Berry Deliciousness

I had so much fun making my first post last week that I decided it should be my goal to bake something easy and delicious to blog about during the week, and then something delicious but potentially more difficult on the weekends. That way I would have a steady stream of posts to keep myself entertained. That was a great idea, ambitious I must admit, because I made my easy and delicious sweet treat on Wednesday night and well it's Sunday evening and I'm just now blogging about it. But hey better late than never right?? So here it is...

Wednesday afternoon I was browsing Tastespotting once again (I know I know - you'll see this is a bit of a habit) and I found a Blackberry Crumble recipe. I thought this would be the perfect mid-week treat and post. The original recipe came from a blog called For the Love of Cooking, once I got started I decided to make a few personal modifications - and it turned out delicious. It's a super easy summertime treat. Berries never seem to be a super heavy dessert and when paired with vanilla ice cream it's the perfect combo of warm delicious berries and cool ice cream. The recipe is so simple! It's definitely going to be one of those I go back to again and again when I need something great in a jiffy! Mix it up to include any and all the berries you want! Enjoy!!

Berry Berry Crumble

3 cups of fresh or frozen berries (I used frozen strawberries, blackberries, blueberries and raspberries)
2-3 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp cornstarch

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, mix all ingredients until blended thoroughly. Spray a small baking dish with cooking spray and add berries. Cook in the oven for 20 minutes.

1/2 cup flour
3/4 cup old fashioned rolled oats, uncooked
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
6 Tbsp slightly softened butter

While the fruit is baking in the oven, add flour, oats, sugar, cinnamon and butter to a mixing bowl. Mix ingredients with you fingers until crumbly. Once the fruit has cooked 20 minutes, remove from the oven and sprinkle the crumble evenly over the top of the fruit. Return to oven and bake for 15 minutes longer.

*The recipe reflects my modifications - I doubled the crumble ingredients and even added a little extra oatmeal. The crumble is a little bit think and clumpy - this is OK and will turn out as delicious crumble bites on top of your berries.

Bake and share!!! On a completely different side note, making a sweet treat during the week and again on the weekend is a large threat to the household, well the waistbands of the household at least. Here it's just my husband and I, and lets just say that our neighbors and my coworkers better get ready for some sweet treats!! Having something as good as this Berry Berry Crumble around taunting me wasn't good - I caved in every time :) I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

How Does One Kick Off Their Baking Blog???

I signed up and started this blog a few weeks ago...but have been plagued with how exactly one is supposed to "kick off their blog." Since it's a baking blog the logical answer would be to bake, right? So here it is...the recipe that finally (after MONTHS of thinking about it) put my blog thoughts into action.

I am a huge sucker for pictures. My favorite cook books are the one's that are filled with images of deliciousness. I have a need to check Tastespotting multiple times a day because I am just fascinated with pictures of yummy food. It's inspiring to me.

I said all that to say this :) when the April issue of Bon Appetit arrived at work not only did I have to get my hands on an issue, I HAD to make the cupcakes on the cover. At the time I couldn't even tell you that I preferred lemon or raspberry, let alone the combination of the two (I can happily say that now, after baking the cupcakes, I like them both) but I was determined none the less to make them. I didn't just want to bake them, I needed to. It was a must.

I've baked cupcakes before, but this was the first time I've made any with any sort of filling. When I read that there was a raspberry jam center in these cupcakes I have to admit that I was slightly intimidated. I checked out the cupcakes online and read stories from other bakers of how the raspberry filling dropped to the bottom of the cupcake, making it not much of a filling at all. This only made me nervous. But still I was determined to make these perfect looking cupcakes.

I set out on my mission one Saturday morning and it was a total success. The cupcakes turned out perfect (well the first batch, ironically enough) They were very rich, sweet, and had just the right amount of tang.

Did my filling drop? (Because I am sure that you are wondering this right now) Yes, but only on the second batch. I came to the conclusion that as long as the batter stays cool the filling doesn't drop, but when the batter was room temperature/warm the filling fell to the bottom. Would I make these cupcakes again? Absolutely! I'm already wondering if strawberry lemon would be a good combination?? As an added bonus they look very impressive (at least to me) and are much easier to make than one might think. The recipe is below. Enjoy!

Lemon Raspberry Cupcakes

Ingredients:

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar, divided
4 1/2 teaspoons finely grated lemon peel, divided
2 large eggs
1 1/4 cups self-rising flour
1/4 cup buttermilk
4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, divided
12 teaspoons plus 1 tablespoon seedless raspberry jam
Fresh raspberries (for garnish)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners. Using electric mixer, beat butter, 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, and 3 teaspoons lemon peel in large bowl until blended, then beat until fluffy and pale yellow. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating to blend after each addition. Beat in half of flour. Add buttermilk and 2 tablespoons lemon juice; beat to blend. Beat in remaining flour.

Drop 1 rounded tablespoonful batter into each muffin liner. Spoon 1 teaspoon raspberry jam over. Cover with remaining batter, dividing equally.

Bake cupcakes until tester inserted halfway into centers comes out clean, about 23 minutes. Cool cupcakes in pan on rack. Meanwhile, whisk remaining 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, and 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon peel in small bowl. Spoon half of icing over 6 cupcakes. Whisk 1 tablespoon raspberry jam into remaining icing. Spoon over remaining cupcakes. Let stand until icing sets, about 30 minutes. Garnish with raspberries.