Golden Chocolate Cupcakes

Prep time: 35 minutes (for cake & frosting)
Bake time: 25 to 30 minutes

This recipe is perfect for festive events or casual ones such as pool parties this summer. Your guests will not only be enticed by luscious chocolate cakes and rich frosting, but also by a sprinkling of precious "gold dust". 

Prepare the Cake:

2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1-2/3 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened (this can be substituted with 1/2 cup vegetable oil)
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1-1/4 cups milk or water
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 large eggs
24 cupcake paper cups
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting (recipe follows)
Edible Gold Dust (found at professional bakers' supply stores)

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Place cupcake paper cups in two cupcake metal pans (12 each).

2. In an 8 to 10-cup mixing bowl, beat together all ingredients (except for frosting and gold dust) with an electric hand mixer. Alternatively, place ingredients in bowl of a stand mixer. 

3. Beat on high speed for about 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally with a rubber spatula.

4. Divide the batter evenly among the 24 cupcake paper cups in pan.

5. Bake for approximately 25 minutes. After 25 minutes, insert a pointed knife in center of one cupcake to check doneness. If knife comes out clean, the cupcakes are done. If not, bake for an additional 5 minutes and check doneness once more.

6. Remove cupcake pans from oven and set aside on a counter to cool (do not remove hot cupcakes from pans).

7. When cupcakes have cooled completely, prepare the chocolate frosting.

Prepare the Chocolate Buttercream Frosting:

3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate, melted and cooled
3 to 4 tablespoons milk

1. Mix powdered sugar and butter in medium bowl with a wooden spoon or electric hand mixer on low speed. 

2. Stir in the vanilla and the chocolate.

3. Gradually beat in a little milk so that the frosting is smooth and spreadable (the frosting should be on the thicker side).

4. Transfer the thick frosting to a piping bag fitted with a star tip. 

5. Squeeze and spread the frosting over each cupcake, in a swirling motion.

6. Top each cupcake with a sprinkling of gold dust.

7. Refrigerate up to 4 hours before serving.

Text and Photograph ©2013 Nancy DeLucia Real

Lemon and Almond Cake (Torta di limone e mandorle)

Prep time: 15 minutes

Bake time: 20 to 23 minutes

Makes: One 9-inch round cake

Are summer weather, bright colors and flavors on your mind? Because lemons are all of the above, I thought of using them in this Lemon and Almond Cake that I grew up with in Southern Italy.

This cake is so rich with butter, lemon and almonds, that you should just omit the whipped cream garnish. All you need are freshly-sliced lemons, complementing the cake’s essence!

Ingredients:

Prepare the pan –

-1 tablespoon butter & small amount of flour (to butter a spring form pan)

Parchment paper

Make the cake –

-¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon unbleached, all-purpose flour (preferably organic)

-1 teaspoon baking powder

-Dash each salt and ground cinnamon (very little amounts)

-Zest of 2 small lemons, set it aside in a small bowl

-Juice of 2 small lemons, set aside in a small bowl

-5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into slices and softened at room temperature

-½ cup granulated sugar

-3 large eggs, separated (put yolks in a small bowl and whites in another bowl)

-½ cup ground raw, unsalted almonds

-Confectioners’ sugar (powdered sugar)

-1 lemon, for slicing and cake garnish

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter a 9-inch spring form pan and place parchment paper circle at bottom of pan.

2. Cut 3-inch wide strips of parchment; line pan sides with parchment strips. Set aside.

3. Measure the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon into a small bowl; set aside.

4. In a medium bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff; set aside.

5. In a 6-quart mixing bowl and using a hand mixer (or a stand mixer), beat together the butter, sugar and egg yolks until mixture is creamy.

6. With mixer set on low, stir in the ground almonds and mix until batter is uniform.

7. Stir in the zest and lemon juice; set the bowl with batter aside.

8. Using a spatula, gently fold the beaten egg whites into the batter.

9. When the batter is uniform, gently pour it into the prepared spring form pan.

10. Place the spring form pan with batter on a rack positioned in center of oven; bake cake for 20 minutes.

11. After 20 minutes, insert a pointed knife in center of cake. If the knife is clean, the cake is done. If there is batter stuck to the knife, bake for an additional 2 to 3 minutes and test with knife once more.

12. Transfer the cake to a counter and slightly cool (about 10 minutes).

13. Loosen sides of spring form pan from cake with a spatula. Remove pan sides and parchment strips.

14. Invert the cake onto a serving platter; lift off the pan bottom and gently peel away the parchment paper.

15. Let cake cool to room temperature.

16. Gently and lightly sift the powdered sugar over cake. Garnish with lemon slices and serve.

Text and Photograph ©2013 Nancy DeLucia Real

Frida Mexican Cuisine in Westwood (Los Angeles)

Last month, on Mother's Day, my family treated me to Sunday Brunch at Frida's Mexican Cuisine in Westwood (close to UCLA).

As soon I entered the restaurant, an invisible magnet pulled me into the tostada bar - my favorite place to start chowing down. Now,  these tostadas are not piled a mile high with lettuce. Instead, you make them yourself with gourmet items such as Shrimp Ceviche.

Outside, I found the friendliest chef preparing grilled goodies. You name it and it was there: BBQ ribs, carnitas (pork), carne asada (this is grilled steak), grilled chicken adobado -  this is chicken that's been marinated in adobo (mild chile) sauce. 

  

To that, I added pozole and more ...

I was still hungry and went to the hot buffet indoors where I picked up some nopales (cactus salad), plantains and more ceviche with crisp, light tostada shells.

Throughout our enjoyment of this gourmet feast, the Mariachi band serenaded us with beautiful songs. They don't mind if you don't pay attention and prefer texting - that's the trend these days, anyway.

Are you ready for the best part of the meal? You got it - DESSERT! I started with the Tres Leches Cake ... 

... and then, feeling so guilty, I did an about-face and got some fresh fruit.

But then, my son told me about the chocolate fountain and the churros. I felt myself turning into a dessert-starved beast and immediately ran to the churros.

Finally, my weakness for gourmet Mexican food reveals my true colors. 

All joking aside, if you haven't been to Frida's yet, make your reservations now for Father's Day - you won't regret it! In my opinion, you won't find a more gourmet Mexican restaurant in L.A.'s Westside.

Frida's Mexican Cuisine

10853 S. Lindbrook Drive

Los Angeles, CA. 90024

For more info, visit - 

Frida's Mexican Cuisine

Passover Amaretti Cookies (gluten-free)

Prep time: 25 to 30 minutes
Bake time: 15 minutes

Passover is a holiday celebrated by people of the Jewish faith. It celebrates the great exodus of the freed  Jews from Egypt in the late 13th century BC. Passover deals with the last of 10 plagues that God sent over Egypt. He sent the plagues to soften the heart of the pharaoh to free the Jews. But Ramesses II was not to be softened. So the plague with the hardest blow came at the end - on a certain night God was to strike the first-born male child in every Egyptian home.

Moses was ordered by God to instruct the Jewish people to kill an unblemished lamb and to cover the post and lintel of the doorway with the lamb's blood. "... the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you and the plague shall not be on you ...." Exodus 12:13.

Ramesses II's first born died. This is when pharaoh finally decided to let Moses' people go.

The Jewish people left in haste and this means there was no time to let bread rise. The tradition holds that no flour should enter the preparation of Passover foods.

These delicious, gluten-free (flourless) Italian Amaretti fit in with the Passover holiday. Make these and watch them melt in your mouth, just like candies.

Happy Passover and peace to all!

Ingredients:
1 pound almond paste
3 large egg whites
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon rosewater (optional)
Slivered, roasted almonds, for garnish

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and line a 12 X 18-inch baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.

2. In order to break it up, place small pieces of the almond paste in a food processor and "pulse-blend" until it breaks down; set aside.

3. In a 1-quart mixing bowl, beat 3 large egg whites until stiff. Gently fold in the sugar, little by little. Set the egg white-sugar mixture aside.

4. Transfer the broken-down almond paste to a 2 or 3-quart mixing bowl.

5. Gently fold in the egg white-sugar mixture until combined.

6. Placing a small bowl of cold water alongside the mixing bowl, slightly wet your hands (this will prevent the almond dough from sticking to your fingers) and pick up a small piece of almond dough.

7. Roll 1-inch almond dough balls, wetting your hands slightly in between rolls.

8. Place the almond balls on parchment-lined baking sheet, with 2-inch spaces between each one. Set 2 slivered almonds atop each almond roll.

9. Position the baking sheet with raw Amaretti on a rack centered in oven.

10. Bake Amaretti for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, remove baking sheet and set on a counter. Let the Amaretti cool for 10 minutes.

11. After 10 minutes, using a spatula, carefully remove the Amaretti from parchment paper and set them on a serving platter. Alternatively, place Amaretti in double freezer plastic bags and freeze up to 2 weeks.

To thaw: set Amaretti on serving platter and thaw about 30 minutes prior to serving.

Text & Photograph ©2013 Nancy DeLucia Real