Here is my contribution to Iron Cupcake: Earth Challenge: WINE for January 2008. I am sorry I don't have a blog up yet, I expect it will be functional in the next week and I will be sure to move this post there. But in the meantime, thanks to everyone for stopping by! I am the blogger formerly known as mysweetcupcakes.com. I went on hiatus over there for the fall because I was working on building my very own business centred around-you guessed it-cupcakes!! It has taken me a while to get everything ready, but I now have a commercial kitchen I am renting to do my business baking and I am SO excited to be able to share the wonderful world of cupcakes locally.
Anyway! On to Iron Cupcake!
For this months challenge, wine was picked as the secret ingredient. I knew immediately what I wanted to bake; it was fitting in the time for it that caused the delay!
For my entry I am putting fabulous Vidal Ice Wine on center stage. For anyone out there who doesn't know what ice wine is, allow me to paraphrase for you:
"Ice wine (or icewine, as one word, or in German, Eiswein) is a type of dessert wine produced from grapes that have been frozen while still on the vine. The sugars and other dissolved solids do not freeze, but the water does, allowing a more concentrated grape must to be pressed from the frozen grapes, resulting in a smaller amount of
more concentrated, very sweet wine. With ice wines, the freezing
happens before the fermentation, not afterwards. Unlike the grapes from which other dessert wines, such as Sauternes, Tokaji, or Trockenbeerenauslese, are made, ice wine grapes should not be affected by Botrytis cinerea or noble rot,
at least not to any great degree. Only healthy grapes keep in good
shape until the opportunity arises for an ice wine harvest, which in
extreme cases can occur after the New Year, on a northern hemisphere
calendar. This gives ice wine its characteristic refreshing sweetness
balanced by high acidity. When the grapes are free of Botrytis, they are said to come in "clean".
Due to the labour-intense and risky production process resulting in
relatively small amounts of wine, ice wines are generally quite
expensive."
In a nutshell: very sweet, aromatic wine, a little pricey, but DEFINITELY worth it.
A dessert I am known to make to pair with ice wines is a wonderful hazelnut-pear tart. Buttery with just a hint of lemon, laced with vanilla--it is a perfect compliment to ice wine. So I thought: why not translate that to a cupcake?
So here you have it.
Hazelnut Genoise filled with a compote of pears poached in ice wine and vanilla, topped with a chantilly cream that has been laced with an ice wine reduction.
Or shall we say, Hazelnut Pear Ice Wine Cupcake.
The cake is a genoise-that is, the only leavening ingredient is the addition of beaten egg whites--no baking powder or baking soda are used. There is only a scant amount of flour; ground roasted skinned hazelnuts make the base for the cake. A hint of lemon zest and vanilla compliment the light cake.
The filling is fabulous. Pears are diced and simmered with vidal ice wine, water, and a scraped vanilla bean until the liquid is reduced and the pears are softened. Once cool, the pear compote was pureed for a silky texture.
With these complex flavors, I was careful to not overpower with a heavy buttercream. A lovely rich chantilly cream that is lightly sweetened, tinged with vanilla and a reduction of ice wine compliments the cake and filling wonderfully.
To garnish, I made some beautiful pear chips, and added one of the lovely hazelnuts as tribute to what is inside.
I cannot say enough about this cupcake. Stellar flavors, a winning combination. This is a cupcake that would be well suited for a wedding or formal dinner party. Light, yet decadent flavors, this would appeal to all dessert lovers.
There is a winner for Iron:Cupcake. Perhaps I will be crowned the Supreme Wine Cupcake Baker? A girl can dream! A fantastic prize pack is up for grabs, including the following:
Our January ETSY PRIZE-PACK is from artists:
As
an added bonus for January, our friend at SWEET CUPPIN CAKES BAKERY AND
CUPCAKERY SUPPLY will be tossing in another treat as well, http://www.acupcakery.com/index.html.
Last and certainly not least, don’t forget our corporate prize providers: HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS, http://www.fiestaproducts.com, HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, http://blog.hellocupcakebook.com, JESSIE STEELE APRONS http://www.jessiesteele.com; the CUPCAKE COURIER http://www.cupcakecourier.com; TASTE OF HOME books, http://www.tasteofhome.com. NEW, BEGINNING IN JANUARY; our new friends at UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM http://www.upwithcupcakes.com/ will be providing our winner with one of their cute cupcake attitue
t's! Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers, http://www.1800flowers.com .
