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Every spring in college campuses across the US there’s a right of passage that everyone undergoes at least once in their 4 years at University. Known as Spring Break it’s the excuse to get away from (in my instance) 16 foot snow banks and freezing temperatures, hop on a plane with your best friends and spend 6 days/nights in (fill in the blank with... Cancun, Florida, Jamaica) behaving with debauchery, dancing poolside in a bikini, drinking from morning until night on ridiculously sugary cocktails nicknamed “sea breeze” or “sex on the beach” (drinks we wouldn’t be caught DEAD ordering as grown-ups) and all-in-all behaving in ways that even the most liberal of east-coast parents would cringe at.
In my attempt at becoming a quasi grownup (last year’s “Spring Break” was a vodka and Bolshoi filled weekend in Moscow) this year I’m staying much closer to home. For 2009 in an attempt to beat the credit crunch and limit some of my extraneous travel, Spring Break has become “Spring Bake”.
On the menu:
1. Coconut vanilla-bean lime cupcakes
2. Quadruple threat muffins
3. Lemon and almond cake with strawberry coulis
Coconut Cupcakes:
When I saw these cupcakes come out in a recent issue of Bon Appetit it was like someone had shown me a private sneak peek trunk show of Jimmy Choo's winter 2010 line - I wanted them then and there. I held out for ACB's recent visit and after picking her up from the airport and heading back to my flat to a home-made butternut squash and roasted parsnip soup and a caramelised onion and cauliflower tart, we tucked into these beautiful little treats.
I changed the recipe a bit, only using vanilla bean paste and vanilla extract in lieu of the vanilla bean (it was £5.50 people) and I grated in some fresh lime zest into the batter. Both moves were successful and I'd suggest doing the same if like me, you don't have vanilla beans growing on your house plants.
I found the cake portion of the cupcakes was one of the best I've ever had - so moist and tasty that it'll be a staple from now on. However, I was slightly less than super impressed with the frosting - it was a bit too much. Having felt like I'd sort of been sucker punched, I found I was scraping a little bit of it off not wanting to eat it all, which I think might actually be against my religion (or at least an unspoken Cook/Bernstein family rule). My recommendation would be to replace it with either a chocolate butter cream or a coconut cream cheese frosting.
Quadruple threat muffins
This recipe is a brainchild of a little bit of input from my mom, my cousin, and in the end my cupboard and local farmer's market.
I was heading over to VF's lovely South Ken abode for brunch last Sunday and knew that she'd appreciate some home-made muffins. What started out as blueberry muffins morphed into a strawberry rhubarb compote, strawberry, blueberry, raspberry muffin. There was so much fruit bursting from these little guys that you couldn't help but think they were actually really healthy.
2.5 cups flour
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 stick (113 grams) butter (melted)
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vinegar
1 tablespoon orange juice
1 cup cut rhubarb
1 cup strawberries, washed and cut in half
1/4 cup blueberries
1/4 cup raspberries
1/2 cup Demerara sugar
1. Preheat oven to 190 deg C or 375 deg F
2. Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl
3. Over low heat cook rhubarb and 1/3 cup of sliced strawberries in orange juice until liquids are released and fruit is soft and tender
4. In a separate large bowl combine next melted butter, eggs, milk, vinegar
5. Into butter container spoon 2 tablespoons of released liquid from strawberry rhubarb compote
6. Combine raspberries, blueberries and remaining strawberries together in a separate bowl
7. Take half of berry mixture and add to food processor, pulsing 2 or 3 times (fruit should still retain some of it's shape)
8. Into butter mixture add strawberry rhubarb compote, pulsated berries, and remaining berries
9. Add berry-butter mixture to dry ingredients and stir just until blended
10. Scoop about 2 tablespoons of batter into lined muffin cups - filling until almost the top and sprinkle with Demerara sugar
11. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown and toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean
12. Best served warm - with even more fruit jam!
Lemon and almond cake with strawberry coulis
For the past two years I've been lucky to celebrate Passover with RL's family. This year was at his brother's finance's parent's house and it was complete with children (very late 20s) fighting over who was the youngest (RL) and should be forced to do the four questions. I'm happy to report that while the majority of the Seder was done in Hebrew it followed my family's suit in that it lasted about 20 minutes long, was buffered by exorbitant amounts of food and surprisingly good kosher wine. Hats off to the hosts.
My contribution came in the form of a lemon and almond cake. Notoriously difficult to procure tasty Passover confections, what makes this dessert one of the best I've ever made is that in it's nature it's not trying to be something it's not (e.g. it's not calling for 2 cups of matzo meal to replace normal flour). Taking those square pegs and trying to fill those round holes usually ends up with an overly dry cloying cake that sticks to the roof of your mouth and beckons a fast forwarding of 7 days when you can stop eating the disturbing and not so enjoyable stuff. (
Ahem, that's if one is actually keeping Passover which I don't think I ever have).
What makes this cake great is that at it's foundation is almond meal (ground almonds) and lots of eggs. Whipping up and then folding in 6 eggs whites creates a light and moist (for Passover standards) cake.
No substitutions or additions to this one although pick whatever berry you want for the coulis. I've used raspberries before as well:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Almond-Lemon-Torte-with-Fresh-Strawberries-241871
There is a time and a place for gold lamé, fluorescent pink legwarmers and a waterfall of glitter and sequins.
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