Dear Dartmouth, 

Your Vitamin C is lacking! I just know it is. 

There are perhaps two, equally worthy remedies. The first requires a stroll down memory lane to the year 1999. If you were like me, you were not born and particularly Vitamin C-deficient. Though if you were like Colleen Ann Fitzpatrick, you were just about to release the ever-iconic album “Vitamin C”, grounded by the song “Graduation (Friends Forever)”.

The second remedy, while timeless, can be found well within the year 2021. It is both the tart berry with sweet undertones as it is the sweet fruit with a citrusy finish. Raspberries (what else!) embody this duality, an essential for our summer of renewal and reflection.

The three recipes of our story – tried and true – spotlight raspberries as the star, as they do emphasize the supporting role the ingredient thoroughly accomplishes. 

A refreshing sip to begin the day? Might I suggest Recipe #1.

A sweet and spicy crunch for the perfect afternoon snack? Let’s have a look at Recipe #2.

A fluffy bite of Heaven? Recipe #3 awaits…

Iced Raspberry Chai

Ingredients:

• One part masala chai (steeped or store-bought)
• One part vanilla oat milk (or your creamy add-in of choice!)
• A handful of ice (preferably the adorable ice cubes)
• One tablespoon of raspberry syrup (to my knowledge, there exist only three states of raspberry: berried, jammed, and of course, bottled)

How to make it:

1. Begin by finding the mug that speaks most to your morning.
2. Pour in one part (cooled) masala chai.
3. Add a generous handful of ice cubes atop the chai (this way, both the chai and the milk will experience the chilling effect).
4. Pour in one part milk or milk alternative.
5. Stir in the tablespoon of raspberry syrup to your heart’s content.
6. Sip, and sip some more.

Raspberry Chili Toast

Ingredients:

• 2 slices of your favorite bread
• 1 spoonful of raspberry jam or raspberry hibiscus jam
• 1 spoonful of sweet chili jam (both jams can be found at Collis!)

How to make it:

1. Begin by toasting your bread as you normally would. Now, here’s the kicker: toast it once more until you sense it is almost, but not totally, burnt. This slight burntness paired with the sweetness of the jam will be an unforgettable combination.
2. First spread a generous layer of your sweet chili jam.
3. Right atop the swell chili jam layer, and doing your best not to mix the two, add the layer of raspberry jam.
4. Savor a bite of sweet and spicy at every turn.

Lemon Raspberry Angel Food Cake

Ingredients – Angel Food Cake:

• 1 cup of cake flour (spooned and leveled)
• ¼ teaspoon of salt
• 12 large egg whites (room temperature)
• 1 teaspoon of cream of tartar
• 1 ¼ cups of sugar
• 2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract
• Zest from two lemons, divided

Ingredients – Raspberry Purée:

• 1 cup of fresh or defrosted frozen raspberries
• ¼ cup of water mixed with 1 teaspoon of cornstarch
• ¼ cup of regular sugar
• 1 teaspoon of fresh lemon zest (saved from your zest noted above)
•  

How to make it:

1. Begin with the raspberry puree. Place all of the ingredients in a medium pot and place over low heat.
2. Bring the sauce to a simmer and cook until it has thickened a little bit, about 5 minutes.
3. Remove from the stove and let cool for about 15 minutes. 
4. Follow any good recipe for homemade angel food cake—Martha Stewart has a very good one online.
5. Use a microplane zester to shave the zest from two lemons.
6. As you get to the end of your recipe and you have just folded in the dry ingredients, gently fold all of the lemon zest into the batter.
7. Pour all of the batter into an ungreased 10” angel food cake pan. Take your cooled raspberry puree and pour it gently all around the middle of the batter. Then take a knife and swirl the raspberry puree gently through the batter leaving a lovely design only. You don’t want to have a pink cake!
8. Bake until the cake is golden and springs back when lightly pressed, about 35 to 40 minutes.
9. Invert the pan; let cool for 1 hour.
10. Run a knife around the inside of the pan to release the cake, and unmold.
11. Use your knife to release cake from bottom of pan, and remove.
12. Use your heart to enjoy every moment of the first bite.

And as your sip, crunch, and bite of raspberry carry you away, listen once more to the words of Colleen Ann Fitzpatrick, remembered simply as “Vitamin C”…

These memories are playing like a film without sound

And I keep thinking of that night in June

I didn’t know much of love, but it came too soon

And there was me and you, and then it got real blue

Stay at home talkin’ on the telephone

And we would get so excited, and we’d get so scared

Laughing at ourselves thinking life’s not fair

And this is how it feels

Always,

Lucas

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