Delectable Winter Treats from Call Me Cupcake

Certain flavors, ingredients, and recipes just seem to be best during the winter. This might be because they come into season during the colder months, but I think it’s mostly because of the memories associated with them – if I even get a whiff of peppermint/cinnamon/chestnut/eggnog/cranberry/hot chocolate, I’ll jump right into my long johns, start the fireplace, and put on The Snowman.

Linda Lomelino is a blogger who loves baking and photography (and has a natural talent for both, it seems) and shares her gorgeous and delicious work on her blog, Call Me Cupcake. Many of her sweet treats are splendid for the wintertime such as these three delectable recipes:

Pear Cardamom Cake with Brown Butter Frosting and Chocolate Glaze

For obvious reasons, fresh fruit is harder to come by during the frosty winter months. Pears are one delicious exception. If you have had the honor of receiving a gift box laden with juicy, ripe, gold paper-wrapped pears, you know just how yummy they can be. Crunchy, slightly spiced-tasting Bosc pears; soft, creamy Comice pears; and succulent, sweet Anjou pears are just a few of the winter varieties of this delightful fruit.

This cake shares the homey winter flavors of juicy grated pears; herbal, citrusy cardamom, and spicy cinnamon. Linda tops the cake with a dreamy brown butter frosting that includes yet more cardamom along with butter and cream. Finally, she drizzles a chocolate glaze made with honey, dark chocolate, and cognac over the whole thing. One thick slice of this confection and you will surely have visions of sugarplums – or maybe it would be sugar pears – dancing in your head.

Soft Gingerbread Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and Sugared Cranberries

We’ve always had gingerbread of some sort in our home during the winter. Gingerbread houses, trains, pine trees, sleighs… even gingerbread families decorated with gumdrops.

My favorite form of gingerbread, though, is a moist, spicy cake such as this. The wonderful winter flavors of cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and ginger star in this comforting cake, which also includes orange zest and light brown sugar to provide even more warmth, brightness, and depth.

Sweet, rich, and a little tangy, cream cheese frosting is the ideal addition to this tender, flavorful confection. With only three ingredients – cream cheese, butter, and powdered sugar – how could you go wrong?

Finally, you will need some jewels to crown this beauty. Linda rolls fresh, plump cranberries in granulated sugar and adorns the cake with them for an even more wintry taste and appearance.

A Clementine Cake and Citrus Curd
 

Citrus is such a phenomenal winter fruit. You can obtain sweet, juicy oranges, tangerines, and clementines throughout the season. In addition, citrus fruits deliver much-needed vitamin C at a time when it seems everyone you know is nursing a cold or the flu.

Three to five clementines go into the cake batter, clementine juice is used to make the frosting, and candied clementines top the iced confection. For kiddos with food allergies, you’ll be happy to know that this cake is both gluten and dairy-free.

As a bonus, Linda includes an additional recipe for citrus curd, which incorporates the zest and juice of oranges, lemons, limes, and clementines. You can use this bright, creamy concoction in tarts, between the layers of a white cake, on crepes or scones, sandwiched between sugar cookies, or on shortcake with a few blueberries. Your only limit is your imagination.

What are some of your favorite delectable winter treats? Share your recipes with us!