Rose Cherry Pistachio Cake

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This week's inspiration was one of the new Quaker oatmeal flavors: cherry pistachio. Talk about yum. I also make a box shaped cake. Creative adjectives are not coming to mind. Though, I employ much effort to state that I do believe the structure gives this cake more elegance. Sharp, crisp, clean.

I initially wanted to post this cake last weekend, however catastrophe struck and the cake was a mess. Who knew you could ever have too fluffy of a cake? The layers I baked simply fell apart in my hands. Sad because it did taste good. Sad because I spent so much time whipping up the batter. Sad because the pistachios cost me $14.99 a pound... Back to the farmers market I went so I could post these pictures today. It's been a while since my last post about those strawberries and cream scones. I am determined to keep up with this blog!

I love the color green, perhaps that's why I love pistachios!

I also had to brainstorm what design I wanted to decorate the cake with. I ended up jet doodling sketches of this cake curing calculus. I kid you not, the guy to my right was just doodling memes while the guy to my left checked out into la la dreamland for the period. Within my vicinity I was the most productive. No worries, I will hop right onto calculus studying this weekend!

The funny thing about this cake was that I thought I would have saved money by buying pistachios and shelling them myself. I bought a jar for $5.00 and to my dismay the shelled pistachios fill up a quarter of the volume of the container. Talk about a moment of utter despair when I just stared at the bowl of shells and then the pathetic jar of pistachios. Words of advice, just buy unsalted shelled pistachios. Save yourself the anguish.

This cake has fine crumb almost like a chiffon, but it is also dense. The pistachio flavor came out well, and the green hue is simply delicate. The cherries added a bit of tartness and the rose added a hint of a floral note to tie it all together. I also used the delicious buttercream frosting from Cherry Choc Cupcake. I posted the scaled down version I used below using marscapone, but definitely check out her post. This was definitely a fun cake for me to make despite the bumps in the road. Enjoy!

Pistachio Chiffon

Yields one 20 x 16 inch jelly roll pan

INGREDIENTS

• 120 grams cake flour
• 160 grams sugar
• 50 grams finely ground pistachios
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 egg yolks
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 egg whites
• 3/4 teaspoons cream of tartar

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 325 degrees fahrenheit

1. Combine the flour, sugar, pistachios, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl.
2. Whisk together the egg yolks, vanilla, water, and melted butter. Pour this liquid into the dry ingredients and whisk to combine.
3. Put the cream of tartar into the egg whites. Beginning on low speed of a mixer, beat the egg whites. Increase the speed gradually to obtain soft peaks.
4. Fold the egg whites into the batter in 3 additions. Pour into a parchment paper lined pan and bake until golden. Roughly 15 minutes for a 20x16 inch jelly roll pan.

Marscapone Buttercream

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup sugar
• 2 1/2 tablespoons flour
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 oz marscapone
• 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature 

DIRECTION

1. Whisk together the sugar, flour, cornstarch, salt, and milk. Pour through a sieve to get any chunks out, and cook the mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly until it becomes thick. Allow to cool to room temperature.
2. On medium speed of a mixer, beat the cooked milk mixture for a few seconds, and then begin adding in the butter a few tablespoons at a time. Once all the butter is incorporated, add in the marscapone.
3. Beat the buttercream until fluffy, and then add in the vanilla. Use immediately.
4. To get the cherry rose filling, add in some finely chopped dried cherries and a drop or two of rose essence depending on how you divvy up the frosting.  

♥Valentine's Day♥

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Remember handing out your valentines to your classmates in elementary school? If I could go back, I would pass out these cupcakes instead of those candy hearts with the printed messages like "I luv u" or "Be mine". Admit it, they are kind of gross unless they are the sweet tart flavored ones. Otherwise they're chalky and crumble in your mouth, but not in the good way.

I'm not too big on the Valentine's Day craze. However, I enjoy reading the hallmark cards at the grocery story while I smirk and cringe at the same time. Who comes up with the stuff that is written on these cards!? Romantic? No. Cute? Ehhh, depends. Hilarious? Yup. I won't be the love killer, so here's one of my new favorite songs and it fits the Valentine's Day feeling... sort of. It depends on what context you put the lyrics in. Haha, you'll understand once you watch the video. My sister introduced me to Ed Sheeran, and I'm glad she did. I love acoustics, and if you're a fan of Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) from Harry Potter, watch this cute video! It will give you a little chuckle:)

I wanted to post these cupcakes before the holiday rolled around, so I ended up making my Momofuku Blueberry cookies this weekend as well. Check those out here! Too many dishes, copious amounts of butter, and excessive quality control tasting. I am a baker who tastes the batter throughout the entire process to ensure I didn't do anything wrong. I also have the tendency to taste each separate ingredient along the way. I'm just so curious as to what they taste like alone. From my experience, melted butter and bittersweet chocolate has made my tongue shrivel in disgust, a drop of vanilla extract made me tear up because it was so bitter, peppermint extract does not equate to the wintery fresh feeling of toothpaste, and lemon zest, well that was just a bad, bad idea. I guess sugar makes everything better! I've also noticed that I never produce the volume of goods a certain recipe yields.  I just need to stop spoon licking now don't I?

Enjoy!

Dark Cherry Cupcakes
Yields ~15 cupcakes

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 
• small pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick), room temperature
• 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 10 oz frozen, pitted, dark cherries*

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit

1. Places the frozen cherries into a bowl and microwave on high for 3 minutes. They should be defrosted, leaving you with a mixture of the cherries and their juices.* Once the cherries have reached this state, mashed them up a bit with a fork, and then let them cool while you proceed with the rest of the recipe. 
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
3. Microwave buttermilk until slightly warm. Roughly 20 seconds. Stir in vanilla.
4. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter for 1 minute on medium high speed. Add in the sugar and continue to beat at the same speed until the mixture is fluffy. 
5. Add in the eggs one at a time, waiting to add each consecutive one until the mixture is homogenous. Whip until fluffy.
6. Now add the flour in three parts, alternating with the buttermilk and vanilla. Once all the dry ingredients have been moistened, add in the cherry mixture and beat until well combined. Fill the cupcake liners up 3/4 of the way. Bake for 15 minutes or until done.

Almond Frosting

INGREDIENTS

• 2 tablespoons flour
• 3/4 cup milk
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks)
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar**

DIRECTIONS

1. Cook the milk and the flour over medium heat until thick. Pour into another bowl and place parchment paper on top to prevent a skin from forming. Let it cool to room temperature.
2. Beat the butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in the flour mixture and beat on medium high speed until the frosting is fluffy and significantly lighter in color.
3. Add in extracts, and beat in the powdered sugar. Use immediately.

NOTES:

* It should measure out to be roughly 1 1/2 cups of cherries, however I do advise weighing this ingredient! If you use maraschino cherries, you probably can use less than 10 oz to get enough flavor.
** The stiffer your frosting is, the sharper the ruffles will look. Add more or less powdered sugar to get your desired look.

DECORATING:

To get the ruffled effect, use a petal/teardrop shape tip (I used No. 104 from Wilton) and starting from the outside, pipe while wiggling the piping bag to get the ruffles. You will keep moving toward the center as if you're making concentric circles. Once you approach the center, piping the ruffles gets difficult, so no worries if it doesn't look as pretty as the other layers. You can top it off with a chocolate covered cherry or any other type of candy to cover up the shabby looking buttercream. It doubles as a decoration and built in photoshop.