Red Wine, Pears and Chocolate... and a visit to Berlin!

Today's blog post has been fully composed in Germany's capital, Berlin! I just landed here yesterday in an attempt to help make my mom's 50th birthday party even more memorable - and I think so far so good, other than the random one-second-to-the-next naps that I have been taking here and there trying to catch up with the 7 hour time difference!

On my first day here we had to go run our usual "errands" of finding a nice Döner Kebap shop and following through on the tradition of afternoon cake and coffee time. If you haven't had a Döner, it is an absolute must - a Turkish-German fast food of a grilled flat bread pocket stuffed with rotisserie style spiced lamb meat, a garlicy yoghurt sauce, cabbage, onions, tomatoes and feta cheese... then sprinkled with this awesome hot pepper seasoning to give it some kick! I have always wondered how this so popular dish hasn't found its way to Kansas City (I believe it can be found on the East coast already?), and will see it as my personal duty to open a Döner shop if nobody else has done it in let's say 2 years from now. It would be severely successful!

Anyways, now to the heart of this post: Red Wine... Pear... Cupcakes! I turned this German favorite cake into a cupcake, which makes it a snack-sized, sweet indulgence with a hint of spice from the cinnamon and ginger I added. The poached pear topping gives it something so refreshing, yet warm, and the light whipped cream frosting makes you feel less guilty about sneaking this guy in on a weekday afternoon accompanied with a nice coffee... or a glass of red wine, duh (I dare you to open a bottle of wine to make this recipe and NOT drink some!). I hope you will love this cupcake as much as I do! It is definitely worth trying out as a way to say your sweet goodbye to winter in a couple of weeks!

Also don't forget to SUBSCRIBE to my blog at the bottom of this post, especially if you love German food as much as I do! ????❤️‍❤️‍

Ingredients for about 1 dozen cupcakes:

• ¾ c & 2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 c sugar
• ¼ c & 2 tablespoon cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ginger
• ½ c buttermilk, shaken
• ¼ c vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• ½ c red wine (I used a decent Cabernet Sauvignon, don't spend too much though!)

For the pear topping:

• 1 large pear (I just Anjou, but use whichever ones are the softest), halved and cored
• 2 tablespoon apricot preserves (I love Bonne Maman!)
• 2 lemon slices

For the frosting:

• 1 c heavy whipping cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 tablespoon confectioners sugar

Method for cupcakes:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prep one muffin tin with cupcake wrappers (you may have a couple of extra cupcakes).
2. Sift together all dry ingredients.
3. Mix together all wet ingredients except wine.
4. Add wet ingredients to dry and whisk together until smooth.
5. Whisk in the wine.
6. Fill cupcake tins to about ⅔ and bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Method for pears:

1. Bring a small pot of water to a boil.
2. Add the lemon slices and halved and cored pears and boil for about 5 minutes.
3. Drain the pears and add them to a bowl of ice water for 30 seconds.
4. Remove the peel and let cool completely (I usually just put them right into the fridge, you don't want the whipped cream frosting to melt on top of them!).
5. Thinly slice the pear.
6. Heat 2 tablespoon of apricot preserves and 1 tablespoon of water in the microwave for 30 seconds.
7. Whisk together brush onto the pears after distributing them on top of the baked cupcakes.

Method for frosting:

1. Add all ingredients together and whisk with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form (make sure not to overmix the whipped cream, or you have a sweet vanilla butter instead...).
2. Frost onto the cupcakes by piping or with a frosting spatula.
3. Sprinkle with cocoa powder and mini dark chocolate chips. Yum! ❤️‍