night (except Saturdays, which is the only day of the week that it isn’t on).  It’s gotten to the point where, anytime I’m actually cooking or baking something from a recipe it feels like Gary Mehigan, George Calombaris and Matt Preston are looking over my shoulders, probably getting ready to play some mind games with me and ask if I think what I’m doing will turn out okay, or if I’ll finish in time.

I can’t say that watching MasterChef has made me any better in the kitchen.  I have learned a couple of tricks and gained an ounce or two of knowledge about something or other.  For instance, I don’t use a garlic crusher anymore; I use a knife and finely chop the garlic instead (Matt Moran is apparently disgusted with garlic crushers as they bruise the garlic). And if I need mayonnaise again, I’ll be making my own (Gary, George and Matt were obviously disgusted when one contestant used a jar of pre-made mayonnaise).  Just things like that, I’ve learned.  Nothing too life-changing.

My favorite parts of MasterChef are the Invention Tests (where the contestants have to make a dish based on one theme ingredient) and the Pressure Tests (where the 3 contestants of the least-liked dishes from the Invention Tests have to face off and one will be eliminated).  One week, at one of these Pressure Tests, the dish they had to prepare was a black forest cake (recipe & photo here).  This cake was 5 layers of sponge cake, chocolate ganache, mascarpone, hazelnut praline mousse, cherries, shaved chocolate, more cherries, it was like the black forest cake to end all black forest cakes.

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Jan 6

13 Comments

Vanilla Raspberry White Chocolate Cupcakes

As we’re waiting for the final verdict on December’s Cupcake Hero challenge, I thought I’d post about these cupcakes that my daughter and I made shortly before we left the US.  What makes these cupcakes extra special is that they were completely made up by my 4-year-old daughter.

One night as I was putting her to bed she told me she wanted to make her own cupcake.  I asked her what kind of cupcake did she want to make.  She said she wanted a vanilla cake, pink raspberry frosting, a cherry on top and a piece of white chocolate.  I promised her I’d help her make them.

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Jul 13

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Mixed Berry Iced Tea

Besides lemonade, one of the main drinks I associate with summer is iced tea.  I decided to make a pitcher of mixed berry iced tea to help cool off on these warm summer afternoons.

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The mixed berries I used were a frozen mix of blackberries, blueberries and raspberries.  I used ice cubes and frozen cranberries for extra cool-ness.  The original recipe comes from Taste of Home and used just raspberries instead of mixed berries.

Raspberry Iced Tea
Adapted from Taste of Home
Makes 4 quarts

Ingredients
4 quarts water
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 package (12 ounces) frozen unsweetened raspberries
10 individual tea bags
1/4 cup lemon juice

Method
In a Dutch oven, bring water and sugar to a boil.  Remove from the heat; stir until sugar is dissolved.  Add the raspberries, tea bags and lemon juice.  Cover and steep for 3 minutes.

Strain; discard berries and tea bags.  Refrigerate until chilled.  Serve over ice.

Jun 19

4 Comments

Chocolate Raspberry Jello Pie

When I was living with my parents and in my later years of high school, there was a watermelon Jello pie recipe that I just loved.  I made it at family gatherings and a few cookouts over the years.  I haven’t been able to find watermelon Jello anymore, but this particular recipe will accomodate any flavor of Jello.

So, I decided to try a chocolate raspberry Jello pie.  Everything was done exactly the same as the watermelon pie recipe, except I used a chocolate graham cracker crust and raspberry Jello (and of course, I didn’t decorate the pie like a watermelon!).

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The only thing I did that was not in the recipe was to spread a layer of warmed hot fudge topping on the pie crust.  I let it harden back up in the refrigerator before pouring over the pie filling.  However, I found that the fudge layer did not stay solid as I expected at the bottom of the filling – it poured out when I cut the pie!  So I would not add the hot fudge layer next time.

I drizzled a good amount of chocolate sauce over the pie before serving as well!  It was so yummy, and brought back memories from the watermelon pie days.

If you’re after a very cooling and light dessert this summer, this pie, in any Jello flavor you want, would be the perfect choice.

Jun 15

3 Comments

Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes

This is my first ever second entry into Iron Cupcake Earth!  How could a person only make one summer berry-themed cupcake?  For my second entry, I made a chocolate raspberry cupcake.

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It is a chocolate cake made with raspberry jam, filled with raspberry whipped cream and frosted with chocolate ganache.

I’m not so sure about that purple liner, but that’s what I decided to use for these cupcakes!

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I based the recipe on Nigella Lawson’s chocolate cherry cupcakes.  I’ve always loved those cupcakes, and thought that I could easily substitute raspberry jam for the cherry jam in this recipe.  I personally don’t think the raspberry taste was quite as noticeable as the cherry taste in the original recipe, but they’re still quite nice.

They’re quite sweet as well, so if you decide to make these, you may want to cut back a little on the amount of sugar, because the jam will have plenty of sugary goodness to make up for it.

Our June ETSY PRIZE-PACK is from artists:

Last and certainly not least, don’t forget our corporate prize providers: HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS; HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson; JESSIE STEELE APRONS ; TASTE OF HOME books; a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers.

Here are the recipes I used to make these cupcakes.

Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes
Adapted from Nigella Lawson
Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients
125g soft unsalted butter
100g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
300g raspberry jam, seedless if desired
150g caster sugar
pinch of salt
2 large eggs, beaten
150g self-raising flour

Method
Preheat the oven to 180ºC/gas mark 4.

Put the butter in a heavy-bottomed pan on the heat to melt. When nearly completely melted, stir in the chocolate. Leave for a moment to begin softening, then take the pan off the heat and stir with a wooden spoon until the butter and chocolate are smooth and melted. Now add the raspberry jam, sugar, salt and eggs. Stir with a wooden spoon and when all is pretty well amalgamated stir in the flour.

Scrape and pour into the muffin papers in their tin and bake for 25 minutes. Cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes before turning out.

Cool cupcakes completely.  Fill cupcakes with raspberry whipped cream using the cone method.

Raspberry Whipped Cream
Adapted from Joy of Baking
Makes about 1 cup

Ingredients
1/2 cup ultra-pasteurized heavy whipping cream
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 tablespoon granulated white sugar
1/4 cup lightly sweetened raspberry puree, strained if desired

Method
In a large mixing bowl place the whipping cream, vanilla extract, and sugar and stir to combine. Cover and chill the bowl and beaters in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. When chilled, beat only until soft peaks form. Add the sweetened raspberry puree a little at a time, and beat just until stiff peaks form when the beater is raised. Taste and fold in more sugar or puree, if required.

If you have any leftover, use it as a topping for a cup of hot cocoa or mocha!

Ganache Frosting
Adapted from Nigella Lawson
Makes enough to lightly frost 12 cupcakes

Ingredients
100g dark chocolate
100ml double cream
12 fresh raspberries, optional

Method
Break the chocolate for the icing into little pieces and add them to the cream in a saucepan. Bring to the boil, remove from the heat and then whisk – by hand or electrically – till thick and smooth. Ice the cupcakes, smoothing the tops with the back of a spoon, and stand a raspberry in the centre of each.