Free Choice for the Heavenly Cake Bakers this week? I think I had a melt down. Because I just joined this wonderful and talented group, there are very few recipes I have made out of Rose Beranbaum's baking book ~ as of yet. Then I saw the Bostini! Vanilla pastry cream, orange chiffon cupcake batter, and a delicious chocolate butter glaze; what is not to love?
A signature dessert of pastry chef Kurtis Baguley, with the orange glow chiffon cupcake batter being from Rose's own Cake Bible. A wonderful orange flavor emits from this light, tender cupcake; can you tell from the coloring in the photo above how the color is more orange then golden? Comes from all the fresh orange zest AND squeezed juice added into the batter.
Then there is the thick and silky vanilla bean pastry cream. I rarely make pastry cream just because I can NOT keep my finger or spoon out of the decadent custard. There is something to be said for taking a moist Tahitian vanilla bean, slicing the black bean down one side and scraping the fragrant black seeds into sugar, rubbing the sugar between your fingers to make sure all the precious seeds are evenly distributed ~ then ~ adding this to a good quality heavy cream, along with the, now seedless, bean pod. So good, sigh . . . a creamy custard I wish I could sit and slowly enjoy over a long period of time.
I felt like a child in a candy store. I could not wait to assemble the Bostini and yet I wanted to take my time and get this just right. I shopped for the cappuccino cups ahead of time. I started at Macy's department store to no avail and ended up using the ones shown. They hold about 6 or 7 ounces, which is what we are looking for. The cupcakes are inverted so the base is sticking slightly above the cup rim and makes a perfect opening around the perimeter for the chocolate butter glaze.
So, what do you think?
When I served the bostinis, everyone felt like they wished they could lick the chocolate glaze first when no one was looking (HUGE smile!) Okay, I wished this but I am positive everyone else was thinking it! I had so much fun baking this dessert and now I can not wait to see what the rest of the group did for their free choice week; happy baking everyone!
