Kids between the ages of 3 and 7 are pretty amazing.  They’re little screaming, snotting, jumping, and crashing balls of honesty.  If they don’t like you, you know it.  If they recognize you for the poopoo head that you are, they’re not afraid to tell you- to your face, in ear piercing tones.  They haven’t yet developed the ability to filter their opinion of you.  It’s simultaniously refreshing and completely unsettling.

That’s why, whenever I meet new kids, I come with cupcakes.  Not just cupcakes, but cupcakes with sprinkles.  It works every time.  It’s irresistable.  It’s my dirty little trick.  Walk into their house with cupcakes and a smile on your face, and you’ve got an instant friend.  And when they come and thank you for the cupcake with chocolate all over their face- well, there’s nothing better.

These cupcakes are dinner party perfect.  They’re light and delicate with the flavors of almond and fresh raspberry.  Great for adults and not too overpowering and strange for kids.  The chocolate ganache is not too sweet or heavy and spreads on the cupcake with a beautiful sheen.  Kids absolutely love them, but they’re sophisticated enough to enjoy with coffee long after the kiddies have gone to bed.  Thank you Courtney, Bill and cutie Macallan for a beautiful dinner.

Raspberry Almond Cupcakes

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makes 12 cupcakes

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

5 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1 large egg

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1/2 cup whole milk

1/3 cup fresh raspberries, roughly chopped

Put a rack in the middle of the oen and preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line muffin cups with paper liners.

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt inside a bowl.

Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Beat in egg and almond extract.  Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture and milk alternately in 3 batches, beginning and ending with the flour mixture and beating just until incorporated.  Fold in the raspberries.

Divide the batter among lined muffin cups.  Bake until pale golden and a wooden pick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean, about 20 minutes.  Turn cupcakes out onto a rack to cool completely.

Spread frosting on cupcakes once cooled.

Chocolate Ganache

3/4 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips (I used chocolate chunks)

1/4 cup heavy cream

Put chocolate chips in a small bowl.  Bring cream to a simmer in a small heavy saucepan.  Pour cream evenly over chocolate.  Let stand for one minute to soften, then stir until smooth.  If frosting is too loose to spread, let it sit at room temperature for 10 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, frosting will continue to thicken as it stands.

 These little beauties are the answer to any of life’s little hiccups.  Really.  Say, for example, you fall asleep with a candle burning in the  bedroom of the apartment you share with four other people.  Say, you wake up with the blankets on top of you up in flames… serious flames.  Say, in fear and shock and sleep, you flee your room and  run to your roommate’s room.  You knock furiously.  You knock like your bedroom is on fire, because it is.  You knock, wondering why you’re knocking when your bedroom is on fire. Say, your roommate answers the door is just her underwear, hears your plight through sleepy ears, and follows you in disbelief to your bedroom, which is as you left it, on fire.  Say, your brave roommate tries to help you put out the flames with the  smother technique, using all of your clothes and pillows as fire extinguishers.  It works, no thanks to you.  You were fanning the flames, not smothering them.  Say you and your roommate open your bedroom window and shove the charred remains of your blankets, clothes and pillows out, and watch them drop the three floors to the ground.  How would you thank your brave, kind, talented roommate?  How would you ensure your continued friendship help in future life threatening events?  Red Velvet  Cupcakes.  They work.  I have the friend and the blackened ceiling to prove it.  

 There are many, many recipes for Red Velvet Cupcakes out there these days.  I’m always experimenting with new formulas.  Sometimes I want more a darker, sexier cake with more chocolate.  Other times I want a bright red vanilla bean cake.  This recipe falls somewhere in the middle.  I’ve adapted this recipe from one of my new favorite cookbooks from the always delicious Citizen Cake in San Francisco.  

Buttermilk Red Velvet 

adapted from Demolition Desserts 

8 Tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temp

1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar

2 large eggs, at room temp

1/2 teaspoon vanilla 

 2 cups cake flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

3/4 cup buttermilk

2 Tablespoons Red Food coloring 

 1. Preheat the oen to 325.  Sift together flour, baking powder and baking soda.  Add the kosher salt after sifting and set aside.  Measure out the buttermilk and red rood coloring.  Add the die to the buttermilk for easier incorporation later.

2. Cream the butter and the sugar using an electric mixer, until the mixture is pale and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time, letting the eggs beat for 1 mintue in between additions.  Scrape down the bowl in between additions. 

3.  Add the dry ingredients alternately with the wet ingredients.  Start by adding one third of the flour mixture.  Mix just to incorporate.  Add half of the buttermilk.  Add another one third of the flour mixture.  Mix to incorporate.  Add the last half of buttermilk, followed by the last third of flour.  

4. Spoon into paper lined cupcake pans.  Check the cupcakes after 12 minutes.  Makes 12.

 I topped these cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and chocolate ganache.  Those recipes to follow.  

Red Velvet Cupcakes.  They’re all the rage now for a reason… because they taste delicious, and can help you thank a friend after an apartment fire.  The candle on top of the cupcake… well I guess that’s just ironic.