Berry Birthday Cobbler

Based off of a recipe featured in People Magazine by Sue Zemanick, executive chef at Gautreau in NOLA.

It's...phenomenal. And very patriotic.

Ingredients

--Fruit--
2 pints strawberries
1 pint blueberries
2 pints raspberries
(or any combination thereof)
2 tsp xantham gum (or cornstarch)

--Pastry--
3/4 cup gluten free flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
6 tbsp melted butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare fruit-- hull strawberries, smoosh raspberries, etc. You can use any combination of fruit, but strawberries are a good base. They pick up flavors and provide a solid structure to your cobbler.

 

2. Put all the fruit in a bowl, and mix in xantham gum to get it all to stick together. Let sit for 10 minutes.

3. In another bowl, stir egg, milk, vanilla and butter. Mix in the flour and sugar.

4. Distribute fruit in ramekins or one 9 x 9 brownie tray. Spread batter over the top.

 

5. Bake for 30 minutes, until the batter is cooked through in the middle. Fruit should be liquidy and taste like magic. Enjoy hot or cold.

- Jezebel

Nutella Filled Cupcakes

This is a spin-off from Martha's Chocolate Filled Cupcakes. Les' be real though, I will use any excuse to substitute Nutella. For anything.

Ingredients

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
6 large egg whites
3/4 cup milk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups gluten free yellow cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
4 ounces Nutella 

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 12 muffin cups with liners, let them chill out.

2. Mix butter and sugar in an electric mixer (recommending the paddle attachment for this one) on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the egg whites, milk, and vanilla.

 

 

3. Mix in the flour and baking powder until just combined.

 

4. Fill muffin cups about half-way with batter. Scoop a dollop of Nutella into each one, then cover (barely) with batter.

 

 

 

5. Bake for 25 minutes, or until golden brown on top.

 

 

6. Enjoy!

- Jezebel

Grapefruit Cupcakes with Honeyed Italian Meringue Buttercream Frosting

Found a new cooking blog, yay! Smitten Kitchen, which seems super fun, wrote the recipe for the grapefruit cake and then Whisk Kid designed the frosting.

Ingredients

-- Grapefruit Cake --
1 1/2 cups gluten-free flour
1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon (13 grams) sugar
3 eggs
1 tablespoon grated grapefruit zest (about half a grapefruit)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup freshly squeezed grapefruit juice

-- Frosting --
1/8 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
3 egg whites
1/8 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened, cut into small pieces
Honey, to taste

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray down a mini muffin tin, set aside.

2. Learn that it is very hard to zest a grapefruit unless your hands are gigantic. Persevere!

3. Whisk together the yogurt, 1 cup sugar, the eggs, grapefruit zest, and vanilla. Slowly add the flour. Fold the vegetable oil into the batter, making sure it’s all incorporated.

4. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the cake springs back when pressed. They'll be spongey.

5. Meanwhile, cook the 1/3 cup grapefruit juice and remaining 1 tablespoon sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear.

6. When the cupcakes are done, allow them to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Poke a fork into the cupcakes and then pour about 2 teaspoons of the grapefruit-sugar mixture over each one and allow it to soak in.

7. Now for the tricky tricky frosting. This is a lil' tricky, so please check out Whisk Kid's guide. It's very well illustrated. :)

Pour the 1/2 cup sugar into the center of a saucepan and add the water on top to moisten it. Heat the mixture to 245F. Don't stir, just swirl gently to ensure it heats evenly.


8. When the solution starts to clear, begin whipping the egg whites. When they get to soft peaks, begin add the remaining 1/8 c sugar and continue whipping. When the syrup is completely clear and releasing small bubbles, slowly pour it into the eggs with the mixer on high.


9. After fully incorporated, beat the frosting 7-10 minutes until the outside of the bowl is room temp. Begin adding the butter, tablespoon by tablespoon, beating until fully incorporated. Keep whipping until the frosting comes together, then add the vanilla and honey.


10. Slap (and by that I mean delicately pastry gun) the whipped cream onto your cupcakes and enjoy!


- Jezebel

Eggshell Cupcakes

These were tricky, but fun as hell. Thanks to The Cupcake Project for the recipe.

I made 2.5 dozen for my office and they were a /huge/ hit.

Ingredients

-- Egg Shells --
18 white eggs (Only three get used in the cake-- the rest are just used for their shells.)
1/2 cup of water for every egg color you want
1 tablespoon vinegar for every egg color you want
Food coloring (as many colors as you'd like)

-- Cupcake Ingredients --
1 cup gluten-free flour
2 eggs (from above)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup sour cream

-- Cream Cheese "Yolk" Ingredients --
1 egg (from above)
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
Gold and yellow food coloring

Instructions

1. Carefully poke a small hole in the top of each egg using a corkscrew bottle opener (or something similar) then peel back the edges of the hole to open it a bit.

2. Turn each egg upside-down and dump out its contents. Keep the contents of two eggs separate for the cake recipe and one egg separate for the cream cheese "yolks." You can store the rest of the eggs in tupperware for use later-- keep them in groups of two, otherwise it's hard to determine numbers later.


3. Rinse out the eggs in the sink and then drown in salted water for half an hour. Once thoroughly scoured, rinse them with cold water to remove the salt.

4. Fun time now! Make one cup of water vinegar and food coloring for each color you like. Decorate!

Remove eggs from dye and set aside to dry. I did all this on the first night, so I could concentrate on the cupcakes the second night.

5. For the cupcakes: mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium-sized bowl and set aside. In a large bowl, mix eggs and sugar until light and creamy. Add the butter and vanilla and mix until fully integrated. Mix in the dry ingredients until just combined. Add the sour cream and mix until smooth.

6. For the "yolk" filling: mix cream cheese, egg, and sugar until smooth. Add food coloring until the mixture looks yolk-colored.


7. Place each egg into a mini muffin tin holder. You can use aluminum foil to adapt a regular muffin tin too.

8. Fill a piping bag (or Pampered Chef pastry gun) with batter. Make sure the tip can fit inside the hole you created in the eggs. Fill each egg 1/4 of the way with batter, then top with "yolk" until 1/2 full. Add more batter on top of "yolk" until they're 3/4 full.


For reference this is what overfilling your eggs looks like:

And this is what it leads to:


However, you can just peel off the extra and clean the shell with a damp towel to clean it off. This can take off some of the dye, but I think it made them look really neat and tie-dye like.

9. In any case, bake the eggs at 350 F for 20 minutes. Let them cool and crack 'em open!

- Jezebel