National Cupcake BackAthon: Trollheimen Cupcakes & Red velvet cake with summer berries

It's time for another BackAthon - and a premiere: my first double post. The BackAthon's topic was berries. I remembered a cake I found at epicurious and made for our last summer party. It was a red velvet cake with cream cheese topping and filled (and topped) with berries. II really liked this cake and remembered it when I read the topic. I thought red velvet cupcakes would be a nice idea too. They had to be with blueberries, becuase at our summer vacation in Norway we found lots of them along the way, and I still had a huge craving for them. I added some cardamom to the dough - Norwegians like to put this spice into their baked goods and I kind of like that too. The filling uses an ingredient which ist also typical for Norway - rømme (or in my case, creme fraiche). The moment I turned my back to the finished cupcakes, the first one was already gone ...

Red velvet cake with summer berries

adapted from epicurious

Cake:

• 155 g cups sifted cake flour
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 230 ml  buttermilk
• 1 tablespoon red food coloring
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon cardamom (grated) *
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (grated) *

* for cupcakes only

Preheat oven to 160°C. Butter and flour a 26cm-diameter cake pan. Sift sifted flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into medium bowl. Whisk buttermilk, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla in small bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat sugar and butter in large bowl until well blended. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating until well blended after each addition. Beat in dry ingredients in 4 additions alternately with buttermilk mixture in 3 additions.Pour batter into pan.

Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 35-40 minutes. Cool in pan on rack. When cooled, divide into two layers lenghtwise.

Frosting:

halve for cupcakes

• 250 g cream cheese, room temperature
• 200 g mascarpone
• 110 g  unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 175 g powdered sugar

• 250 g fresh strawberries, rinsed and halved
• 400 g fresh blueberries

Beat cream cheese, mascarpone and butter in large bowl until smooth. Beat in vanilla. Add powdered sugar and beat until smooth.

Place 1 cake layer, flat side up, on platter. Spread 1 cup frosting over top of cake. Arrange half of the strawberries and blueberries atop frosting, pressing lightly to adhere. Top with second cake layer, flat side down. Spread remaining frosting over top and sides of cake. Arrange remaining berries decoratively over top of cake. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Let stand at room temperature before serving.)

Trollheimen-Cupcakes

Cupcakes: dough see above, fill into your muffin moulds (max half of the mould, or you'll get a mess) and bake for about 20 minutes

Frosting: see above

Filling: 
for 12 cupcakes

• 100 g creme fraiche
• 2 tablespoon blueberry jam
• 50 g fresh blueberries + 150 g for decoration
• 1 1/2 sheets gelatin 

Puree creme fraiche, blueberries and blueberry jam into a food processor.  Soften the gelatin in cold water for 5 minutes. Squeeze out excess water from the gelatin. Heat (into a small pan on the stove) or into the mircrowave until melted, then add the filling little by little, stirr to prevent lumps. Let cool into the refrigerator.
Note: For a sweeter alternative you can use 150 g blueberry joghurt and gelatin.

Assembling:

Meanwhile cut holes into your cupcakes. When the filling starts to thicken, pour into the cupcakes. Pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes and decorate with blueberries.