Chocolate blackberry cakes
This is for days when your boyfriend needs a little love to calm his nerves — it’s not about ego or coming up with the best recipe with the best flavors and the best rise and the fancy ingredients. He tells you he loves brownies and he tells you he’s so nervous he’s shaking so you use your lunch break to run to your apartment and whip up little chocolate cakes.
Short on time, I used a prepackaged mix. Specifically, Cup4Cup gluten free brownie mix that I got on sale at Williams Sonoma months ago. It’s a couple months expired but hey, what he doesn’t know won’t kill him. I was a little worried that the batter was very thick when I incorporated all the ingredients, almost tar-like in texture — I used heavy cream instead of water in the mix, could that have done it? — but filled the muffin tins about halfway full with a shrug.
To give the cakes a bit of visual interest, I stuck a medium-sized berry in the center and pushed it down into the batter until just a bit of it was poking out of the top. When cooked in the oven, the berry softens and makes the center of the cake soft and molten in texture.
Gluten free stuff has a mind of its own, so you have to babysit these a bit. Cool them slowly to keep them from collapsing. I didn’t. Oh well.
On top I drizzled a blackberry icing, and some edible glitter flakes, also from Williams Sonoma, also on sale. The edible glitter doesn’t hold up very well, so I’m scrapping it for now until I can figure out how to apply it.
ye olde powdered sugar icing
150g powdered sugar
3–4 tbsp heavy cream
1–2 tsp vanilla extract
This icing is typically made with milk which I find a bit runny; I keep having to add more powdered sugar to get a thick enough consistency which makes the icing cloyingly sweet. Here, I subbed heavy cream which was perfect — it’s thick enough that it requires less powdered sugar, thus yielding a more neutral-tasting icing that takes kindly to doctoring.
Start by sifting the powdered sugar. I just put a bunch in a mesh strainer and force it through the bottom with my fingers; you just want to take the lumps out and fluff it up a bit. Then add your liquids (a little at a time at first until you get the hang of it), and whisk the living shit out of it. Should be smooth and almost velvety. At this point, if you just want a plain vanilla icing, just add more heavy cream until you feel like it’s right. Let your intuition be your guide.
To make the coloring/flavoring for my icing, I made a berry sauce. Now, I didn’t go to cooking school, but I think making fruit sauces is pretty easy: throw whatever fruit into a saucepan with some lemon or orange juice and sugar, cook it down until it’s done. Vague, sure. I mashed the berries with a spatula while they cooked, and waited until the liquid was a deep red color and the flavor was what I was after. I strained out the berry carcasses with a conical strainer and put just enough of the berry liquid into the icing to get it to the perfect pipable (is that a word?) consistency.
Experiment with different flavor combinations. Challenge yourself and use whatever’s on hand. Don’t turn your nose up at using boxed mix. Who cares? Cooking is about nurturing the spirit and soul. A quick pick-me-up is less than an hour away for someone you love. So go on and love someone. 😘
