Lemons, Blackberries and Chocolate. Oh my!

   So after a wonderful lunch at Blue Planet with my friends Tara and Andrew we decided to spend the afternoon in the kitchen. Tara and Andrew were talking about chocolate mousse and Andrew was bragging about how good his was. Tara's recipe called for Tofu so we were not as excited about her version. Blech. I've been wanting to make those lemon blackberry cupcakes I was talking about earlier so we all went out separate ways and met up about an hour later in my kitchen. Andrew and I made a trip to Hy-Vee to pick up all the groceries we would need to begin our culinary adventures. I was in luck as hy-vee butter was on sale for $1.98 a pound ((limit two) I made Andrew check out separately so I could get 4). We got home and started rocking out to some Irish music since it is only a week away from the big day! When Tara finally made her appearance we got everything started. We'll start out with Andrew's mousse. I think he was getting annoyed with me trying to take pictures of everything so I don't have picture for everything...so sorry. Blame him!

Chocolate Mousse Recipe

INGREDIENTS

·         4 1/2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

·         2 tablespoons (1 ounce) unsalted butter, diced

·         2 tablespoons espresso or very strong coffee (I used decaf espresso from a local Starbucks)

·         1 cup cold heavy cream

·         3 large eggs, separated

·         1 tablespoon sugar

METHOD

1 Whip the cream to soft peaks, then refrigerate.

2 Combine the chocolate, butter, and espresso in the top of a double boiler over hot, but not simmering, water, stirring frequently until smooth. Remove from the heat and let cool until the chocolate is just slightly warmer than body temperature. To test, dab some chocolate on your bottom lip. It should feel warm. If it is too cool, the mixture will seize when the other ingredients are added.

3 Once the melted chocolate has cooled slightly, whip the egg whites in a medium bowl until they are foamy and beginning to hold a shape. Sprinkle in the sugar and beat until soft peaks form.

4 When the chocolate has reached the proper temperature, stir in the yolks. Gently stir in about one-third of the whipped cream. Fold in half the whites just until incorporated, then fold in the remaining whites, and finally the remaining whipped cream.

5 Spoon or pipe the mousse into a serving bowl or individual dishes. If you wish, layer in fresh raspberries and whipped cream. Refrigerate for at least 8 hours. (The mousse can be refrigerated for up to a day.)

   I Unfortunately didn't get pictures of Andrew's make shift double boiler but somehow it worked. Above he is pictured smashing espresso beans with a meat tenderizer because I don't have a grinder. I really should. A good spice grinder can work wonders in the kitchen. Andrew was having fun with the kitchenaid. I think it's the real reason he wanted to come over. He didn't want to hang out with me, he wanted to hang out with the kitchenaid. 

   I think I'm going to get in trouble for posting pictures of him...especially this one. However, if you look further than Andrew you can see the lovely soft peaks he was working on getting with the whipped cream before refrigerating it and moving on to the egg whites. Tara was supposed to be learning through out all of this but she was watching informational videos on facials on her computer at the table. All I have to say is that my next facial better be amazing...got it lady? Anyways we'll move onto some more of Andrew's chocolate mousse. 

      Andrew's soft peaks were a little stiff but we'll forgive him because the end result was very delicious. He started mixing everything together and gently folding us into chocolate decadence. 

      Um....can we say yummy? The recipe says to pipe it into smaller containers and chill but since we were just splitting it we put it into ziplock containers and threw them in the fridge to enjoy later. Not as pretty but still as  yummy. However, we all know the best part is licking the bowl once you are done with it. Delicious!

     Once Andrew allowed me access to my kitchenaid again I started in on our cupcakes. They are, of course, a Martha recipe. I do love her baked goods. I think its almost impossible to make something that isn't yummy if its from her. I just used her lemon cake recipe and added blackberries on my own and made up my own frosting. They are just the right balance of sweet and sour. Here's her recipe and I'll walk you through my modifications...

·         1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pans

·         2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for pans

·         1/2 teaspoon baking powder

·         1/2 teaspoon baking soda

·         1 teaspoon salt

·         1 tablespoon lemon zest

·         2 cups sugar

·         2 large eggs plus 3 large egg yolks

·         1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

·         1 cup low-fat buttermilk

·         1 lemon, thinly sliced and seeded

·      

Directions

1.       Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour two 8-by-2-inch cake pans, tapping out excess flour. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and lemon zest.

2.      In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar until light and fluffy. With mixer on low, beat in eggs and yolks, one at a time. Beat in 2 tablespoons lemon juice. Alternately beat in flour mixture and buttermilk beginning and ending with flour mixture; mix just until combined.

3.      Divide batter between pans; smooth tops. Bake until cakes pull away from sides of pans, 32 to 35 minutes. Let cool in pans 10 minutes. Run a knife around edges of pans and invert cakes onto a wire rack.

4.      While cakes are baking, bring remaining 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup water to a boil in a saucepan. Add lemon slices and simmer 25 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer lemon slices to a waxed-paper-lined plate. Stir remaining 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice into syrup.

5.      Using a toothpick, poke holes in warm cakes on rack. Brush with lemon syrup. Let cool completely. Prepare frosting, substituting 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice for vanilla extract. Frost cooled cakes and top with candied lemon slices.

      I think the first difference is I decided to make cupcakes and not a cake so my bake time was dramatically different. I started like I did last time with sifting all the dry ingredients together. This time there was one more ingredient. Lemon zest. 

    The lemon zest went straight into the dry ingredients so I didn't have to worry about forgetting it later. 

   I then had the fun job of juicing all of the lemons I bought since I ended up using the juice in three different places. I added it to the batter, to the lemon simple syrup that went onto the cupcakes when they came out of the oven and also into the lemon blackberry buttercream frosting I made. Before:

     Awww...they look so pretty! Until I destroyed them and made my table a sticky mess....After:

      I put the rest of the batter together as per the recipe. The main difference was that I added blackberries into my batter. I had chopped up the blackberries into smaller pieces so that there was a better chance of getting more into each bite. I then dusted them with flour. This keeps all the berries from sinking to the bottom of the cupcakes. 

     When I was ready to add the berries I took the paddle off of the mixer. If I used the paddle to mix them in they would have fallen apart and my batter would have been a nice purple color as opposed to the lovely lemon cake with blackberries as an accent. When I had everything mixed in we were ready to bake those bad boys!

      I used my scoop to portion out the batter. If I were making this as a cake I would have baked it for 35 minutes. If I baked these little guys for that long, I'd have lemon bricks. I brought the bake time down in between 18-20 minutes and they turned out great!

       While the cupcakes were baking I made the simply syrup from the recipe above but I didn't candy any lemon wheels. I didn't think they would work too well for these cupcakes and I honestly just wasn't looking to work that hard this afternoon! Perhaps another day I'll give it a shot. The lemon simple syrup was delicious and I have some left over so I see some awesome cocktails in my future. 

      After I got done with all the cupcakes I started to make some awesome frosting. Sadly, I lost power in my camera around this point so I have no pictures of me making the frosting, just the end result. What I did was I took the rest of the blackberries and chopped them up and put a little sugar on them to get their juices flowing. I then took half of those berries and pressed them through a sieve to get just the juices and not all the seeds. I took the juice from the berries and added some of the lemon juice to that and set it aside. I creamed two sticks of butter together and slowly added powdered sugar, the juice mixture and some of the simple syrup from earlier. I added a few of the berries that still had their seeds for the visual effect but not enough that you were eating crunchy frosting. I piped the frosting on the cupcakes and ended up with a lovely result. 

     Andrew couldn't resist and started taking a cupcake as I was taking the picture! They were in fact amazing. I know this because I actually ate one. Simply divine. I think this is a definite do over. I just wish I had yellow cupcake liners because I think they would have been more appropriate....alas...next time. Well there are my baking adventures for this week! Next week should be fun when I attempt to make some St. Patrick's Day cupcakes using both Jameson whiskey and Irish Cream...

Until then....