Demolition Desserts - Rock Star Pastries for the Home Kitchen

You might not be a rock star, but you can pretend to be one, thanks to Elizabeth Falkner's long-awaited cookbook, Demolition Desserts: Recipes from Citizen Cake. A rock star in the pastry world, her edgy creations have been known to defy traditional culinary methods.

Not just a regular dessert book, Elizabeth deconstructs classic recipes and interprets them with her spunky flair. From the Tiramisushi to the Cocoshok, the magical Citizen Cake touch is evident in each dazzling recipe. With Elizabeth and Caremi (Elizabeth's cute anime-style alter ego) paving the way, you too can create the famous Shagalicious cake with confidence and ease.

I also like the chapter devoted to chocolate chip cookies. It has a great recipe, "Chocolate Chip Mania", that is a heady concoction of blondies, brown sugar-chocolate chunk ice cream, chocolate chip espresso cookies, chipped cream, and dark and white chocolate sauces. Some might think it's chocolate overkill, but I certainly didn't think so.

For lemon lovers, try the Lemania Cupcakes recipe below. It will make you scream for more.

LEMANIA CUPCAKES

buttermilk cupcakes, eggless lemon curd filling, vanilla meringue frosting, lemon zest

makes 12 cupcakes

Inge, the mother of my partner, Sabrina, is one of Citizen Cake's most die-hard Lemaniacs. She will drive across the Golden Gate Bridge to Citizen Cake to buy up every lemon tart in the store, which she takes home and freezes. I created this cupcake for Inge and for all the Lemaniacs who have made our lemon desserts so successful over the years.

The cupcake itself is actually a moist buttermilk, not lemon, cupcake, which means you can fill and frost it just about any way you like. For example, take this same cupcake, fill it with Pastry Cream (page 203), drizzle on Dark Chocolate Sauce (page 207), and you have Boston cream cupcakes.

Buttermilk Cupcakes
2 cups (9 ounces) cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 cup (61/4 ounces by weight) buttermilk, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
8 tablespoons (4 ounces) unsalted butter, softened but still cool
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar
2 (3 ounces by weight) large eggs, at room temperature

Filling
1 cup Eggless Lemon Curd (page 204)

Vanilla Meringue Frosting
3/4 cup (51/4 ounces) granulated sugar
3 tablespoons water
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
2 (2 ounces by weight) large egg whites
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 lemons for grating

To Make the BUTTERMILK CUPCAKES

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 325 F. Line a 12-cup standard nonstick muffin pan (or two 6-cup pans) with paper liners.

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Add the salt and set aside. In a small bowl, stir together the buttermilk and vanilla and set aside.

In a large bowl, using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or a handheld mixer, cream together the butter and sugar on medium speed for about 4 minutes, or until light and fluffy, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition until incorporated. On low speed, add the flour mixture in three additions and the buttermilk mixture in two additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture and beating for about 30 seconds after each addition, or until combined. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin-pan cups.

Bake the cupcakes, rotating the pan after about 12 minutes, for 23 to 25 minutes, or until they are lightly golden and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool in the pan on a cooling rack for 10 minutes, gently loosen the cupcakes from the pan, and then let them cool completely in the pan before removing them.

To Fill the Cupcakes with LEMON CURD
Inject the lemon curd into the cooled cupcakes, following the directions on page 171.

To Make the VANILLA MERINGUE FROSTING
In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar, water, and cream of tartar and stir just to moisten the sugar. Clip a candy thermometer onto the side of the pan and place over high heat. Bring to a boil and cook for about 3 minutes, or until the syrup registers 280°F on the thermometer. Remove from the heat.

In a medium bowl, using a handheld mixer on medium speed, whip the egg whites until soft peaks form. (The volume of egg whites is too small to use a stand mixer.) Turn the mixer to low speed and slowly drizzle the hot sugar syrup into the egg whites (try to keep the hot syrup from hitting the beaters). Turn the mixer to high speed and continue whipping the frosting for 5 to 8 minutes, or until it is at room temperature. Beat in the vanilla (or any other flavoring you like, but err on the side of caution and add no more than 1 teaspoon and then taste before you add more). You should have about 2 cups.

To Frost and Garnish the Cupcakes
You can finish the cupcakes in one of two ways: Frost them with an offset or icing spatula, creating dramatic spikes if you like, and then grate lemon zest directly on top. Or, frost them, fire up your torch, brown the frosting, and then grate lemon zest directly on top.

Recipe reprinted with permission from Elizabeth Falkner's Demolition Desserts: Recipes from Citizen Cake by Elizabeth Falkner, copyright (c) 2007. Published by Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, CA.
Photo credit: Frankie Frankeny (c) 2007

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