A Zinger of a Cupcake...

The same weekend I made the tart for my friend’s going away party, I also celebrated my good friend’s new home. It’s a fabulous little walk up with a claw foot tub, a sunroom, and all the charm in the world. I love my house, but to have a little nook like that in the world would be sublime. Since I'm so in love with the place, but I only have one tart pan, I had to settle on making something completely different.

I had a lemon cake mix burning a hole in my pantry so I decided to use it to my advantage. Once again, I scoured the internet for recipes to use this cake mix with and figure out a super sweet pairing. Lots of the recipes had coconut. Thumbs down! I love coconut, but happen to be pretty allergic to it. Lots of the recipes had almonds. Thumbs down! Another ingredient I love, but happen to be pretty allergic to. Lots of recipes had chocolate…magical! An ingredient I loved and happened to be able to eat in its entirety. So the creative process began. Lemon White Chocolate Cupcakes are what we ended up with. They were delicious and had a great zing, but the chocolate was a little lost and overpowered by the lemon.

Here’s how Pegleg Penny made this one go down:
Lemon White Chocolate Zinger Cupcakes
For the cupcake:
1 – Lemon cake mix
6 oz of White Chocolate, chopped
3 eggs
¾ cup of water
1/3 cup of vegetable oil
Zest of one small lemon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Take a medium saucepan and add water to it. Put it on the stove and allow it to simmer. Put the white chocolate chunks in a large metal bowl, that sits on top of the saucepan without touching the bottom. Creating a double boiler effect. Allow the chocolate to melt, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat, turn off the simmering water, and set the melted chocolate aside.
Empty the cake mix into a large mixing bowl. Add the eggs, water, vegetable oil, and lemon zest. Mix until smooth. Using a rubber spatula gently fold the white chocolate into the batter. Fill cupcake pan about ¾ of the way up with batter. (If you’re not using cupcake liners, make sure you grease your pan.)

Bake in the oven approximately 17 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cream Cheese Frosting*
1 – 8 oz package Cream cheese, softened
½ cup butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups powdered sugar, sifted

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until smooth and fluffy. Little by little add the powdered sugar until it’s light and creamy. It’s pretty easy and really tasty.
*Recipe adapted from 'Cake Mix Magic' by Jill Snider

The cream cheese frosting compliments and mellows out the lemon of the cake very well. They tasted really good, especially if you’re down with fruity things.
Quite the lemony success. A great pairing with Margaritas. However, the chocolate did get lost in the zing. Next time I'd probably omit the zest and add more chocolate.
This is my friend Lisa. She eats her cupcakes with style.

'Tart-y' Behavior

I bought myself a new tart pan. It’s a fabulous little piece of Wilton heaven. The bottom pops up, so the sides have perfect ridges. You might laugh when I say it’s a gorgeous sight to see, but it totally is. Nothing is more rewarding than popping that sucker up and having a gorgeous looking tart. My friend recently moved across the country to be with a girl. (But this blog is definitely NOT about him.) For this special goodbye occasion, I decided to break in my new tart pan.

When I get a new piece of culinary equipment I want to use it ALL the time so that it pays for itself right away. That way, if I don’t use it for a while I don’t feel like I’ve neglected it, hurt it’s feelings, or wasted my hard earned money. Therefore, expect a couple more tart recipes in the months to come.

Knowing that a lot goes into tart and that my friend isn’t very adventurous with food, he likes things plain, I knew my first tart had to be a simple experiment. I knew I wouldn’t be able to layer tons of flavors and that it had to be simple and sweet and above all pretty. If it didn’t look appetizing, he was not going to eat it. I searched for a recipe I was satisfied with and came up empty handed. I wanted something simple and fresh and summery. Sure, it got down to like 30 degrees that day, which is far from warm, but I still wanted it to feel that way. So I combined some ideas of things I hadn’t tried and things I had and came up with this gem of a recipe.

Summer Strawberry Orange Tart

Vanilla Wafer Tart Crust:
3 ¼ cup plus 2 TBSP food processed ‘Nilla wafer cookies (about 1.5 12 oz boxes)
6 TBSP plus 2 TBSP unsalted butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Stick the cookies in the food processor and grind them down until they’re pretty fine – not dusty fine, but not super chunky. Place the cookies in a large bowl. Add the melted butter and mix. Press the cookie crust in the bottom of the pan and up the sides of the pan. I stuck a metal measuring cup in the freezer before I started to process everything, I pulled it out and it helped press the cookie crust to the sides of the pan and define the edges really well. I made the crust pretty thick, which helps with keeping its shape and keeping the filling in since it’s a very delicate crust.

Bake until it starts to darken a bit, about 18 minutes. If the sides start to slide while cooking, press the sides up with a back of a spoon.

Orange Strawberry Mascarpone Filling:*
2 – 8 oz containers of Mascarpone cheese
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 cup powdered sugar
2 TBSP Cointreau (or Grand Marnier)
Zest of one orange
8 strawberries pureed

Beat the mascarpone until smooth. Add the rest of the ingredients in. I broke out PP and beat the mixture until stiff peaks formed and the filling was smooth. You can cover and chill this or put directly into the crust.

Assembly:
Place filling into the tart crust. Slice about 1 -2 pounds of strawberries to decorate the top of the tart. It all depends on how fruity you want your tart. Lay out the strawberry slices in concentric circles.

I had a little bit of cookie crumbs and filling left. I was able to make a mini tart in a small 6” pie pan.

Chill the tart until you are ready to serve. Push up the bottom of the pan and place on a round platter. The truth is, because it’s a crumbly crust, the sides may not come out perfectly. Which is a little agonizing, but it still comes out impressive looking.

This tart is super easy, gorgeous looking and it tastes fresh and light. It’s the perfect thing to take to a BBQ or house party. Some people commented that it reminded them of cheesecake, but it was far from it. My other friend said it tasted like a delicious cannolli, only better. Pegleg loved this recipe because the food processor did most of the hard work.

*The filling I adapted from a recipe I made this past holiday season. Gingerbread, orange Mazcarpone Trifle with candied apricots, which I adapted from this original recipe on Epicurious. This tart would probably be delish with a gingersnap crust too, that could be created the same way as the vanilla wafer crust.

Top of the Morning Scones

I’m a big fan of savory breakfast. Sure I like waffles and pancakes and other sweet deliciousness, but I think I love bacon and cheese a little more. A couple weeks ago, a group of my girlfriends and I had an old fashioned sleepover. (Probably not the same kind of sleepover of our childhood, it did include multiple bottles of wine, vodka, and drinking games, but the general idea behind it was the same.) I was in charge of bring breakfast for the group. I racked my brain on something to make that was easy, quick, and delicious. I picked up a Pillsbury break and bake cinnamon roll thing, taking care of the sweet aspect of breakfast. (Which I remembered it tasting way better as a child than it did that morning, but that’s neither here nor there.) I also wanted something savory, but that I could make ahead of time and be good. One of my favorite coffee shops in my neighborhood has these delicious applewood bacon and cheddar scones. Since I knew I wouldn’t be able to replicate the same taste on the first try and I was working with a non-meat eater, those were out. So I searched some recipes sites and found a great compromise on Epicurious: Cheddar and chive scones. Savory, hearty, flaky, and just the right amount of non-sweetness to go perfectly with Pillsbury cinnamon rolls. They’re also great for dipping in runny eggs with a little bacon on the side.

Cheddar Chive Scones (from Epicurious via Gourmet, July 2000)
Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh chives (I would probably use ¼ cup)
5 oz extra-sharp Cheddar, coarsely grated (1 1/2 cups)
2 cups heavy cream plus additional for brushing

Assembly:
Preheat oven to 400°F. Whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Add chives and Cheddar, tossing to combine. Stir in cream with a fork until a sticky dough forms.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead 8 times with floured hands. It is a VERY sticky dough! So make sure your floured surfaces and really floured. Halve dough and form each half into a 7-inch round. Brush tops of rounds with additional cream and cut each into 8 wedges. (I cut mine into 6 wedges, because it was so sticky it was easier to handle in bigger pieces.)

Arrange wedges about 1/2 inch apart on an ungreased large baking sheet and bake in middle of oven until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Cool on a rack.

The one thing I would change is less chives in the batter. I got a little chive crazy. I would probably recommend ¼ cup of chives because they were a tad bit overpowering. I also used the prepackaged grated cheese from the grocery store. Instead of coarsely grated I used the fancy grated – I’m pretty sure it came out very similarly, but probably a little more delicate in the cheese department. This could explain why my chives may have been a little much, or that might just be my taste buds.

These scones were great, and I’ll definitely make them again, however, if you’re looking for a traditional scone you’re probably going to want to look elsewhere. These were really light and flaky/buttery, not as dense or heavy as a traditional scone. I believe they turned out to be more like a cross between a biscuit and a scone and they were delicious!