Back to Baking

After a few crazy weeks of work and not much baking, I was finally able to devote a few hours to my kitchen this weekend. I'm happy with my "core" recipes - recipes that I LOVE - but I'm always on the lookout for new things to add to my repertoire. Tried a few new things this week:

1. Covering cupcakes in fondant. These came out pretty well for my first try! It's not terribly hard to do. I ran out of time for decorating ... but they're still cute and delicious!

Chocolate cupcakes with buttercream icing and fondant, with fondant flowers:

2. Pastry Cream

Perhaps more so than cake flavors, I really want to expand my offering of cake/cupcake fillings. I saw a recipe for raspberry pastry cream this week, and just had to try it.

The pastry cream itself is really easy to make. You basically add boiling milk to a mixture of egg, cornstarch and sugar, heat until thickened, and then add a bit of butter and vanilla. Once it is chilled, I added some seedless raspberry puree that I made. It is VERY raspberry! Alone, it's a bit on the tart side, but when paired with a sweeter cake, it's absolutely delicious. This white cake is definitely one of my favorites.

Raspberry Cream Cake - White velvet cake with raspberry cream filling and buttercream icing: