Bring to a rolling boil.
Reduce heat to a simmer and allow the sauce to thicken – about 15 minutes
Cover and cool in the refrigerator. Sauce will thicken. Flavor is best after 1 day.
Recipe
French Strawberry Cake
Beautiful fresh Strawberries are the essence of this French Strawberry Cake. This simple cake recipe produces a very light and refreshing cake. Accompanied by homemade strawberry whipped cream, a slice of this cake is sure to brighten anyone’s day. Perfect for a brunch dessert, a snack cake or just about anytime.
*your strawberries don’t have to be French*
#frenchstrawberrycake #strawberrycake #sweetspotkitchen
Ingredients
- Strawberries (fresh) -1 quart more or less (1 liter)
- Butter (unsalted, room temp) – 1/2 C (112g)
- Sugar – 1 Cup (200g)
- Eggs – 2 large
- vanilla – 1 tsp (add in after the eggs, missed it in the video)
- AP flour – 1 Cup (120g)
- Baking Powder – 1 tsp
- salt – just a pinch
- Sugar – 1 Tbl (for sprinkling on top)
Steps –
- Pre-heat over 350
- Cream Butter and Sugar (well creamed)
- Add the eggs 1 at a time
- Add the vanilla
- Sift the dry ingredients into the batter – DO NOT overmix, finish with a spatula
- Pour into prepared pan – place strawberries on top then sprinkle with sugar
- Bake for 45 – 50 minutes, top will be golden
- Let cool in pan for about 10 minutes, run spatula around edge of pan, turn out onto a cooling rack, topside up
- Let cool completely, place on serving platter
Strawberry Whipped Cream
- melt a couple tablespoons of strawberry preserves and a splash of water on the stovetop or microwave
- Let it cool
- whip just enough whipped cream until it’s soft and fluffy (think cloud)
- – whip in the cooled preserves
White Chocolate & Raspberry Tart
Fresh raspberries bring a tartness to a subtlely sweet and creamy white chocolate layer on top of a smear of home-made jam nestled on a crispy all nut and butter crust. Easy to make and heavenly delicious.
The Tart Recipe
1 All Nut and Butter Crust Recipe (below)
1 Quick Homemade Jam Recipe (below)
1/2 C Heavy Cream
8 oz. White Chocolate (Lindt preferred, find white chocolate without palm kernel oil)
About 24 oz fresh raspberries (perfect berries 🙂 )
- Prepare the All Nut and Butter Crust (below)
- Prepare the Quick Homemade Jam (below)
- Remove the pan and place onto a serving platter
- Spread the Jam on to the prepared crust without going up the edges
- Bring the cream to a simmer in a heavy saucepan on medium heat
- Remove from the heat, stir in the chopped white chocolate until completely melted
- Allow the chocolate to cool somewhat to just warm (not room temperature or it won’t pour)
- Pour the chocolate onto the jam and spread evenly
- Let the tart cool in the fridge for several hours
- Place the raspberries perfectly on the tart
- Enjoy
Quick Homemade Jam Recipe
5 oz raspberries (save the perfect berries for the top)
1/3 C sugar
1 tsp lemon juice (or a squeeze)
- Bring ingredients to a simmer in a small saucepan, stirring to smash the raspberries
- Let the mixture simmer until it has thickened somewhat, 8 to 10 minutes
- Strain out the seeds
All Nut and Butter Crust Recipe
1/4 C blanched almonds
3 T sugar
2 1/2 C pecans or walnuts
6 T butter
2 or 3 t vanilla
- Butter a 9″ fluted tart pan (removable bottom)
- Finely grind the almonds and sugar in a food processor
- Add the pecans or walnuts in a food processor until fine but not a paste
- Cream the butter until nice and fluffy, a couple of minutes
- Blend in the vanilla
- Add the nuts and mix well
- Spread the dough into the prepared pan, pressing firmly
- Refrigerate the pan, covered with plastic, for a hour or so
- Preheat the oven to 350
- Prick the tart shell with a fork to prevent it from puffing up
- Bake for 10 – 12 minutes, check to make sure the shell hasn’t puffed, then bake for another few minutes until ever so lightly browned
Molten Chocolate Lava Cake
The trick to making these heavenly delicious chocolate lava cakes is to make and freeze chocolate truffles, which will end up being the molten centers.
Truffles
¼ C Cream
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate (coursely chopped)
½ T unsalted butter
1/2 t instant coffee granules (or espresso powder if you can find it)
1 t grated orange zest (optional)
- Bring the cream almost to a boil, remove from heat and stir in chocolate, butter and coffee.
- Stir until smooth.
- Stir in the orange zest.
- Put into a metal bowl and place in the freezer for 20 minutes or so. Mixture will be firm when it’s ready to roll the truffles.
- You’ll want 1” round balls. You may want to clean your hands every truffle or so since the mixture will melt in warm hands.
- With the extra truffles, if desired, roll them in cocoa powder, powdered sugar, coconut, ground nuts.
- Place the truffles for the lava cakes in the freezer until they’re needed.
Molten Chocolate Lava Cakes
Heat oven to 425, position a rack in the upper third.
- 1 C sugar
- ½ C milk
- 2 t instant coffee granules (or espresso powder if you can find it)
- 1 T flour
- 4 oz bittersweet chocolate (coarsely chopped)
- 4 oz unsweetened chocolate (coarsely chopped)
- 1 T unsalted butter
- 4 eggs, separated, at room temperature
- 6 truffles from recipe above
Using 4 or 5 oz ramekins or glass baking dishes, generously grease them with butter. Coat the butter with sugar, removing extra sugar.
Line the bottom of the ramekin with a round parchment circle. Make sure the circle only covers the bottom and not the sides. Butter the circle if you can.
In a medium, heavy sauce pan, mix and bring the following ingredients to a rolling boil: Sugar, milk, coffee granules.
Reduce the heat to a simmer and whisk in the flour. Continue whisking for 1 minute. Remove the pan from the heat.
Stir in the chocolates (bittersweet and unsweetened).
When melted, add the butter until melted in.
One by one, stir in the egg yolks, whisking until completely incorporated.
In a separate bowl, whip the egg whites to stiff peaks, but not dry.
Mix a generous spoonful of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture, fully incorporating it.
Scrape the chocolate into the egg whites and fold in. Scoop from the bottom, turn the bowl. Do not overmix.
Put the mixture into the prepared ramekins. Insert a truffle into the center, then cover the truffle with a little batter.
Place them on a baking sheet. Bake for about 12 minutes. The tops should be dry to the touch.
Remove from the oven, and loosen the sides with a small spatula or knife. Flip onto an individual serving dish. Remove the parchment.
These will be a little too hot to eat, so let them cool before serving. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, optionally serve with a dollop of whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Cupcakes! Time Rewind!
We’re having a little fun with this video! Discovered an awesome app for my watch that lets you go back (or REWIND) in time. So cool and practical for anyone in the kitchen. Fix those mistakes or just do a do-over!
These cupcakes use the wonderfully delicious 1-2-3-4 cake recipe. It is a super soft and moist cake, perfect for cupcakes. Pretty much perfect. We also use a truly classic cocoa powder-based chocolate icing. So simple to make, but ideal for a rich chocolatey taste. And finally, we’re relying on the internet sensation Misty’s Buttercream. Misty’s is a general purpose buttercream that is a favorite on cake decorating websites. Super easy to make and IMHO, magical.
Recipes
1-2-3-4 Cake
I only used half of the recipe to make about 18 standard sized cupcakes.
Ingredients (full recipe – divide in half if appropriate)
1 C unsalted, room temp butter
2 C sugar
3 C cake flour
4 large eggs
1 C whole milk
2 1/2 t baking powder
1 t vanilla (better vanilla – better cake)
Steps
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Cream the butter and sugar
Mix in the eggs, 1 at a time
Mix in the vanilla
Toss the baking powder with the flour
Mix in half of the milk
Mix in half of the flour/baking powder mixture
Mix in remaining milk
Mix in remaining flour mixture
Bake for about 20 minutes (cupcakes), check for doneness
Bake for 25 – 30 minutes (cakes), check for doneness
Classic Cocoa Buttercream Icing
This will become one of your favorites
Ingredients
1/2 C unsalted butter
2/3 C Cocoa
3 C Powdered Sugar
1/3 C milk
1 t vanilla (better vanilla – better icing)
Steps
Melt the butter (microwave or stovetop)
Stir in the cocoa
Mix in sugar and milk (a hand mixer will work but a stand mixer will make less mess)
Mix in vanilla
Do Not Mix Buttercream on high speed
Thin with more milk, if necessary. Thicken with sifted powdered sugar if necessary.
Misty’s Buttercream
One of my favorite general purpose buttercreams. Magical!
Ingredients
3/4 C unsalted, room temp butter (1 1/2 sticks or 6 oz)
1 1/2 C Crisco or similar (10.1 oz)
pinch of salt
2 lbs powdered sugar
3 oz. heavy cream
2 tsp vanilla (better vanilla – better everything)
Steps
Cream the butter and Crisco, and salt – high speed for as long as you’d like
Add powdered sugar, cream and vanilla – mix thoroughly on low to medium speed. Do Not Mix on high speed.
Thin with more cream, if necessary. Thicken with sifted powdered sugar if necessary.