From the Sara Parrilli pantry, comes a dark and mysterious bottle.....
Can you see it hiding behind the colored decorating sugars?
What can it be?
Can you see it hiding behind the colored decorating sugars?
What can it be?Even the label is suspicious-looking
for something belonging in a pantry.
It's maple bark extract!
Use with caution, this stuff is potent, but it
makes for a delicious and unusually-flavored frosting.
for something belonging in a pantry.
It's maple bark extract!Use with caution, this stuff is potent, but it
makes for a delicious and unusually-flavored frosting.
1-2-3-4 Carrot Cake (Cupcakes)
With Maple Bark Cream Cheese Frosting
In my new Alice Water’s cookbook, The Art of Simple Food, she discusses the basics of what she calls a “1-2-3-4 Cake:” 1-cup butter, 2 cups sugar, 3 cups flour, and 4 eggs. This way you need not look at a recipe in order to make a cake. I wanted to make carrot cupcakes because, in an effort to tighten my spending belt, I have 5 lb. bag of carrots in the fridge. Though I should have used a few more carrots, the results were delicious as I learned some new pointers from her book, along with some of my own realizations. So as not to post too much info along with the recipe itself, I've put that into a separate blog.
The Cake Recipe:
Per Alice Waters with my alterations. The end result was soft, moist, and a little dense from the carrots, though I think I could have used more carrots.
I made 24 cupcakes, using 3 muffin/cupcake tins, and my one ceramic dish that has heart-shaped cups, all lined with paper baking cups.
Preheat 350˚F.
Separate 4 eggs.
Measure 1-cup milk. I set it on the stove above the oven to help come to room temperature, as the house where I live is very cold in the winter.
Measure 3 ½ cups of flour in a bowl. I added the extra ½ cup to make up for the carrots, but in the end I could have use more carrots.
In a small bowl or large measuring cup, add 4 teaspoons baking powder, whole nutmeg pounded in a mortar and pestle (or ground nutmeg), maybe a teaspoon each of cinnamon powder and ground ginger, 4-5 black peppercorns, and ½ teaspoon salt (unless using salted butter). I like to measure these ingredients separately, with some of the measured flour, and then return the flour mixture back to the bowl to fluff and incorporate.
In mixer beat ½ cup butter (I cut butter from 1 cup in half and then added ½ cup oil* AFTER creaming and along with the carrots).
Add 2 cups sugar (I always use less a little less than this). Cream until light and fluffy, 5-10 min. Then add egg yolk one at a time and 1 tsp. vanilla
While butter and sugar are creaming, shred 5-6 medium-large carrots, or more if you area feeling daring. Shave and mix in about a 1” chunk of fresh ginger into carrots. Add carrots gradually to creamed mixture, adding the oil* to moisten.
Add flour and milk alternately, starting and ending with flour. Don’t over mix.
Beat egg whites to soft peaks and fold first a third, and then the rest of them in.
Bake at least 25 min, until lightly browned and perfectly risen.
Maple Bark* Cream Cheese Frosting:
*If you happen to have this extract available, though it is not necessary to make a delicious icing.
First prepare a basic icing. You could use this alone as a glaze and omit the cream cheese.
I usually eyeball the amount of powdered sugar I am going to use. Maybe a cup or so depending on how much you want to spread on your cake or cupcakes. Gradually add orange juice and a little lemon juice in small amounts so it does not turn to liquid. Add about ½ lemon’s worth of lemon zest. (If you want to glaze the cupcakes, you can use just this mixture and drizzle it onto them when they come hot out of the oven. The heat will help the glaze melt in better.)
Then, if you have maple bark extract, add a TRACE amount. If you’ve never used it before, taste a little on your finger first so you get an idea of its flavor, as it is quite bitter and bizarre tasting on it’s own. It is a dark, bitter, burnt maple-vanilla-espresso grounds sort of flavor with an odd something else I can’t put my finger on… A couple drops to start!
To add the softened cream cheese, scrape most of the icing out of the mixer, and beat in the cream cheese with whatever’s left. Slowly add the icing back into the bowl. You can add more juice if you want a thinner frosting. I made my own decorating sugars in different colors with using icing colors.
With Maple Bark Cream Cheese Frosting
In my new Alice Water’s cookbook, The Art of Simple Food, she discusses the basics of what she calls a “1-2-3-4 Cake:” 1-cup butter, 2 cups sugar, 3 cups flour, and 4 eggs. This way you need not look at a recipe in order to make a cake. I wanted to make carrot cupcakes because, in an effort to tighten my spending belt, I have 5 lb. bag of carrots in the fridge. Though I should have used a few more carrots, the results were delicious as I learned some new pointers from her book, along with some of my own realizations. So as not to post too much info along with the recipe itself, I've put that into a separate blog.The Cake Recipe:
Per Alice Waters with my alterations. The end result was soft, moist, and a little dense from the carrots, though I think I could have used more carrots.
I made 24 cupcakes, using 3 muffin/cupcake tins, and my one ceramic dish that has heart-shaped cups, all lined with paper baking cups.
Preheat 350˚F.
Separate 4 eggs.
Measure 1-cup milk. I set it on the stove above the oven to help come to room temperature, as the house where I live is very cold in the winter.
Measure 3 ½ cups of flour in a bowl. I added the extra ½ cup to make up for the carrots, but in the end I could have use more carrots.
In a small bowl or large measuring cup, add 4 teaspoons baking powder, whole nutmeg pounded in a mortar and pestle (or ground nutmeg), maybe a teaspoon each of cinnamon powder and ground ginger, 4-5 black peppercorns, and ½ teaspoon salt (unless using salted butter). I like to measure these ingredients separately, with some of the measured flour, and then return the flour mixture back to the bowl to fluff and incorporate.
In mixer beat ½ cup butter (I cut butter from 1 cup in half and then added ½ cup oil* AFTER creaming and along with the carrots).
Add 2 cups sugar (I always use less a little less than this). Cream until light and fluffy, 5-10 min. Then add egg yolk one at a time and 1 tsp. vanilla
While butter and sugar are creaming, shred 5-6 medium-large carrots, or more if you area feeling daring. Shave and mix in about a 1” chunk of fresh ginger into carrots. Add carrots gradually to creamed mixture, adding the oil* to moisten.
Add flour and milk alternately, starting and ending with flour. Don’t over mix.
Beat egg whites to soft peaks and fold first a third, and then the rest of them in.
Bake at least 25 min, until lightly browned and perfectly risen.
Maple Bark* Cream Cheese Frosting:
*If you happen to have this extract available, though it is not necessary to make a delicious icing.
First prepare a basic icing. You could use this alone as a glaze and omit the cream cheese.
I usually eyeball the amount of powdered sugar I am going to use. Maybe a cup or so depending on how much you want to spread on your cake or cupcakes. Gradually add orange juice and a little lemon juice in small amounts so it does not turn to liquid. Add about ½ lemon’s worth of lemon zest. (If you want to glaze the cupcakes, you can use just this mixture and drizzle it onto them when they come hot out of the oven. The heat will help the glaze melt in better.)
Then, if you have maple bark extract, add a TRACE amount. If you’ve never used it before, taste a little on your finger first so you get an idea of its flavor, as it is quite bitter and bizarre tasting on it’s own. It is a dark, bitter, burnt maple-vanilla-espresso grounds sort of flavor with an odd something else I can’t put my finger on… A couple drops to start!
To add the softened cream cheese, scrape most of the icing out of the mixer, and beat in the cream cheese with whatever’s left. Slowly add the icing back into the bowl. You can add more juice if you want a thinner frosting. I made my own decorating sugars in different colors with using icing colors.
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