Happy [Late] Birthday Mom!

For my mom's birthday, I wanted to do something different. For her dessert, she requested something that included either caramel, coffee, or fruit. I managed to get two out of three categories.

The dessert I chose to make, chocolate-caramel tart with drunken raspberries and vanilla creme fraiche, had really high ratings, but also was rated as pretty difficult to make. All in all, it had five components, each equally delicious:

Part 1: Chocolate chip crust- The crust for this tart was different from the usual tart crusts that I have made. It included egg yolks and crushed chocolate chips, so it turned out more like a thin, crispy cookie.

Part 2: Salty-caramel- Salty-caramel is my favorite type of caramel. There is something so perfect about the salty and sweet flavors coming together. The recipe provided a thick, yummy salty-yet-rich caramel layer.

Part 3: Chocolate ganache- The tart included a thick layer of chocolate ganache, which I made from bittersweet Ghirardelli chocolate chips. This was the last layer of the tart.

Part 4: Creme Fraiche- I made a modified creme fraiche topping for the tart (since actual creme fraiche takes at least 8-12 hours). With three types of cream and a little lemon, it turned out light and tangy.

Part 5: Drunken Raspberries-

I was lucky enough to find delicious, plump raspberries from the store. The recipe required me to make them "drunken," which basically means that they sit in alcohol for a few hours. However, I wasn't happy with just one kind of alcohol, so I made three versions: raspberries in amaretto, raspberries in pomegranate martini, and raspberries in triple sec orange. The berries tasted mildly of the differing flavors, but they definitely tasted drunken! I think my favorite was the amaretto!

With all of these parts, it came out DELICIOUS! It was by far the richest recipe I have ever made, but all of the effort was definitely worth it! If you are looking for a rich, decadent recipe, make this! Here it is! Enjoy!

Cupcakes for kids and grown ups too!

This week I decided to make two different types of cupcakes: one for adults and one for kids (or in this case, my sister).

Adult Cupcake:

For these adult cupcakes, I got to try out two different techniques for the first time: booze-infused cupcakes and two-tone frosting. I wanted to make some kind of fruity cupcakes, and when I remembered that we had some fruity alcohol I decided that I had the perfect idea: pomegranate cosmopolitan cupcakes! Well, I couldn't find a recipe that I was happy with, so I created my own. I knew that I wanted to use pomegranate, lime, and orange flavors, so I decided to do pomegranate cupcakes (infused with smirnoff pomegranate martini and POM juice) topped with limeade and an orange triple sec buttercream frosting.

They didn't come out nearly as boozy as they sound, but they did turn out to be deliciously tart and sweet! For the triple sec frosting, I decided to do a pink-orange swirl to represent the two flavors. Here are some pictures!

Kid Cupcakes:

While these are kid cupcakes, they were actually requested by my sister. These are not my creation, but I was very excited to try out the recipe (not to mention my kitchen torch)! These are smores cupcakes: graham flavored cupcakes filled and topped with chocolate ganache and topped with a marshmallow meringue, lightly browned (in some cases, not so lightly). Well, they turned out pretty well, but Martha Stewart led me to believe that the marshmallow topping would pipe out into graceful swirls. About two minutes after piping, I turned around to find the marshmallow melting all over the cupcake! I don't know if it was the humidity, or if it was the recipe, but something tells me that that marshmallow was never going to stay up... so we got a little creative and made a number of marshmallow variations. I have to say, using the kitchen torch was my favorite part of the whole recipe!

Here's a picture of the torch in action:
...the beautiful marshmallow peak:
Strawberry marshmallow variation:
A variety of smores cupcakes:
Enjoy!