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LUCY BURDETTE: Hooray for Halloween, when we get to wear funny clothes and eat wonderful sweets!
This batter may look familiar and that's because I used the same recipe
for raspberry cake day. In this case, I wanted to serve the cupcakes
with two kinds of frosting and also spend more time on the Halloween
decorations. And besides that, I'm crazy, crazy for this yellow cake:).
Ingredients for the cupcakes
1 and 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 and 3/4 cup cake flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
2 cups sugar
3/4 tsp salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened but still cool
1 cup milk
4 eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare two
cupcake pans with liners.
Mix all the dry cake ingredients in bowl of electric mixer at slow
speed. Add cool cubes of butter, a few at a time, and continue beating
on low for about 1-2 minutes. Beat the eggs in one at a time, mixing
well but minimally after each.
Mix the milk with the extracts.
Add 1/2 cup of milk mixture to
flour mixture and beat until combined. Add remaining 1/2 cup of milk
mixture and beat for about 1 minute.
Distribute batter evenly into the two prepared cupcake pans.
Bake at 350 until toothpick inserted in
the center comes out clean and cake springs back when touched, about 20-22 minutes. (check for done-ness with a toothpick or wooden skewer.)
Cool for ten minutes in the pans, then remove the cupcakes to a plate to cool completely. 
For the mocha icing:
Ingredients
4 ounces unsalted butter, softened
1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, melted
and cooled
1 to 2 tablespoons strong coffee
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 to 2 cups
confectioners' sugar
Beat the softened butter with the cooled chocolate until smooth, and add in the
vanilla. Next beat in the confectioners' sugar, starting with one cup and
tasting for the level of sweetness you prefer. Use 1 to 2 tablespoons
of coffee to bring the icing to spreading texture
for the raspberry
cream cheese frosting
4 ounces unsalted butter
4 ounces cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla
one or more cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 pint raspberries
Beat together the cream cheese and the butter. Add the vanilla. As with
the mocha frosting, beat in the sugar half a cup at a time until you
obtain the texture and sweetness that you prefer
For the graveyard decorations:
Ingredients
Chocolate graham crackers
white decorative gel
green sprinkles
On the cupcakes with most mocha icing, mound a little extra icing in the
center of the cupcake. Trim off the graham cracker gravestones to the
shape that you like, then use the white gel to engrave your favorite spooky saying. Sprinkle the cupcakes with green "grass." Then insert the stones into the mounded icing. Add cats or other creatures as desired. Boo!
And just for fun: one of the amazing ways we get to celebrate Halloween in Key West is with the zombie bike ride. Thought you might get a kick out of my zombie look:)
And Yoda says to remind you that today is National Cat Day!
DEATH WITH ALL THE TRIMMINGS will be out on December 2, just in time for Christmas stockings!
Pre-order it here.
LUCY BURDETTE: Imagine my surprise and pleasure when I learned that July 31 is Raspberry Cake Day! (At least it isn't Moldy Cheese Day--I kid you not, that's on the calendar for October 9. Who thinks these things up?)
Of course you know what came next...I had to make a raspberry cake to share with you. As it turns out we were getting together with friends and I was able to wrestle the dessert assignment away from the other cooks. This recipe turned out so well that I will certainly be using it in the next food critic mystery--I'm thinking Hayley Snow will make it for the man she hopes will become her Valentine. (She's putting a lot of pressure on the cake, but more about that to come later.)
I borrowed this unusual order for putting the cake together from the BACK IN THE DAY BAKERY COOKBOOK, one of my newest acquisitions. The same method is recommended in one of my old favorites, JOY OF COOKING, one of my first cookbooks. If I say so myself, it turned out to be amazing!
Ingredients for the cake
1 and 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 and 3/4 cup cake flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
2 cups sugar
3/4 tsp salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened but still cool
1 cup milk
4 eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
3-4 Tbsp good quality raspberry jam
Ingredients for the icing
1 8 oz block cream cheese
1 stick unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla
confectioner's sugar
2 boxes of fresh raspberries--about 30 for the icing, and 40ish for decoration
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare two 9-inch cake pans by buttering them well, lining with parchment, and then buttering the parchment too.
Mix all the dry cake ingredients in bowl of electric mixer at slow speed. Add cool cubes of butter, a few at a time, and continue beating on low for about 1-2 minutes. Beat the eggs in one at a time, mixing well but minimally after each.
Mix the milk with the extracts.
Add 1/2 cup of milk mixture to flour mixture and beat until combined. Add remaining 1/2 cup of milk mixture and beat for about 1 minute.
Pour batter evenly into the two prepared cake pans.
Bake until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and cake springs back when touched, in the neighborhood of 25 minutes. (Watch this because you don't want to overcook...)
Cool the pans for ten minutes, then remove the cakes, one to a plate and the other to waxed paper, and allow them to cool to room temperature.
Meanwhile, prepare the frosting by beating together the cream cheese and butter, then add vanilla and confectioner's sugar to your taste. (I used about a cup.) Now gradually beat in the raspberries until your desired pink color is achieved.
Spread one of the cooled cakes with a layer of frosting, and then a layer of jam.
Layer on the other cake. Frost top and sides and decorate with remaining berries.
Prepare for your guests to swoon! (SHOULD there be any left over, refrigerate until you are ready to eat it.)
MURDER WITH GANACHE, the fourth Key West mystery, is in stores now. DEATH WITH ALL THE TRIMMINGS will be out in December.
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