National Cupcake BackAthon: Gingerbread cupcakes with eggnog buttercream filling and cinnamon meringue

I confess this  some kind of elaborate, but I wanted more this time. First of all I wanted to make a good impression - because this is my post for the 'National Cupcake BackAthon' held by Baking the law. She invited me to take part and (of course) I couldn't say no. The topic is 'Gluttony at the christmas market' which gave me a lot of ideas. So second, I wanted to design a special cupcake, one I never made before, with filling and topping - and which was supposed to taste and look good. I adore this certain foodblog by Chockylit which is all about cupcakes. I love her cupcakes creations and wanted to create such a lovely and special cupcake as hers use to be. I hope I have done a good job in trying/doing so.

Gingerbread cupcakes with eggnog buttercream filling and cinnamon meringue
makes about 12 cupcakes 

Gingerbread cupcakes:

• 100 g dark chocolate, minimum 61% cocoa
• 115 g butter
• 125 g sugar, granulated
• 100 g dark molasses (sugar beet molasses; 'Zuckerrübensirup')
• 4 eggs
• 100 g flour
• 15 g cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoon gingerbread spice mix ('Lebkuchengewürz')
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger, grounded
• pinch of salt

In a waterbath, melt butter and chocolate and stir until combined. Let the mixurte cool for about ten minutes. Meanwhile mix the dry ingredients. In a large bowl combine sugar and molasses, then add the chocolate-butter-mixture and whip (with a handheld mixer) until you get a caramel-like consistency. After that, beat in each egg separately. At the end add the dry ingredients and stir until (just) combined. Preahet your oven to 180°C, fill the dough into cupcake forms and bake for about 25 to 30 minutes. Let them cool on a rack.
Preparing for the filling: Press a small round cookie cutter in the middle of the cupcake and move it a little bit back and forth. Pull it out and gently remove the cone, then cut the top of it so that you have a small disc - it'll be your 'lid' after you put in the filling. You can enlarge/deepen the filling hole by using the back of a small sharp knife. Feed the crumbs to someone impatient and hungry (eg your boyfriend).

Eggnog buttercream filling:

• 200 g essential buttercream
• 2 tablespoon egg liqueur
• 1/2 teaspoon orange zest

Let the buttercream get room temparature (or use your microwave oven for that). Add the orange zest and egg liquer and beat until combined and creamy. Fill your cupcakes and put your 'lid' on top.

Cinnamon meringue:

• two egg whites, at room temperature
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 40 g white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, grounded 

• twelve candied almonds 

Combine sugar and cinnamon. Whisk your egg whites until foamy, then add cream of tartar. When soft peaks form, add sugar-cinnamon-mixture. Whisk until stiff and glossy. Fill into piping bag with a round tip and cover the tops of your cupcakes with it. Top/decorate each cupcake with a candied almond. Use a flame torch or the top heat/grill of your oven to brown the meringue - just be careful not to burn it (I set my oven to the lowest grill function and the rack on the bottom rack and watched ...).

Bruschetta mit geräucherter Entenbrust und Erbsensprossen

Ich liebe die Metro. Wenn ich mal die Gelegenheit habe, dort einkaufen zu gehen, dann reicht die Zeit meistens gar nicht, all die schönen Dinge zu bestaunen, die es dort gibt. Meistens kaufe ich irgendetwas 'exotisches' aus der Obst- und Gemüseabteilung oder dem imposanten Kühlraum mit dem Fleisch. Bei meinem letzten Beutezug musste ich bei Erbsensprossen und geräucherter Entenbrust zugreifen. Schön, nun lag es in meinem Kühlschrank, aber was damit machen? Am Ende landete es wieder in der Kategorie 'Resteverwertung', nicht sehr glorreich aber trotzdem ein leckerer Abendsnack.

Bruschetta mit geräucherter Entenbrust und Erbsensprossen
für zwei Personen

• eine geräucherte Entenbrust, fein gewürfelt
• eine Handvoll Erbsensprossen, fein gehackt
• acht Cocktailtomaten
• eine halbe gelbe Paprikaschote, fein gewürfelt
• zehn Scheiben Ciabatta oder 3 normales Brot
• eine Knoblauchzehe
• ein EL Olivenöl (für das Dressing)
• ein halber EL guter Balsamicoessig
• Salz und Pfeffer

Das Brot mit etwas Öl besprenkeln und im Ofen knusprig rösten. Die Tomaten achteln, dabei den Saft und das Innere mit in die Schüssel geben. Entenbrust, Erbsensprossen, Paprika, Olivenöl und Essig dazugeben, mit Salz und Pfeffer würzen und ordentlich vermischen. Die Knoblauchzehe häuten und die Brotscheiben damit abreiben. Die Entenbrust-Gemüsemischung gleichmäßig auf den Scheiben verteilen.

Daring Bakers November challenge: Crostata filled with persimmon mousse and raspberry jam

The 2010 November Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers' to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi's Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.

Crostata (tart) is an Italian dessert. The base of a crostata is pasta frolla(or pastafrolla), sweet short crust pastry (or sweet tart dough) made of flour, sugar, butter and eggs. Pasta frollais versatile: it provides the base to make crostata with fruit preserves, pastry cream, fresh fruit,ricotta, and other ingredients, and, by itself, it makes very nice cookies.

Tarte should be a piece of cake for me, made them a dozen times, you can find them all here. I wasn't so fond of the idea of a whole sweet jam filling*, so I rather preferred blind baking and adding a filling afterwards. There are masses of possibilities for filling, I once for example made an apple cinnamon ice cream filling and topped it with marzipan. But I was looking for something new. I remembered a dessert recipe from one of my friends I liked very much. It's an apple mousse which is topped with a chocolate mousse or elderberry sauce. Apple seemed a little bit to plain so wanted something more fancy. Because I never used persimmons before I decided to gor for a persimmon-raspberry combination. The result was really smooth and tasty but took a lot of time (which involved a lot of waiting but was worth it).

* In Austria such a tarte with jam filling and dough stripes on top for decoration is called 'Linzer Torte'.

Crostata filled with persimmon mousse and raspberry jam