Chocolate Glazed Almond Cupcakes

Ohmigod. I cannot believe how perfect these cupcakes are. These cupcakes are fancy cupcakes, like, wedding worthy cupcakes. They have the moistest golden almond cake you will ever have (seriously) and are topped with a rich dark chocolate ganache. Perfection.

Ingredients: Almond Cupcakes (the tiniest bit adapted from here), makes 18

1 and 1/3 cups granulated sugar

7 ounces almond paste

1 cup all-purpose flour, divided and spooned in and leveled

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature, cubed

1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

6 large eggs, at room temperature

Chocolate Ganache Glaze

1 and 1/3 cups chocolate chunks

1 cup heavy cream

Recipe: Almond Cupcakes

Preheat the oven to 325F. Line 1 1/2 cupcake tins with liners.

In a food processor, grind the sugar, almond paste, and 1/4 cup of flour until the mixture resembles sand.

In a small bowl, whisk together the remaining 3/4 cup of flour, baking powder, and salt.

To the almond mixture add the butter and the vanilla and almond extracts, then process until the batter is smooth and creamy.

Add the eggs one at a time, processing a little in between. After you add all the eggs, the mixture might look curdled- that’s okay.

Transfer the batter to a bowl and mix in half of the flour mixture Stir in the other half until the dry ingredients are just incorporated.

Spoon the batter into the prepared cupcake tins and bake for about 30 minutes, or until the top is a deep golden brown.

Let cool before dipping in the ganache.

Chocolate Ganache Glaze

Put the chocolate in a medium bowl and set aside.

Pour cream into a small saucepan over medium heat. When the cream comes to a simmer pour over the chocolate and whisk until smooth.

Let sit the ganache for 20 minutes before dipping the cupcakes unto it.

 

 

Enjoy!

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Pastel Rainbow Cookies

I used to get rainbow cookies (another name for Italian Tricolors) all the time from Wegmans and I loved them but thought they seemed much too complicated to make.  Then I found a recipe in Good Housekeeping Cookbook (Good Housekeeping Favorite Recipes published 2006) and finally made them! . These are so much easier to make than they look, so they are perfect when you want to impress your friends!

Ingredients:

1 can (7-8 ounces) almond paste

3/4 cup butter (1 and 1/2 sticks), softened

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

3 large eggs, room temperature

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

pink (or red) food coloring

yellow food coloring

purple food coloring

2/3 cups apricot preserves or apricot cake/pastry filling (12 ounces)

3 ounces semi-sweet chocolate

1 teaspoon vegetable shortening

Recipe:

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease three 8 inch square metal or disposable baking pans. Line the bottoms with waxed parchment paper then grease and flour them.

In a large bowl, with mixer at medium-high speed, beat almond paste, butter, sugar, and almond paste until mostly combined. (there will be a few small lumps.)

Reduce the speed and beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing after each one. Beat in flour and salt until just combined.

Divide the batter into 3 parts. Divide 2/3’s of the batter into two small bowls. Leave 1/3 of the batter in the large bowl. Stir in small amounts of different food coloring into each bowl. (I only used a few drops of each)

Spoon batters into pans. Smoothing with a spatula. They will be very thin.

Bake until a toothpick inserted into the layers comes out clean, 10-12 minutes. Cool pans on wire racks for 5 minutes. Run a knife around the sides of the the pans to loosen layers. Invert layers onto racks, leaving the waxed parchment paper attached until they cool completely.

When the layers are cool, press the apricot filling through a sieve to remove large pieces of fruit. Remove wax paper from layers. Invert the purple layer onto a flat surface and spread with apricot filling. Stack yellow layer on top of purple layer and spread apricot filling on that layer. Stack pink layer onto of yellow layer.

In a small saucepan, heat chocolate and shortening over low heat. Stir frequently until melted. Spread the chocolate mixture on top of the pink layer (not on the sides); refrigerate for at least 1 hour or until chocolate is firm.

To serve, trim the edges off with a serrated knife. Cut stacked layers into 6 strips (it will be 6×6) Cut each strip crosswise into 6 pieces.

Enjoy!