In the ingredients preface to VCTOTW, Terry & Isa encourage their baking padawans to collect and experiment with flavor extracts: “Collect a bunch and soon you’ll be known as ‘That Magical Extract Lady (or Man)’ and the local children will follow wherever you go.” Vanilla and almond extract have never let me down, but there’s a lot more to the flavor world than those old stand-bys: coffee, orange, mint, maple… I could go on and on, making a deliciously different batch of cupcakes every day, solely by alternating the extracts in the mix. No children are following me yet, but I’m doing pretty well with the twenty-something post-college set. Parents of the twenty-something post-college set, too.
For this recipe, I have to thank mi madre for acquiring the raspberry extract and suggesting the flavor combo. Perhaps she was inspired by the luscious photo on p. 42 of the Sexy Low-Fat Vanilla Cupcakes with Fresh Berries. While those are a recipe unto themselves, the cakes that my lovely assistant Dohn Juan and I produced were mix-and-match. We used the standard Golden Vanilla Cupcakes (33), substituting 1/4 tsp of raspberry extract for the almond I usually give ‘em. On top, we spread raspberry preserves, and drizzled some Skinny Confectioners’ Icing (41). The Icing is about as simple as can be–pure confectioners’ sugar plus 1-3 tsp soy milk. It’s a snap to make, especially when you have a baking prodigy to help stir while you pour. My stir-er proved himself so naturally gifted–clockwise strokes, who’da thunk?–I could even overlook the silent “h” in his name.
And the taste of these cupcakes? Wow. That raspberry extract is magical–like your tongue dives into a raspberry-flavored swimming pool. With the icing and preserves on top, these cupcakes are like a really good Pop-Tart, or Nutri-Grain Bar. And you don’t even need a toaster.
4 Comments
April 21, 2009 at 3:34 am
merci, dohn juan!
April 21, 2009 at 8:08 pm
Charlotte, I don’t know how you could have forgotten to mention the tic-tac-toe drizzle technique. How else to you expect people to unlock the power of raspberries? Sheesh!
April 21, 2009 at 11:19 pm
OMG! you are so right! people, people, listen up: you gotta drizzle that icing with a fork, in a tic-tac-toe design. otherwise, your cupcakes will never achieve the raspberry-flavored brilliance of these ‘uns.
April 25, 2009 at 9:58 pm
rc enjoyed these very much…course, i didn’t mention that they are vegan!