Author: John Fladd

Raspberry cake with raspberry ganache

Chocolate and raspberries are a classic combination. What makes this particular cake so very raspberry-y is that it is flavored with actual freeze-dried raspberries, not raspberry flavoring. There is lemon zest to brighten the flavor, and actual chocolate for chocolateyness. The rainbow unicorns will appear independently.

Cake

  • 1⅓ cups (300 g, 2 cubes + 5 Tablespoons) butter
  • 1⅓ cups (266 g) granulated sugar
  • zest of 1 lemon
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour
  • ¾ teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ⅓ cup (80 g) milk
  • 1 envelope (1.2 ounces or 34 g) freeze-dried raspberries

Ganache

  • ⅓ cup (80 g) heavy cream
  • 8.8 ounces (250 g) semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • Another 1.2 ounces (34 g) envelope of freeze-dried raspberries

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and sugar a Bundt pan.

Grind each envelope of freeze-dried raspberries. Sift with a fine-mesh sifter to remove seeds. Set each aside.

In a mixing bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, salt and raspberry powder together. Set Team Pink aside.

Cream the butter, lemon zest and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and then the vanilla. Spoon the dry ingredients into the mix, then the milk.

Transfer the pink batter to the Bundt pan, one large spoonful at a time, then smooth the blobs out. Bake for 45 to 60 minutes or until the cake reaches an internal temperature of 200°F. Let the cake cool for 15 minutes or so, then flip it out onto a serving plate, and cool for another hour or so.

After you’ve dusted your mahjong trophies or written a Portuguese love poem, return to the kitchen.

Heat the chocolate and cream in a microwave-safe bowl for a few seconds at a time — 30 seconds, then 20, then 10, etc. — stirring each time, until combined and silky. Stir in the remaining raspberry powder, then spoon the ganache over the cake. Don’t worry if it’s drippy; it’s supposed to be.

Give the ganache a few minutes to set up, then cut slices, and serve with ice cream, or very cold milk.

Featured photo: Raspberry + chocolate. Photo by John Fladd.

Ice cream sandwiches for all

Sweet Bel’s Ice Cream has Happy Cake too

Jennifer Belmore was making a Happy Cake Bowl.

“I make cake pretty much every day here,” Belmore said, as she cut a slab of chocolate sheet cake from a baking pan and cut it into cubes. “Right now I have chocolate cake and funfetti to put at the bottom of a bowl. and then you get to pick your ice cream. You get to pick a hot topping and then it’s covered in whipped cream and sprinkles and a cherry. It’s a hybrid sundae per se — kind of like a throwback to your younger days when you were a birthday boy or girl and you had your cake and ice cream. We got away from it for some reason. And who doesn’t love cake and ice cream?”

Belmore opened Sweet Bel’s Ice Cream & Dessert Creations in Merrimack in April,

“I opened April 18. And business has been good so far,” she said. Her vision is to serve ice cream with a different spin on things. “My background is in baking,” she said. “I was trained as a French pastry chef, and I’ve always wanted to have a bakery. And so, fast-forward all these years later, and I have the attitude of, ‘What goes better with baked goods than ice cream?”

Belmore bought an existing ice cream shop on Daniel Webster Highway in Merrimack. “It already had the right footprint,” she said, “and I just had to add an oven, and voila! Here I am.”

At this point, Belmore put cubes of chocolate cake in the bottom of a bowl, setting several off to the side, and scooped ice cream on top of the bowl-cake. At any given time Sweet Bel’s offers more than 30 choices of ice cream.

“Our ice cream comes from Shain’s of Maine, up in Sanford, Maine,” she said, “a small little place.” This time Belmore chose banana ice cream to go over the cake cubes. Given the choice of chocolate, marshmallow, caramel, peanut butter or strawberry sauces, she chose peanut butter to go over the two scoops of ice cream.

“This is probably one of the best combinations,” Belmore said with a nod. “This and our peanut butter cup sundae; everyone loves peanut butter and chocolate.” She said she really likes making Happy Cake Bowls. “There’s something very satisfying about them,” she said. “My favorite ice cream probably changes by the week, but right now, it’s Turtles — vanilla [ice cream] with chocolate chips, cashews, and swirled with caramel. It’s so good; I like the texture. And then chocolate peanut butter is probably my second favorite.”

Scooped ice cream and sundae’s make up a large part of Belmore’s sales, she said, but her particular specialty is custom ice cream sandwiches.

“We do custom ice cream sandwiches,” she said. “I bake cookies every day and then you can pick your cookie, your ice cream.” Baking two types of cookies per day means that a customer might have more than 60 different ice cream sandwich combinations to choose from.

Belmore covered the sundae in the Happy Cake Bowl with whipped cream, then crumbled the remaining cake over the top. She examined the bowl carefully, then added a cherry, and sprinkles, then nodded again.

Sweet Bel’s Ice Cream & Dessert Creations
Where: 608 DW Highway, Merrimack, 670-2161, sweetbels.com
When: open seven days a week during the summer, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Featured photo: Happy Cake Bowl from Sweet Bel’s Ice Cream. Photo by John Fladd.

Now with gelato

A changing of the guard at the Bakeshop on Kelley Street

After more than 15 years, Denise Nickerson, the owner of The Bakeshop on Kelley Street in Manchester has sold her business and retired. The Bakeshop’s final day of business was June 26. The good news is that a new food business is set to take over the space at 171 Kelley St. within the week.

Karsyn’s Gelato and Bakeshop plan to open Wednesday, July 8. Owner Brooke Viviers said that while the focus of the new shop will be in a slightly different direction, fans of the Bakeshop on Kelley Street’s baked goods will not be left hungry.

“My plans are to keep a lot of Denise’s baked goods,” she said, “but gelato is going to be our main seller. So we’re going to have gelato. We plan to make gelato cakes, sundaes, and we’re also thinking about serving smoothie bowls as well. I’ve talked with Denise about what her best sellers are and what people constantly come in here for. I want to try to keep that here so we’re not taking everything away that Denise does, but changing it up a bit.”

Gelato is a lot like ice cream, Viviers said — a sort of close Italian cousin to it.

“Gelato is prepared a little bit differently,” she said. “It actually has a much lower sugar content. but it’s made with milk instead of cream, so you think maybe it won’t be as creamy as ice cream because there’s less fat, but it’s very creamy and it’s softer; it’s kept at a higher temperature so it’s not as hard as regular ice cream.”

Viviers’ plan is to carry a large variety of gelato.

“We’re going to have 18 flavors to start,” she said. “We’ll have more than 18 flavors available from where we get the gelato from, but we’re going to rotate and see what sells the best. When we have a good idea of what [our customers] like the best, we’ll have some flavors that will probably always stay and then we’ll rotate some as well.”

Gelato is a family business for Viviers.

“My family has been in the bakery — and now gelato — business for the past eight years now,” she said. “My brother [Zack Smith] started selling gelato in his bakery [in Methuen, Mass.] three or four years ago, and since then, he’s acquired a couple more locations where he’s trying to do more gelato and not as many baked goods, and kind of steering more toward the frozen side of things. He built a relationship with the owner of [gelato maker] Dolce Freddo, and asked if he could sell it at his bakery, and that’s kind of how it happened. I moved to Manchester when I was dating my husband. We’re now married, but we have a home in Manchester, in the North End area, and I’ve been here for about six years now.”

Viviers said the gelato flavors at Karsyn’s [named after her new son] will be familiar to her customers.

“We’ll have a lot of standard flavors,” she said, “like chocolate, vanilla, we have a Nutella, Reese’s, and a cannoli flavor. We plan to do like a special cannoli sundae, cannoli ice cream cakes, that kind of thing. With mascarpone. We’ll keep Denise’s recipe, for cannoli filling, so it’ll be like, we’ll still sell cannolis like Denise does here, but we’re going to make cakes and sundaes out of it.”

“That said, we have an amazing pistachio gelato,” she said. “And maybe rum-raisin.”

Karsyn’s Gelato and Bakeshop
Where: 171 Kelley St., Manchester
When: Starting Wednesday, July 8, open Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Featured photo: Denise Nickerson, owner of The Bakeshop on Kelley Street, demonstrates her style of cake decorating to Brooke Viviers, the owner of Karsyn’s Gelato and Bakeshop, which will open in the same space at 171 Kelley St. in Manchester on Wednesday, July 8.

The Weekly Dish 26/7/02

• A new farmers market: According to a recent press release by Hampton’s Lane Memorial Library, there is a new farmers market in Hampton. “The Hampton Farmers Market is a new market in Hampton, NH with a mission to provide a community space for local farms and artisans to vend their products,” the announcement read. For its initial season, the market will run from July 11 to Aug. 8. All market dates are on Saturdays, from 2 to 5 p.m. at 19 Academy Ave, near the library. The market will be held rain or shine. Visit hampton.lib.nh.us/hampton-farmers-market.

• Making batch cocktails: Tuscan Market (Tuscan Village, 9 Via Toscana, Salem, 912-5467, tuscanbrands.com) will host a class from 5 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, July 2, teaching the art of making batch cocktails designed for summer parties and backyard barbecue. In this interactive class, guests will learn how to craft three crowd-friendly cocktails that are easy to prep ahead of time and serve in large batches. Afterward enjoy fireworks on the Tuscan Market Lawn. The cost is $64.74 through the Tuscan Brands website.

• BVI terrace party: The Bedford Village Inn (2 Olde Bedford Way, Bedford, 472-2001, bedfordvillageinn.com) will host a celebration of America’s 250th anniversary with an evening of festivities on its Fondi Terrace Thursday, July 2, from 5 to 9 p.m. There will be a live grill station serving a special outdoor menu featuring sausage and peppers (served on a fresh roll or paired with pasta), a variety of grilled skewers, pasta salad and more. There will also be a festive spritz bar. No tickets are required to attend, but registering for the event will help guests save the event to their calendar. Guests are welcome to stop by throughout the evening and enjoy the festivities.

• New brew: Shoreline Vodka Lemonade is now on draft at 603 Brewery & Beer Hall 42 Main St. in Derry, according to a brewery newsletter. 603’s hard lemonade has an alcohol by volume of 5 percent, the newsletter said. The newsletter also announced 603’s New England Strawberry Wheat, a beer with a 5.2 percent ABV. 603 will head to Meredith on Thursday, July 23, to celebrate National Lemonade day: “Join us at Town Docks … from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., where we will be sampling our collaboration with the Common Man, Big Lake Vodka Lemonade! … enjoy live music, swag giveaways, product samples, and of course the usual great food and drink offerings from Town Docks!” the newsletter said. See 603brewery.com.

Celebrating the Fourth and the 250th

Pet parades, bicycle parades and parade parades over the holiday weekend

Jennifer Kretovic is the Ward 3 Concord City Councilor and a trustee for the Concord Historical Society. She is also the co-chair of Concord’s semiquincentennial/tricentennial committee. All that means that she has a very good seat to view the city’s Fourth of July Weekend celebrations, she said.

“We have so much going on!” she said. “And this is a great way to celebrate all that the State of New Hampshire and the City of Concord has contributed to our rich history. In 1726, King George II declared that the Massachusetts settlers could settle in New Hampshire. And Concord was peeled out as one of these settlement communities along with seven other communities; there were eight in total. There are all kinds of very rich stories about those first settlement years in a culture that wasn’t prepared for winter, in a culture that wasn’t prepared for sandy soil, that wasn’t prepared for granite, and they really had to work together in order to survive and thrive. But the interesting thing is that there were already settlers here.”

And of course, Kretovic said, 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

“So on July 4, the City of Concord is going to host a parade on Main Street. It is welcome to anybody in the state that would like to come. There are events that are happening at the Statehouse Plaza. The intent is when the parade ends, people can come to the Statehouse Plaza. They will have speakers, the Lafayette reenactors, the New Hampshire Pipe and Drum Corps will be there. We have the Nevers Band that will be on City Plaza, so there’ll still be music for people to enjoy. The Statehouse is going to be open for tours on that Saturday, July 4. It is an amazing opportunity for people because the Statehouse is not typically open on Saturdays for tours. This really is a gem moment. If anybody wants to see and do the historic tour, this is the time to do it. The New Hampshire Historical Society is also going to be open at 11 [a.m.] so that people can attend and go to their museum and see everything that they have on display as well. The City of Concord, later on in the day, we’re doing an old-fashioned baseball game at Memorial Field. It’s the American Legion baseball game, and we hope people will come see it. that. And then of course our Fourth of July fireworks at dusk. As soon as the sun goes down and it’s dark enough for the fireworks, we will do the fireworks. We typically have between 10 and 15 thousand people that attend the fireworks. We would hope to have the same amount of people that attend the parade in the morning.”

Communities throughout New Hampshire will celebrate Independence Day over the coming weekend. These are some of the festivities:

The Town of Amherst will host a fireworks display celebration on Thursday, July 2, beginning at 5 p.m., with local food vendors, music, and entertainment before the fireworks kick off at 9:30 p.m. Oral historians will also record “Voices of Amherst, NH,” a collection of stories and memories from Amherst residents. And on Saturday, July 4, Amherst’s annual Fourth of July parade will begin at 10 a.m. at Wilkins School. Visit amherstnh.gov/home/pages/250th-anniversary-celebration.

In Boscawen there will be an AFMI Fourth of July Party on Saturday, July 4, from 5 to 10 p.m. at 16 Hardy Lane, with food, lawn games like croquet and cornhole, and an open mic for anyone in the community who wants to share their work. Food will be served from 5 to 8 p.m., and fireworks will be on display after sundown, around 9:30 p.m. Attendance is $25 per adult and $10 per child. Visit the events calendar at boscawennh.gov.

Brookline will hold its annual Fourth of July Parade beginning on South Main Street at 10 a.m., according to brooklinenh.gov.

There will be a Fireworks Family Fun Fest in Canterbury from 5 to 9 p.m. on Saturday, July 4, with a kids’ parade, kids’ games, food, and a concert by the Club Soda Band, before fireworks after dark, according to a post on the Friends of Canterbury Center Facebook page.

Contoocook and Hopkinton will hold a Family Fun Day on Saturday, July 4, hosted by the Hopkinton Recreation Committee irthday Celebration slated for Saturday, July 25, and Sunday, July 26, with events in Roy Memorial Park, the historic town center and more, including fireworks on the Saturday evening, according to litchfieldnh.gov.

Derry will have a fireworks display beginning around dusk (9 p.m.) on Saturday, July 4, according to derrynh.gov/parks-recreation.

The Town of Hollis has a week of patriotic activities planned including ceremonies and field day activities on Saturday, July 4; a movie and kids’ activities on Friday, July 10, and music from The Slakas, inflatables, kids’ games, food for purchase and fireworks on Saturday, July 11. See hollisnh.gov for a schedule of events.

Kingston will hold an America’s 250th Celebration on Saturday, July 18, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Kingston Plains, Town Common and other historical sites, with Revolutionary reenactors, Sons & Daughters of the Revolution, music, games, a barbecue and more, according to kingstonnh.gov/250th-anniversary-celebration-planning-committee.

Bedrock Gardens in Lee (19 High Road, 659-2993, bedrockgardens.org) will host An American Celebration from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, July 4, which will include garden tours, a talk and demonstration by celebrity chef Mary Ann Esposito, a macaroni pie contest, and a walking lecture on “The Founding Plants of America,” according to the website.

In Litchfield, there will be a Fourth of July parade beginning at 10 a.m. at Hidden Creek golf course, followed by a car cruise and car show at Roy Memorial Park from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., as confirmed by the Aaron Cutler Memorial Library. Litchfield also has a 250th Bican Legion raffle and flag sales. Visit the Historical Society’s website.

Manchester will celebrate America’s 250th birthday on Friday, July 3, at Arms Park starting at 6 p.m. with music, food vendors and more, including fireworks at dusk (around 9 p.m.) over the river, according to the Manchester Parks and Recreation Facebook page.

Merrimack’s Independence Day celebrations begin with a concerton Friday, July 3, at 6:30 p.m. featuring the Merrimack Concert Association (which will be performing and selling root beer floats) at Abbie Griffin Park behind the Merrimack Town Hall, according to merrimackparksandrec.org. A parade will take place Saturday, July 4, at 1 p.m. andfireworksat Kollsman Athletic Fields start around 9:15 p.m., with music and food trucks from 5 to 9 p.m., the website said.

Go to nashua.gov now to reserve tickets for theFourth of July Fireworks and Baseball Game on Saturday, July 4, in Nashua — tickets to the Silver Knights game are free for the first 500 adults and children under 13, according to the city’s website. The game, which starts at 10:30 a.m., will feature an expanded kids’ zone and on-field activities, the website said. That evening the program starts with a performance by the band The Slakas at 6 p.m., Nashua Hall of Fame inductions at 8 p.m., the Spartans Drum & Bugle Corps at 8:30 p.m. and a fireworks show at dusk, the website said.

New Boston will celebrate Independence Day Saturday, July 4, with a parade, food, music and fireworks. Visit newboston4thofjuly.org.

The Town of Raymond will hold a week of Independence Day celebrations from Friday, July 3, to Sunday, July 12, including an arts presentation, a parade, an ice cream social, a cornhole tournament, a Town Common concert, a musket drill, and more, according to raymondnh.gov, where you can find the full schedule.

The Warner Historical Society (warnerhistorical.org) will hold a Fourth of July pancake breakfast from 7:30 to 11 a.m. on July 4 at the United Church of Warner (43 E. Main St.). There will be an Amerin Riverway Park in Contoocook. Events will include a farmers market, a Tooky Cookie competition, live music, a kids’ parade, an Independence Day parade, family fun at Riverway Park, a pudding-eating competition, and a root beer chugging competition, according to hopkintonnh.myrec.com.

The Town of Windham has been celebrating all year long. See windhamnh.gov for the calendar of events.

Rose & Rhubarb

Last Thursday was one of those days. You know the ones — you don’t really have anything to complain about, but you get on a mental hamster wheel and before you know it you find yourself scowling at the world, drenched in self-pity.

Fortunately, there is a solution for self-pity: rhubarb.

Even more fortunately, we are right in the middle of rhubarb season. As it turns out, aside from pie, rhubarb is a rockstar ingredient in cocktails. It is sweet and sour (well, OK, mostly sour, but it will be sweet by the time we’re done with it) and princess pink.

A rhubarb margarita, you ask? Yes, please.

Oh, you meant a rhubarb sidecar? Even better.

We’ll do something with gin this time (see below), but first we need to make some rhubarb syrup.

Rhubarb Syrup

  • 1 pound or so of cleaned rhubarb stalks, chopped to half-inch dice. (The actual amount doesn’t matter too much, so long as you use an equal amount of sugar.)
  • 1 pound or so of granulated sugar – the same amount as the rhubarb, by weight.
  • Zest and juice of 1 lemon

Freeze the chopped rhubarb for several hours or overnight. This will form ice crystals that will poke holes in the rhubarb’s cell walls, releasing rhubarb juice more freely once we start cooking.

Later, combine the frozen rhubarb, lemon zest, and the sugar in a saucepan, and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until you get a sort of rhubarb compote swimming in juice, and the juice comes to a boil. Stir in the lemon juice, then take it off the heat and set it aside for an hour or so to sort of collapse in on itself.

Strain through a fine-mesh strainer. Eat the rhubarb compote over ice cream or on a buttered crumpet, and use the pink syrup for cocktails.

Just such a cocktail – Rose & Rhubarb

  • 2 ounces botanical gin – At the moment, I’m enjoying Hendrick’s Oasium very much
  • 1 ounce fresh-squeezed lemon juice
  • 3/4 ounce rhubarb syrup (see above)
  • 5 drops rose water – You might want to work your way up to five drops. Rose water can be tricky stuff. One drop too little, and you can’t really taste it, and one drop too much, whatever you’re making ends up tasting like grandmother soap. I had to throw away a perfectly good pear crumble once because I wasn’t paying attention and added a little too much rose water, and it ended up tasting like a rear-view mirror air freshener.
  • 2 to 3 ounces plain seltzer

Combine the gin, lemon juice, rhubarb syrup and rose water with ice in a cocktail shaker. Shake thoroughly, and strain over fresh ice in a rocks glass. Top with club soda and stir gently.

Sit somewhere with a gentle breeze and listen to a mostly forgotten song from your youth as you sip this — anything from Meat Loaf’s 1977 album Bat Out of Hell will serve this purpose very well. (Though, admittedly, that’s from my youth). As promised, this pretty, pink drink is sweet and sour and a little floral.

After two of them, you probably won’t take yourself quite so seriously.

Featured photo: Rose & Rhubarb. Photo by John Fladd.

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