Cherry Cupcakes - Pink Saturday

Photo courtesy of Photobucket - Creative Commons Attribution

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...A bit of chocolate is good for the soul and mine is happy right now. These cupcakes go together quickly and are better for you than most. That's not to say they're better for you than an apple might be, but the folks at Eating Well have managed to reduced the fat and calories and still deliver something you'll enjoy. If you need to take the edge off a sweet tooth, give these a try. I'm happy to report that despite what's been taken from them, enough remains to make these a really nice snack. If you object to the use of food coloring, by all means omit it. It adds nothing but a lovely pink hue to the cupcakes. It is Pink Saturday, so I decided to use it. Here's the recipe.

Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite courtesy of Eating Well

Ingredients:
Cake
3/4 cup whole-wheat pastry flour (see Note)
3/4 cup cake flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup nonfat buttermilk
1-1/2 cups chopped pitted cherries, fresh or frozen (thawed and drained), plus 12 fresh cherries with stems for garnish
Frosting
6 ounces reduced-fat cream cheese (Neufchâtel), at room temperature
1 /2 cup reduced-fat sour cream
1 cup packed confectioners’ sugar
Red Food coloring
Milk for thinning

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 12 (1/2-cup) muffin cups with paper liners.
2) Whisk whole-wheat flour, cake flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.
3) Beat granulated sugar and oil in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until combined. Beat in egg and vanilla until well combined. With mixer on low, alternately mix in dry ingredients and buttermilk, starting and ending with dry ingredients and scraping sides of the bowl as needed, until just combined. Fold in chopped cherries until just combined. Divide batter among prepared cups (they will be full).
4) Bake the cupcakes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 22 to 26 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.
5) Meanwhile, beat cream cheese, sour cream and confectioners’ sugar with an electric mixer until smooth. Add a drop or two of red food color to tint icing. Refrigerate frosting until very cold, about 2 hours. Thin with milk if necessary to spread on cooled cupcakes. Garnish with a cherry on top. Yield: 12 cupcakes.

You might also enjoy these recipes:
Pumpkin Cupcakes with Maple Cream Frosting - One Perfect Bite
Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes - Sugar Plum
Raspberry Cup Cakes - My Kitchen Treasures
Red Velvet Cupcakes - What's for Dinner Across State Lines
Carrot Cupcakes - Christine's Cuisine
Owl Cupcakes - Sinfully Southern Sweets
German Chocolate Cupcakes - Barbara Bakes

This post is being linked to:
Pink Saturday, sponsored by Beverly at How Sweet the Sound.

Almond and Cherry Torte

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...A happy convergence of incidents led to the creation of this buttery torte. While sorting through my pantry, I found a half-used container of glaceed cherries that were still edible and soft enough to use. The prior evening I'd stumbled on a, new-to-me, site called Cake Crumbs and Cooking The feature that day had been a cherry cake that sounded like it would be perfect for tea or dessert. A version of the recipe also appeared in Delia Online and in the BBC Good Food Magazine. Thus, armed with cherries and several recipes, all of which had been well-received, I began to make my first ever cherry cake. The first step was to convert ingredients from metric to standard US measure. That done, I made a few changes to the base recipe to reflect the fact I had no self-rising flour and only half the cherries suggested in the original recipe. Undeterred, I carried on and within two hours had a lovely cake with a soft buttery crumb and marvelous almond flavor. Unfortunately, while they added texture to the cake the taste of the cherries was barely perceptible. In an effort to keep the fruit from sinking to the bottom of the cake, I halved and rinsed the cherries as had been suggested. I took the additional step of tossing them with flour before adding them to the cake batter. All that changed nothing. They sank anyway and probably lost flavor when their syrup was washed away. The strange thing is that I liked the cake and found the fruit almost superfluous. The cake is barely sweet but the almond meal and topping make it extremely flavorful. It is far more like a Viennese torte that a cherry cake. Would I make it again? Not with glaceed cherries, unless I had leftover bounty from my Christmas cooking. While I've heard some classify this dessert as being cheap as chips, it is not inexpensive to make and, while it is lovely, I like more bang for my buck. For those of you who are curious, here's the recipe.

Almond and Cherry Torte...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite, adapted from several British sources

Ingredients:
2 sticks (8-oz.) butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 small container (8-oz.) glace cherries, halved and rinsed
1 cup (4-oz.) ground almonds
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup (2-oz.) flaked almonds
Confectioners' sugar

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease bottom and sides of a high sided 8-inch cake pan. Line bottom with parchment paper. Grease paper. Dust bottom and sides of pan with flour.
2) Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating just until incorporated. Add almond extract and mix to combine.
3) Sift flour, baking powder and salt together. Fold into egg mixture. Fold in cherries, almonds and milk.
4) Spoon mixture into prepared pan. Level top and sprinkle with sliced almonds. Bake for 1¼ -1½ hrs or until cake has risen and is firm to the touch.
5) Remove cake from oven and cool in pan for 30 minutes. Turn pan onto wire rack to cool completely.
6) Dust top of cake with confectioners' sugar just before serving. Yield: 12 servings.

You might also enjoy these recipes:
Toscatarta - One Perfect Bite
Lemon and Almond Tart - One Perfect Bite
Chinese-Style Almond Cookies - One Perfect Bite

(Almost) Cherry Garcia Ice Cream

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...Had the gods of mythology sampled this Ben and Jerry favorite, there would have been no talk of ambrosia and an ice cream parlor would have, instead, been opened on the top of Mount Olympus. It is remarkably good and it's Bob's ice cream of choice. It's hard to find Cherry Garcia ice cream in many parts of the world, so, each year before we leave, Bob has his fill of it while we are still in DEFCON 1. It is remarkably easy to prepare and I have only one caution should you decide to make it. It's important not to overwork the chocolate and cherry mixture when folding it into the cream. It's also important to keep the chocolate shavings thick enough to retain their shape during the process. Now to the real question. Does it actually taste like Cherry Garcia ice cream? Kinda. Sorta. Maybe. A lot depends on the flavor of the Bing cherries you use. That can vary from one pint to another, so I've started using a tablespoon of kirsch to assure that wonderful cherry flavor. The recipe is Tom and Jerry's own, so I have not included kirsch in the ingredient list. Here's how they do it.

Cherry Garcia Ice Cream...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite, courtesy of Ben and Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream and Dessert Book

Ingredients:
1/4 cup shaved plain chocolate (we prefer Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate candy bars)
1/4 cup fresh Bing cherries, halved and pitted (you may use canned cherries, but be sure to drain the syrup)
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups heavy or whipping cream
1 cup milk

Directions:
1) Place shaved chocolate flakes and the cherries in separate bowls. Cover and refrigerate.
2) Whisk eggs in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes. Whisk in sugar, a little at a time, then continue whisking until completely blended, about 1 minute more. Pour in the cream and milk and whisk to blend.
3) Transfer mixture to an ice cream maker and freeze following the manufacturer’s instructions.
4) After ice cream stiffens (about 2 minutes before it is done), add chocolate and cherries, then continue freezing until ice cream is ready. Yield: 1 quart.

You might also enjoy these recipes:
Ice Cream Crunch Cake - One Perfect Bite
Fresh Mint Ice Cream - One Perfect Bite
Lemon Buttermilk Ice Cream - One Perfect Bite
Cherry Ice Cream with Chocolate Chips - Simply Recipes
Snickerdoodle Ice Cream - The Recipe Girl
Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream - David Lebovitz