Lemon Raspberry Cake with White Chocolate Frosting

Pear & Rosemary Cupcakes

There is a new Hummingbird Bakery cookbook coming. The name is Home Sweet Home and I already pre-ordered it on Amazon.

On this occasion the Hummingbird Bakery is organizing a contest in association with Emerald Street. The goal of the contest is to design and bake a cupcake. My kind of challenge!

Recipes have a funny way of coming together. This one found its root in the rosemary I bought with a foccacia in mind. I never got around to baking it so it sat in my kitchen. And when I saw some nice and ripe pears during my shopping, an idea started to form in my head. I would poach the pears in a sugar-rosemary-lemon syrup before adding them in chunks to my cupcake batter.

To top the cupcakes, I was going for a cream cheese frosting but at the last minute I decided to add some cacao to it.

Whilst the cupcakes where cooling I looked a bit more into detail at the conditions of the Emerald Street-Hummingbird Bakery cupcake challenge. And I was so disappointed to find out that it is only open to UK residents.

So there is no change of winning a Kichenaid for me. No Pear & Rosemary cupcakes as a contestant to be sold in the Hummingbird bakeries. But I do end up with some lovely cupcakes that I enjoyed putting together. Hope you do too!

Ingredients

For the poached pears

120 g of caster sugar

1 branch of rosemary in 3 parts

3 large strips of lemon peel

1 tbs lemon juice

2 ripe but firm pears

Preparation

You can prepare the pears the day or evening before baking your cupcakes.

Fill a medium saucepan with 375 ml water. Add the sugar, rosemary and the lemon peel and juice. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has dissolved.

Meanwhile, peel the pears, leaving them whole, stem included. Use a spoon or a small Parisian spoon to remove the heart from the base. Place the pears in the pan. Bring to a boil, and then lower the heat and simmer, taking care to turn the pears occasionally, until tender, about 8 to 10 minutes. Remove the pears from the pan.

Boil the syrup uncovered for 7 to 9 minutes, until reduced and it has thickened (it will continue to thicken as it cools). Poor the liquid through a sieve and let cool completely.

Ingredients

For the cupcakes

135 g flour

2 ts baking powder

25 g ground almonds

150 g sugar

50 g butter at room temperature

125 g of crème fraîche

2 eggs

Preparation of the cupcakes

Preheat oven to 170 ° C. Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners and set aside.

Chop the pears into small cubes and set aside.

Sift the flour, baking powder and almond powder and add a pinch of salt, the sugar and the butter.

Mixer at slow speed until there is a sandy texture. This may take 5-10 minutes.

Mix the crème fraîche with the first egg and then add the second egg.  Add half of this into the butter mixture. Scrape and add the rest. Mix until the dough is smooth.

Put a spoonful of batter in the prepared cupcake liners. Add the cubes of pear. Be carefull not to overfill the cupcake liners (2/3 max.).

Bake the cupcakes for 20-25 minutes. Right after you take the cupcakes out of the over, use a skewer (or the point of a sharp knife) to prick little holes in the cakes. Gently drip some of the syrup over the cupcakes.  

Take the cupcakes out of the pan and set on a rack to cool completely.

Whilst your cupcakes are cooling down you can prepare the frosting of your choice. I find that cream cheese icing always goes well with fruit cupcakes. To change I added a bit of cacao powder

Ingredients

frosting

50 g butter, at room temperature

300 g icing sugar

125 g cream cheese

25 g cacao powder

Mix together the butter, the icing sugar and cacao powder until well blended. Add the cream cheese and mix until light and fluffy.

Cardemon cake

Maisy Mouse on a Strawberry Birthday Cake

Rose cake

Lime pie with strawberries and whipped cream

Ingredients for the pie

200 g of biscuits in crumbs

4 tbsp sugar

6 t tbsp unsalted butter, melted

3 eggs, yolks and whites separated

400 g of concentrated milk

125 ml of freshly squeezed lime juice

1 tsp lemon juice

2 tsp. of grated lime zest

Garnish

Strawberries

Whipped Cream

Mix together the cookie crumbs, half of the sugar and the melted butter. Pour into a 23 cm oiled baking pan with removable bottom and press well. Place in refrigerator while preparing the lime cream.

Whisk the egg yolks until frothy. Add condensed milk, lemon juice and lime zest. Beat until the mixture thickens slightly. In a bowl, whisk egg whites until stiff. Stir in remaining sugar and continue to whip until soft peaks form. Using a metal spatula, gently fold the whites into the lime cream.

Pour the lime cream into the baking pan. Smooth the surface. Bake for 15-20 minutes in a preheated oven at 160° until the cream feels just firm to the touch and is lightly browned. When cold, place the pie in refrigerator for at least 3 hours.

Slice the strawberries and place them on the top of the cake. Decorate with some whipped cream.

Serve the pie cold.

Notes:

The recipe calls for 400 g of concentrated milk. A can of Nestlé ‘lait concentré’ is just under that. I found it just works fine.

My 3 limes didn’t add up to 125 ml so I used a lemon.

Not really very fond of whipped cream. That’s why I replace the proposed topping from the original recipe (dessert Trop Bon – Marabout) by strawberries that happened to lie around in the house!

Wait to take the pie out of the pan until it has cooled down in the refrigerator. I didn’t as you can see on the pictures.

Orginal garnish

25 ml cream

1 tablespoon icing sugar

Vanilla extract

A few slices of lime for garnish

Whip the cream with the icing sugar and vanilla extract. Spread the cream over the tart cool. Decorate with slices of lime.

European Soccer Championship Cupcakes

As of sunday evening 11.30 pm: For sale:

• cupcake cases: color: orange
• sprinkels: color: orange
• foodcolor: orange

Wanted:

Performant Dutch soccerteam 

All that's left are the memories 

Orange Cake

To be honest, I made this cake for Queens day. April 30 is a national holiday in the Netherland, when we celebrate the birthday of our queen's mother: Juliana.
The royal family's name being Orange, this color is known as our national color.


Today is a big day for 'Oranje', our national soccer team. In order to go to the next round in the European Championship, they must beat Portugal with a 2 goal-difference. And at the same time hope the Germans beat Denmark.


Will tonight bring victory or defeat? Anyhow: there will be cake !

Black&White Layer Cake

Whenever my baking urge is strong at the beginning of the weekend, and cupcakes are not an option since I always want them to be as fresh as possible when taking them to work, I go for a big layer cake! 

This one has 5 layers and is made of devil' food cake and a white cake. In between some home-made strawberry jam. Strawberry Swiss Meringue Butter Cream to finish it !Very yummy !

Macarons

Finally I made some macarons for my new (well since 6 months) colleagues. THey had been told about the raspberry macaron I made for my french colleagues from time to time and were very curious to tast a bit of Paris. 

It being the season of fresh strawberries, I started by making a strawberry jam. And since I was on a roll, I decided to transform the ripe pineapple who was waiting in the fruitbasket to be eaten into jam as well. Great jam, with some lime juice !! 

Apparently the macaron gods were on my side, because they came out great looking ! Don't you just want to bite into that strawberry one where the jam leaked out?