Raspberries and cheap wine =)

I'm currently working at two offices in our company, and both offices had their Thanksgiving luncheons today. I of course made desserts for both. Neither was a traditional fall dessert, because I am honestly already sick of pumpkin & apple.

Anyways, my initial plan was to make
1) Lemon cupcakes, filled with strawberries and topped with a cream cheese frosting
2) Vanilla cupcakes with lemon curd, raspberry jam and topped with buttercream
3) Chocolate cupcakes with raspberry frosting.

Only #3 worked out.

I used the same recipe for the first two cakes, and it was AWFUL. I made the lemon ones first, and I shouldn't have made the plain ones next, but I was concerned I had made an error, so I made it again. Both were really, really bad. They looked like little white hockey pucks, were not at all moist or fluffy and were just really disappointing. I should have known, because all of the reviews I've read for this recipe say that it's really sturdy and gives off little crumbs (which is true), and handy when making a layered cake. But this really does not translate well into cupcakes. I just really wish I had read more reviews for the recipe before baking four dozen of them. Oh well. You win some, you lose some,

I definitely won with the chocolate ones though! They were so, SO good. And the frosting was INSANE. Sweet, a little tart, SO creamy and the color is SO pretty!

The cupcakes were my favorite Martha recipe and the frosting was adapted from Jamie over at My Baking Addiction.

Raspberry Buttercream
(Adapted from My Baking Addiction)

Ingredients

• 1/3 of a cup of raspberry puree
• 2 sticks of unsalted butter; room temperatue
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 6 cups of powered sugar4 tablespoons of milk

Directions 

1. Cream the butter and shortening in the bowl of an electric or stand mixer until fluffy.
2. Mix in the raspberry puree.
3. Slowly incorporate the sugar. Do not put in to much at once unless you want your new knives covered in sugar dust... grrrr.  
4. Once all of the sugar is combined, add enough milk to get to your desired consistency (I just used two).

For the other office, I used some of the leftover raspberry puree and made an insanely good raspberry swirl cheesecake. OH. MY. GOD. So effing delicious! I actually messed up with the eggs. All of my cupcakes called for four eggs, and I guess I was on a four egg kick. The recipe only called for three, but I didn't realize that until the stand mixer was mixing in the fourth egg. *sigh* At that point I just went along and hoped for the best.

The cheesecake was the PERFECT consistency. I don't like super creamy cheesecakes, I like them to be firmer. I guess the extra egg did that? Anyways. It was really, really delicious. I managed to salvage a good sized chunk of it to bring home... (I'm supposed to welcome someone home tomorrow who LOVES my cheesecake =) =) =)) and I may have had a slice for dinner tonight.

Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake
  
Graham Cracker Crust
Ingredients

• 2 cups of Graham Cracker crumbs
• 2 tablespoons of sugar
• 1/2 cup of melted butter

Directions

1. In small bowl toss together graham crumbs, margarine or butter and 2 tablespoons sugar. 
2. Press remaining crumb mixture onto bottom and 2 inches up sides of 9-inch springform pan. 
3. Wrap pan tightly in aluminum foil.
4. Chill in freezer while preparing filling.

Cheesecake Filling

Ingredients

• 4 8 ounce packages of softened cream cheese
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon of lemon extract
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
• Raspberry puree

Directions

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat cream cheese on medium speed until fluffy. Add 1 1/3 cups sugar, cornstarch, lemon zest and vanilla. Beat until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until just combined after each addition. Stir in sour cream. 
2. Take spoonfuls of the puree and drop onto the cheesecake. With a toothpick (or a skewer, which is all I ever have) swirl the puree around. I did about 5 dollops of the raspberries.
3. Pour hot water in a large roasting pan. Once the cheesecake is in the water bath, the water should come up about one inch up the side. Bake the cheesecake at 325 degrees for 1 hour & 10 minutes. Once done open up the oven door a few inches and let cool in the oven for about 25 minutes. Take out of the oven and cool on a wire rack for 45 minutes and then transfer to the refrigerator. 
4.  The cheesecake needs to refrigerate for at least 4 hours, but over night is preferable.

And as a fairly decent end to the night, I stopped by the store on the way home and picked up a cheap bottle of wine to help me relax. The Flip Flop Wines are pretty good for their crazy low price tag. AND they donate a pair of shoes to someone in need for every bottle sold (up to 100,000 pairs). And at $7.00 a bottle? Yes, please. I bought the Riesling last time, and it was good. It was crisp, but not as sweet as I like. I like the Moscato better a little better. It's sweet, but doesn't have the crispness. Still good though!