Crystallized Ginger Muffins: Recipe no.1

I love spice cookies and gingerbread flavoured with crystallized ginger. I think it was the first time I made what was to be my favourite gingerbread recipe of all time that got me hooked. Now I use it in all sorts of baked goods, and in liberal amounts.

I've been baking many batches of spice muffins for my sister, since they are her favourite. She is sporty, health conscious, always in a hurry and can't eat dairy, so my go to sweets for her are muffins. They can be made with oil and soy milk quickly and easily. There is no special equipment required either, just two large bowls and a spoon or spatula.

Muffins also freeze well, so if you are short on time you can make a few batches in advance for lunches. My mother likes to freeze a couple from every batch, so she can choose what kind she feels like bringing to work in the morning, whether it be ginger, lemon, almond chocolate chip.

Spice Muffins with Crystallized Ginger and White Chocolate Chunks:

(to make this recipe dairy free substitute the white chocolate with dark chocolate that has no traces of dairy, both are delicious with ginger.)

Wet: 

1/4 cup fancy molasses,
2 large eggs,
1/2 cup soy milk,
1/2 cup soy or canola oil,
1 tsp vanilla

Dry:

1/2 cup brown sugar (packed),
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp cardamom
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/4 cup chopped crystallized ginger lightly packed (I just chop five of the round disks, makes it easy).
100g of large chocolate chunks (you can add more or less than this depending on your taste, this measurement is flexible.)

Chop the ginger finely and chop the chocolate into large chunks, especially white chocolate which seems to absorb more into the muffin structure as it bakes.

In a large bowl whisk together all the dry ingredients to introduce some air. I use a beater from my hand mixer for this, works wonderfully.

In a second bowl lightly whisk together the wet ingredients.

Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the entire bowl of wet ingredients. Gently fold together with a spatula until it is just mixed together. The batter may seem quite thick, but that is the way it should be. Fill muffin tins almost to the rim and bake for 20 to 30 minutes, these are done when they look crisp and golden brown on top. I like to put a few chunks of white chocolate on top too, it gets a nice roasted flavour.

See, isn't this recipe easy? Love it.

Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate

I recently finished an order for my lovely friend, Miya. For her birthday she wanted chocolate, chocolate, chocolate cupcakes, so we made chocolate buttermilk cupcakes filled with rich whipped chocolate ganache and topped with soft chocolate mousseline butter cream.

She wanted 18 cupcakes and this batch makes 19, which left one for me to taste test. (We taste test everything we make, sometimes several times when necessary. It's all part of a hard days work here at Gateaux Rose).   ; )

I told myself I would exercise patience and wait until it got to room temperature to eat (I had put it in the fridge for temporary safe keeping), but in the end barely managed to get these snaps of the remaining half before I wolfed it down cold. It was so decadent I just couldn't resist!

 Take a peek, I think you'll be able to see why ...

Almond Cream Pound Cupcakes with Cherry Preserves and Vanilla Bean Mousseline

As a big thank you to all of you who came to visit us and follow our blog we thought we'd share one of our popular recipes, Almond Cream Pound Cake. 

It is wonderful as a birthday cake, bundt cake and even though this is a dense cake it makes a wonderful cupcake too. It is lovely with soft vanilla buttercream and if you throw cherry preserve into the mix it becomes absolutely heavenly. 

Did you know the almond is not technically a nut? The "nut" is atually a seed that comes from the pit of a drupe, which is a soft fruit like a cherry or plum. Cherry and almonds come from the same genus Prunus, this relationship must have something to do with why they taste so good together.

  

Almond Cream Pound Cake:

1 cup unsalted butter
3 cups of cake flour
3 cups granulated sugar
6 eggs
11/2 cups heavy cream
100g (average small bag size) almonds
1 tsp bourbon vanilla
1 1/2 tsps pure almond extract

Good quality cherry preserve for the filling.

I recommend a Red Cherry preserve with a low sugar content. There are many good options available at specialty food stores, organic sections in regular supermarkets, and really excellent jars can often be found at your local farmers market.

Remove eggs and butter from the fridge so that they can warm up to room temperature, preheat oven to 350f if using an aluminium pan, and 300f if using a dark or non-stick pan.

Make the Almond cream; Bring the cream and almonds to a boil in a heavy bottom saucepan, remove from heat and let cool until it is warm, blend for two minutes. Let cool completely. Stir in the almond and vanilla extracts.

Beat the butter and sugar until white and very fluffy, approximately 10 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, mixing just until combined after each addition. Gently fold in the flour and cream in two batches alternately. 

The important thing when making these cupcakes is not to over bake them. Keep a close eye on them near the end of the baking time, once you can touch the centre and it feels firm and springy it is done. The very surface might still be a little sticky, but it will firm up once it is removed from the oven, so do not wait until the cup cakes turn golden brown on top. Cook cupcakes for approximately 20- 25 minutes.  Let cool on a wire rack.

Cut a hollow out of the top of the cool cupcake and fill with preserves, top with rich vanilla buttercream.

 Vanilla Bean Mousseline Buttercream: 

5 egg whites

1/2 +1/8 cream of tartar

1/2 a vanilla beans worth of seeds

1+1/8 cups of sugar

1/4 cup of water
 2 cups cool, but softened unsalted butter

Whip the egg whites on high, once they start to become soft and frothy add the cream of tartar and slowly sprinkle in the the 1/4 cup of the sugar as it whips. Beat on high as you make the syrup, you can add the syrup when it forms stiff peaks.

 In a heavy bottom saucepan mix together the 3/4 cups + 1/8 cup of sugar with the 1/4 cup of water. Stir until dissolves and bring the mixture to a boil,  once it starts to boil stop stirring entirely. Let it bubble until it reaches the soft ball stage, that is once you drop a drop of the sugar syrup into a cup of ice water and it forms a soft round ball at the bottom. It will be quite hot, so be very careful with the hot sugar liquid.

Once it reaches this point it can be added to the egg whites. turn the mixer to high and add the hot syrup in a thin, steady stream. Make sure it doesn't strike the beaters or it may splash. If you don't have a stand mixer have a friend or family member help you with this part. Use a heat proof spoon to get all of the syrup out of the pan. Beat until cool. Beat in cool butter, one tablespoon at a time until your mixture is smooth. Add the vanilla bean seeds.

(Our recipe is adjusted from the delicious mousseline recipe by Rose Levy Berambaum, there is a link to her blog on the right. if you love to bake you absolutely MUST check her out. Her books are amazing, we consider her our baking guru of sorts.)

Gateaux Rose at the Halifax Market

A big thank you to everyone who came out to support us at the Halifax Farmers Market at Pier 21 last Saturday! We hope to see you there on October 2nd, the next date we plan to attend. (As long as we can get one of the highly coveted tables, that is.)

We really enjoyed our first day, we met so many friendly people and learned a thing or two.  We are currently dreaming up new cupcake flavours, sandwich cookies, muffins and sweets for the next time. We will also have cute Gateaux Rose cupcake cups to get those individual cupcakes home safe.

We also welcome your suggestions, write a comment on this post and let us know what you would like to see on the table. We might just make it happen. =)

xo

Gateaux Rose

Prescription Medicakes

You can probably tell by now, that we here at Gateaux Rose get all sorts of interesting requests. This one proves no different. Medical cupcakes decorated in syringes, A+ exams, and stethoscopes? It happened!

These cupcakes were requested in one of my favorite cupcake flavors. Buttermilk cake with whipped dark chocolate filling and vanilla bean mousseline frosting, the perfect balance of rich and delicate flavors. And if you're wondering, the cupcake toppers are hand drawn with royal icing. 

Not too much, not too little. These were just right.    

The Bagpipe Cake.

Say what you will about the bagpipes, but I think they're a beautiful and haunting instrument. Just ask my brother and he'd agree... Well, I sure hope so anyway, because imagine his surprise when I revealed this dandy of a custom chocolate birthday bagpipe cake! 

Decorated in the traditional tartan of clan chocolate, with pipes sculpted from sugar paste. 

Happy Birthday Thomas!

"Wow! Neat! Does it play?"
"No. It's a cake."

xoxoxo

Gateaux Rose

Lights Out Cake Making!

During the high winds of Hurricane Earl, we here at Gateaux Rose still needed to fulfill 

our important cake orders - with or without power. Luckily, I was organized enough to mix and bake four batches of cake and two recipes of filling before the lights went out. The frostings were all mixed by hand (ow. my arms) and the assembly and decorating done by candlelight. Even in the dark, 

we can pull together some pretty adorable cakery.  

Example One: 

The Pinstripe and Birthday Bow Cake.

  

Example two: 

um... my birthday cake. with twig. 

Notice that both cakes are done in black and cream colours - chosen for their high contrast and better visibility in the darkness... The twig blew through a crack in the window during the storm, and so I thought it was fitting a cake topper/ birthday memento. 

And so ended another adventure at Gateaux Rose.

POST HURRICANE EMERGENCY CUPCAKE UPDATE:

It's difficult to say really, exactly how many lives our hurricane cupcake kits saved,

but our estimators suggest anywhere from one to none. And if nothing else, our kits sure did settle some demanding sweet tooth's in their time of need. 

Here are a few snaps taken at our local emergency distribution centre, Argyle Fine Art. 

We realize that not all Art Galleries are nifty enough to double as emergency cupcake stations... 

but this one is.  (Thanks Adriana)

Each kit contained enough sweetness to withstand a level 1 hurricane, or a one hour snacking session. 

And enough fire power to light three birthday candles.

Thanks to all who purchased a kit, we hope your hurricane experience was made more enjoyable.

xo

Gateaux Rose

Blueberry Breakfast Cupcakes

Muffins, or as I like to call them, “breakfast cupcakes”, are never inappropriate.  You can eat them in the morning, you can eat them for a snack, you can eat them at night, you can eat them on the go. Nobody says “don’t you know what time it is/where you are? Are you seriously going to eat a muffin now?”like they might if you were eating a cupcake at 8 am, which I do, but I’ve come to realize is not totally socially acceptable. Where cupcakes are fun, the life of the party, turnin’ heads, the muffin is like the invisible man.

I think this is because muffins are not always that good. Lets be frank, we’ve all had those way too cakey muffins. Now, that might sound weird coming form me, but they are way to sweet and heavy. What seems to have happened is that some of the mass producers of muffins took all the sugar that would have gone on top and made it a cupcake and put it in the batter. I’m ok with a little sweet something on top and yes a muffin should be pleasantly sweet, but it should not be pound cake in disguise. They also shouldn’t be gigantic.

Yeah, I understand everybody wants a little something sweet for breakfast, but it should be sweet in the right places. The base in my opinion should be just sweet enough, with a sweet crunch on top, or a berries inside, perhaps a light flavourful glaze or toasted coconut. Why not decorate them too? Yes, this my friends is a breakfast cupcake, wholesome and pleasantly sweet, maybe with a little extra something on top, pretty, and perfect for any occasion any time. Perfect for coffee Breaks. That’s my kinda thing! That’s what I’ve been working on for days in the kitchen lab.

I’ve become so obsessed with breakfast cupcakes that I think I’ve made seven or eight batches over the past few days. Four batches were made in preparation for hurricane earl, which hit Nova Scotia a few days ago. Now I just need to come up with the decorations.

Over the next few days I’ll post the recipes I’ve come up with. Give them a try, I’m sure you’ll like them. They are also suitable for people who are allergic to dairy- I have a sister and many friends who can’t eat dairy and I was thinking of them when I came up with the blueberry recipe in the first place.

Recipe no 1. Blueberry with a sprinkling of oats and almonds

Dry:
2 cups all purpose flour,
1 1/2 tsp baking powder,
1 cup granulated sugar,
1/4 tsp sea salt,
1/8 tsp nutmeg,
1/4 cup oats,
1/8 cup slivered almonds,
1/8 cup chopped walnuts,

Wet:
2 large eggs,
1/2 cup + 1 tbsp vanilla soy milk,
1/2 cup soy oil,
2 tsps vanilla (or 1 tsp vanilla + 1 pure almond extract, also yummy)

Last, but not least:
2 cups of fresh blueberries (tossed in flour)

This recipe is very easy, you will just need two bowls, a whisk and a spoon or spatula for folding. Whisk all of the dry ingredients together in the first bowl, then whisk all of the wet ingredients together in the second bowl. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour on the wet mixture. Using a spoon or spatula gently mix the two together just until combined. Finally gently fold in the berries, being careful not to break them.

Fill muffin tins until almost full, they will puff up quite a bit, but they won’t run over the sides of muffin liners. Bake at 350f until you see a bit of golden brown on top, which will take about 25-35 minutes. These are nice with a bit of a crisp top.

Happy baking! =)

Lemon Sandwich Cookies filled with White Chocolate and Marzipan

I wanted a buttery lemon sandwich cookie I could use as a counterpart to my chocolate sandwich cookie.  I think these will work particularly nicely.

Lemon Sandwich Cookie Dough:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter,
2 cups all purpose flour,
1/2 cup of granulated sugar,
1 lemon worth of zest,
1 egg yolk,
1 tsp vanilla or lemon extract
1/8 tsp  ground nutmeg,
1/8 tsp salt

1 or 2 bars of good quality white chocolate, such as “Just Us”.

1 package of good quality marzipan





To make the dough: Beat the room temperature butter and the sugar together until creamy, this will take about one minute. Add the egg yolk and extract to the butter and mix until combined. Finally stir in the remaining dry ingredients by hand. Divide the dough in two and flatten each piece into a disk or rectangle, wrap in parchment paper and refrigerate for an hour.

You can use store bought marzipan or you can make it yourself. (I make my own nut pastes by grinding nuts in my mortar & pestle and adding a touch of confectioners sugar, oil and maple syrup to the mix, but I don’t usually measure, so I will have to amend this post later to give you the exact amounts I use in my recipe. )

Roll the dough and the marzipan out between sheets of parchment paper, I use one big piece and fold it over. You can fold it and use the inside fold to shape the edges of your dough into a perfect square or rectangle. I use a small crinkle cutter to make the biscuits and the filling rounds, which were rolled quite thin; 1/8  inch thick for the dough and 1/16 for the marzipan. (the recipe works well for shortbread bar cookies too, just make them 1/4  to 1/2 inch thick)

Bake the cookies at 350f on parchment lined paper until the edges are golden brown.  When you remove them from the oven flip half of them over on the paper and place a square of the chocolate on top, as they begin to melt pat each of them down a little, then cover each square in a thin round of the marzipan.  You can then smooth the marzipan out which will simultaneously smooth the chocolate underneath. Top with the other half.  You could also put a little chocolate on this half too if you’d like, but it is not necessary, they should hold together anyway.

Good quality white chocolate looks tan or custard coloured because of the high cocoa butter content. The cheaper bars are lighter in colour because a lot of the cocoa butter is replaced with sugar, milk products and fats.

You can make these cookies with earth balance vegan spread instead of butter if you want to make the dough dairy free. Check to make sure your chocolate is dairy free as well if you are preparing it for someone who is sensitive. You might have to substitute dark chocolate since most white chocolate has some dairy in it.