Miniature Almond Cakes With Sugared Cherries And Kirsch Cream Recipes

MINIATURE ALMOND CAKES WITH SUGARED CHERRIES AND KIRSCH CREAM

Steps:

• Make cake:
• Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter a 9-inch square cake pan and line bottom with parchment or wax paper. Butter paper and dust pan with flour, knocking out excess.
• Whisk together yolks, 1/2 cup sugar, milk, and extract in a large bowl until combined well, then whisk in flour and salt.
• Beat whites with an electric mixer at high speed until they just hold soft peaks. Gradually add remaining 1/4 cup sugar, mixing at low speed until whites just hold stiff peaks. Stir about one third of whites into batter to lighten, then fold in remaining whites gently but thoroughly.
• Pour batter into cake pan, spreading evenly, and bake in middle of oven until pale golden and a tester comes out clean, 14 to 16 minutes. Cool cake completely in pan on a rack.
• Make sugared cherries while cake bakes:
• Whisk together powdered egg whites and warm water in a small bowl until combined well. Put superfine sugar in another small bowl.
• Holding 1 cherry by stem, brush evenly with some egg white and spoon sugar over it to coat. Transfer to a rack to dry and coat remaining cherries in same manner.
• Make kirsch cream:
• Beat cream with kirsch and sugar using cleaned beaters until it holds stiff peaks.
• Assemble cakes just before serving:
• Cut out 20 rounds from cake with cookie cutter and transfer to a platter. Top each round with a teaspoon of kirsch cream, then top cream with a cherry.

TINY CHERRY AND ALMOND TEA CAKES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Brush 30 cups of 2 mini-muffin tins with butter, and dust lightly with flour.
• Melt butter in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. When it begins to sputter, reduce heat to medium. Cook, swirling skillet occasionally, until butter has lightly browned. Skim foam from top, and remove skillet from heat.
• Whisk together flour, ground almonds, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Add egg whites, and whisk until smooth. Stir in kirsch. Pour in butter, leaving any dark-brown sediment in skillet, and whisk to combine. Let stand for 20 minutes.
• Ladle 1 tablespoon batter into each buttered muffin cup, filling about halfway. Push a cherry into each, keeping stem end up. With a small spoon, smooth batter over cherries to cover. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean and cakes are golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes. Run a knife around edges to loosen, and unmold. Cakes can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature overnight.

MINI ALMOND CAKES WITH CHOCOLATE OR CHERRY

Steps:

• Make the chocolate ganache, if using: In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, heat cream until bubbling (or place the cream in a glass measuring cup and heat it in the microwave). Remove from heat, add chocolate and let sit for 1 minute, then stir until smooth. Transfer chocolate to a small container (preferably metal) and freeze until firm, at least 30 minutes.
• Scoop and roll into 3/4-inch balls. Note that the ganache is very soft and can be messy to handle, but getting perfectly round balls isn't necessary. Place in refrigerator until needed. Ganache balls can be prepared up to 1 week ahead.
• Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a muffin tin.
• Using a food processor or blender, mix almond flour, confectioners' sugar and salt until powdery, about 30 seconds. Add eggs and almond extract and process until smooth, 30 seconds longer. Pulse in butter, cornstarch and baking powder. Scrape mixture into a large bowl.
• Using a beaters or an electric mixer, whip egg whites until very foamy. Gradually add granulated sugar while beating eggs until stiff peaks form.
• Using a spatula, gently and carefully fold a third of the egg whites into almond mixture to lighten it. Then, fold in the rest of the whites just until no streaks remain.
• Spoon batter into prepared muffin tins, and bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven. Pull balls of ganache from refrigerator, if using, and place 1 ball in center of each cake, pushing it down halfway into batter. Or spoon 1 teaspoon cherry jam on top of each cake; do not push down. Return to oven and bake until light brown and a toothpick inserted into cake (and not the chocolate or cherry) comes out clean, another 8 to 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature, preferably within 8 hours of baking.

ALMOND KIRSCH CAKE

Steps:

• For cake, preheat oven to 325 °F.
• Grease and line a 10-inch cake pan with parchment paper. Grease again and dust with flour, tapping out excess.
• Pulse marzipan, butter and sugar in a food processor until smooth.
• Add eggs, kirsch and vanilla and purée on high until smooth (scraping into the bottom of the bowl, if needed).
• Scrape batter into a bowl and stir in flour in two additions.
• Scrape into prepared pan and bake for 65 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
• Cool completely in the pan.
• For meringue layer, reduce oven temperature to 250 °F and line bottom of a 10-inch spring form pan with parchment.
• Pulse 1/3 cup sugar and almonds in food processor until ground.
• Toss with cornstarch and set aside.
• Whip egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy, then add remaining 1/3 cup sugar and whip until a stiff peak forms.
• Quickly but gently fold in ground nuts and spread evenly into prepared pan.
• Bake for 1 ½ to 2 hours or until dry.
• Run a spatula around edge of pan to loosen meringue, cool completely.
• For Kirsch cream, whip cream to medium peaks, and whip in icing sugar and Kirsch.
• To assemble, slice marzipan cake in half.
• Spread 1 cup of Kirsch cream over cake and sprinkle with ½ cup of cherries.
• Place meringue disk on top and spread with another cup of cream and ½ cup of cherries.
• Top with other half of marzipan cake and spread remaining cream, topped with cherries.
• Chill until ready to serve.
• Cake can be assembled up to 4 hours in advance.

ALMOND CAKE WITH KIRSCH CREAM AND LINGONBERRY PRESERVES

Steps:

• Make cake:
• Preheat oven to 325°F. Butter pan generously and dust with flour, knocking out excess.
• Break almond paste into pieces and pulse in a food processor until finely ground. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. Beat together butter and sugar with an electric mixer at high speed until pale and very fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add almond paste and vanilla and beat until combined well, about 2 minutes. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition and occasionally scraping down side of bowl. Add flour mixture and mix at low speed 30 seconds. Finish mixing batter by hand with a rubber spatula, scraping bottom of bowl.
• Pour batter into tube pan, smoothing top. Bake in middle of oven, rotating pan halfway through baking, until a tester comes out clean and edges begin to pull away from pan, 55 minutes to 1 hour total.
• Cool cake completely in pan on a rack. (Cake may shrink and buckle slightly, but don't worry. This won't be visible once cake is inverted.) Run a thin knife around outside and inside edges and invert a plate over pan, then invert cake onto plate.
• Make kirsch cream:
• Just before serving, beat together cream and kirsch in a chilled bowl with cleaned beaters until soft peaks form.
• Serve cake with kirsch cream and lingonberry preserves.

MINI ALMOND CHEESECAKES WITH CHERRY FLAVORED FILLED DELIGHTFULLS™

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place 36 2-inch foil bake cups on baking sheet(s) with sides. Place one vanilla wafer, flat-side down, on bottom of each cup. Place 4 DelightFulls morsels on top of each wafer. Set aside remaining DelightFulls morsels.
• Beat cream cheese, sugar and flour in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs and almond extract; beat well. Spoon or scoop heaping tablespoon of cream cheese mixture into each bake cup.
• Bake for 13 to 15 minutes or until just set and not browned. Remove from oven to wire rack. Let cool 10 minutes. Top each cheesecake with 3 to 4 of remaining DelightFulls morsels. Morsels will soften but will retain shape. Cool completely. Cover and refrigerate. To serve, leave in foil cups or peel away foil and place in paper liners.