Nutcase Confessions and Peanut Butter Mocha Brownies

I'm one of those weirdos that enjoys bizarre flavor combinations. And I'm not talking about french fries and Wendy's Frostys, I like some pretty strange things. But I try rEEEEally hard not to let my bonkers food preferences cross over into the food I make for other people. Because you know, its hard not to scare people off in matters of my personal appearance, personal sense of humor, personal dance moves. You know, personal anything. So I proactively avoid scaring them with the fact that I sometimes eat potato chips with strawberry jam.

Oh my gosh. I just admitted that I eat potato chips with strawberry jam on the internet. My secrets are out; I'm a complete nutcase. And now that I've let that smidgen of information slip out I'm tempted to make a comprehensive list of all the odd things I eat in secret. Lift the burden of guilty indulgence I've been living with ever since my first glazed doughnut with cheddar cheese fiasco at age 12. Oh my word I need to shut the clap trap before something truly horrid escapes.

But at least I don't make Peanut Butter and Jelly cupcakes with Frito corn chip topping. (Wouldn't that be awesome? I'm just sayin', I think it would.) I have compassion on the boring people of the world who balk at the idea of culinary freedom and stick to pretty acceptable flavor combos. So when the idea of Peanut Butter Mocha Brownies arrived in my brain I was super excited. An unusual mix of tastes, but one that most people will be on board with? Ho yes. So much yes.

Peanut butter isn't really a popular flavor for coffee drinks, but I know for a fact that they have peanut butter syrup for them. It is one of many at my local Cash n' Carry. (If you have a slight obsession for flavored syrups go to Cash n' Carry. You will have a heart attack of happy. It's like an entire aisle of absolute joy.)
And if it is enjoyed by enough people that they would make a syrup for peanut butter coffee drinks, then I am putting it in dessert form. It's undeniable.
An thick fudgey chocolate-laden peanut butter swirled dessert of awesome. (I have realized that I use the word "awesome" in every. single. post. I have no regrets.)

Peanut Butter Mocha Brownies
4 large eggs
1 1/4 cups of unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tablespoon instant coffee granules
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 cup butter
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 1/2 cups All purpose flour
3 oz of chopped semi sweet chocolate
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
Preheat the oven to 350 F. lightly grease a 9x13 glass baking dish. Crack the eggs into a large bowl and whisk them together with the cocoa, salt, baking powder, instant coffee, and vanilla until smooth. On the stove top melt the butter over low heat. When completely melted add the sugars. I don't particularly care about the shininess on the top of brownies, but if you are a sucker for the shiny crackly crust on top, heat the sugar and butter until about 110 F. (A couple minutes more) This will dissolve more of the sugar which gives you that nice "boxed brownie mix" look. Add the hot butter/sugar mixture to the egg/cocoa mixture and stir until smooth. Add the flour and shaved chocolate and stir. Spoon the batter into your greased dish. Dollop the peanut butter intermittently and swirl it until it looks pretty. :) Bake for 30 minutes or until a cake tester runs clean of batter when stuck in the middle.

Bad Blog Parenting and Irish Mousse

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day! And I realized that I have posted absolutely zero Irish themed recipes here. My poor blog. I'm such a bad blog mom.

So here we go! To remedy the tragedy I'm posting Bailey's Irish Cream Chocolate Coffee Pudding. (OH my word. That is way to many words to say.) We should just call them St. Paddy's Pudding! Orrrrr Boozy Mocha Puddings. On the newly written out recipe card it is titled "Bailey's Irish Coffee Mousse. But then you don't know about the chocolate, which is very important. Maybe just Chocolate Coffee Mouse? Or something that is easier to say and remember. Here at home we just call it: "That amazing pudding" There is no other description needed. We all just instinctively know what "that pudding" means. Because it is so good.

For one thing, I don't like coffee. And I don't like alcohol themed desserts.
And I like this pudding. (How is that possible? I don't know how that is possible. But it's possible.)

"That Pudding"-- Irish Cream Mocha Pudding
1/3 cup brown sugar
4 Tablespoons flour
1 3/4 cup strong coffee
2 slightly beaten egg yolks
2 Tablespoons cocoa powder
2 Tablespoons Bailey's Irish Cream
1/2 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup of heavy cream, whipped until stiff. 
1/4 cup powdered sugar
Mini Chocolate Chips to garnish, optional
In a sauce pan combine sugar, flour, a pinch of salt and the cocoa. Slowly whisk in the coffee and Baileys until smooth. Cook on med low heat until thick and bubbly. Reduce the heat to low and cook two minutes more, stirring frequently. Remove from heat. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs yolks and vanilla together. Temper the eggs and the hot coffee mixture. By slowly pouring in a stream of coffee (about 1/4 cup) into the eggs whisking the whole time. Then add the tempered egg yolks in to the remaining hot coffee mixture, still continually whisking. Bring the whole thing back to a boil and cook 2 additional minutes. Remove from the heat and transfer to a chilled bowl. Cover the pudding with plastic wrap, making sure the pudding is touching the plastic wrap to avoid a film from forming on it as it chills. Cool it completely in the refrigerator. While it cools, whip your heavy cream until it is stiff. I sweetened mine with 1/4 cup of powdered sugar right before stiff peak formed, but feel free to skip this step if you want to keep the recipe lower in sugar. Reserve half of a cup of the whipped cream to garnish the mousse, folding the rest into your chilled coffee pudding. Spoon into individual cups and garnish with the whipped cream and chocolate chips.

This last week had some delicious weather. The weekend has some really really glorious days. It was full on sun, visits to the nursery, hardware store, Brussels sprouts plants, new garden beds, purple pots, and cupcakes.

Nice green minty cupcakes.
I wish I had stuck with my recipe for these. It was the sun. I completely blame the copious amount of rays coming in all the open windows. It went straight to my head.

I decided to try a new (fancy) cake recipe. One that involved soaking mint leaves in Bailey's Irish Cream, separating eggs, beating the whites and folding batter. It was supposed to reveal a light fluffy cake of supreme fluffiness. A cloud of minty delight sprinkled with little chocolate bursts of happy.
And it was a bit dry.
And hard.
*sigh*

The flavor itself was great. Pretty inspired. Mint with a hint of Baileys Irish Cream (as a tip of the hat to St Particks' Day coming up) with chocolate chips. A boozy mint chocolate chip. Awesome. But the texture just wasn't there.

Lesson learned? If there is something that tastes good, everyone loves it, and you like making it...just stick with it. There is no need to find something better! Sure, it's fun to experiment, but don't get your hopes up. ;) So I'm looking forward to recreating this with a more successful hope of light fluffy of supreme fluffiness. I'll keep you updated. ;)

Grumpy Cat and Oreos

Conversation this past Friday night between me and my sister:

"How are the cupcakes?"
"They were okay. Tasted kinda weird."
"Oh no! What kind of weird? Terrible weird or good weird?"
"I don't know. Just not as good as they usually are."
"Ugh. Great. They're ugly, hideous, and not tasty."
"Well, they weren't bad!"

At this point I was in despair. I wanted to make the perfect dessert for my sister's college friends who were visiting for the weekend and I ended up making the kitchen a mess and mediocre cupcakes. Then my mom came home...

Conversation this past Friday night between me and my mom:

"Ooh! Cupcakes! What kind?"
"Cookies and Cream. Laura says they don't taste good."
"Did you use your regular chocolate cake recipe?"
"Yes." (I admit I might have said that a bit sullenly. I probably had my "Grumpy Cat" face on. My dad says I have a perfect grumpy cat face.)
"I'm going to have one."
*Grumpy Cat Face from me*
"Wow, Candice! It tastes like an Oreo in cupcake form..."
"Oh. Well, that was the goal I guess."

I had one later and I thought they were fine! They did taste like Oreos. I don't know what my sister's expectations were. Sometimes I think she believes I'm a cupcake goddess or something and everything I touch is going to taste like the dreams of baby fairies or something. And then I make a decently delicious cupcake that just tastes like a good cupcake and not unicorn wishes and she is disappointed in me. This is perfectly okay with me. I feel like all big sisters probably disappoint their little sisters at some point. I'm right on track then. Our relationship is well rounded. We are so well rounded we are like a perfectly circular...

...Oreo.

Yeah. Like these here delicious Oreos on these here Cookies and Cream cupcakes.
Now. I don't have a recipe exactly. More like assembly instructions. Ready?
1. Pick your favorite chocolate cake recipe.
2. Pick your favorite buttercream recipe
3. Make them.
4. Throw in oreos and put oreos on everything. Thouroughly coat your kitchen in oreo crumbs.
5. Make Grumpy cat faces until you eat them and are satisfied. Drink milk from this mug in order to make it official.

No really, I used a plain chocolate cake recipe, stirred in cookie chunks (or just stuck a whole cookie in the cupcake before baking) and baked them normally. Be sure not to overfill the cupcake pan though. Mine ended up overflowing in the oven. :( I mean, I just ate the extra parts and it was fine. But there was a "OH NO! They are so ugly!" moment there for awhile. And then I used a plain cake icing that was shortening based and stirred in cookie chunks.
Oh yes. So Cordon Bleu over here. You're overwhelmed by the class and sophistication of this dessert, aren't you? Of course you are...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hope everyone is having a beautiful Valentine's Day full of chocolate, hugs, and good times. Go ahead and check out past Valentine's posts!
Love and Cupcakes,
Candice

1. Love Letter Sugar Cookies

2. Brigadeiro (Brazilian Truffles)

3. Chocolate Berry Cups

4. Chocolate Coffee Cut Out Cookies

5. Chocolate Covered Cherry Cupcakes

6. Homemade Hostess Cream Filled Cupcakes

Keep Calm and Bake like a Mentally Unstable Person: Homemade Hostess Knock Off Cupcakes

Have you seen these cute little signs? You know...I'm sure you have. They are all popular and inspiring and stuff.

Yeah. See? Everyone thinks they are awesome. And they are kinda cool, I admit it. They even have cute spin offs like so:

Yup. 

And so my motto this past week was....

Keep Calm and Bake like a Mentally Unstable Person

I know, I know. Not as catchy as "cupcakes" but I canna tell a lie. It was kitchen crazy up in here. 

It's because I was stressed. I have been filling out college applications, and FAFSA forms, and credit transfer papers. I've been meeting with Transfer advisors from several schools, campus touring, emailing for references, and writing essays.   

It's been stressful. I generally don't stress too much (it's so much work! Right? Just go with the flow)...but when I do, two things usually happen. 

I bake myself into oblivion. Um. I'm not exaggerating. There are mountains of baked goods that come out of the kitchen. And then I flip my sleep patterns around. I take these really great naps all day long, because sleeping helps stress. It really does! Man, a nap can fix ANYthing. And then I can't sleep at night at all. I usually don't sleep at night anyways, being a self diagnosed insomniac/werido. But when the stress level starts to rise, there is zero sleep happening after the sun goes down. I usually bake all night instead. Ha! Funny how that works. 

I know for some people, they eat happy food when they are stressed (I'm using that word a lot, let's shake it up...) when they are under duress, experiencing consternation, apprehensive, etc. (Much better.)

I personally eat happy food all the time, no matter how I am feeling. But I can appreciate someone turning to comfort food in times of uneasiness. 

So what are some comfort foods I could have had? 

Macaroni and Cheese: Check. I put in bacon, just because. Bacon needs no reasons. 

Pancakes: Yup, blueberry ones.

Tomato Soup and Cheese Toast: Affirmative.

Little Debbie Hostess Cupcakes: Oh. Those are bad for you. Processed food, lots of preservatives. No can do. 

Wrong! You can make homemade ones....

and you can personalize the cute little swirlies for Valentine's Day! 

Sorry guys, I had to squeeze in one more Valentine's dessert before launching myself into Easter recipes. 

The chocolate cake used in these cuties is just my regular old (awesome) chocolate cake recipe. You can find it here. But I'm going to give you the ganache and filling recipes, because that's what really makes the cupcake anyway. 

Homemade Hostess Cupcake Cream Filling

4 Tablespoons softened butter

1 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 Tablespoons heavy whipping cream

1 cup marshmallow creme

Beat together the heavy whipping cream and butter til fluffy, about three minutes. Beat in the vanilla. Sift in the powdered sugar and beat until thoroughly  combined. Stir in the marshmallow creme. Refrigerate until needed. 

To Fill Cooled Cupcakes: Fill a pastry bag with your filling and fitted with a star or other wide tip. Poke into the cupcake and squeeze to fill. Now, they are ready to dip! 

Chocolate Ganache

9 oz of chopped chocolate 

3/4 cup heavy cream

I used semi sweet chocolate chips for this recipe because my family loves darker chocolate. But if you want it to taste more like the original Hostess Cake, I would use milk chocolate. Heat the cream in a saucepan until boiling. (Don't worry about it curdling, heavy cream can't curdle unless you boil it a long time, unlike milk.) Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and let sit for three minutes. Whisk the chocolate until smooth. Let sit and cool a bit, and then dip your cupcake in by holding them by their wrappers. 

Why Coffee is Good in Cookies

It has already been established that Valentine’s Day is awesome.

There is no room for debate on this issue because I unfairly justly implemented cupcakes into my argument. 

Yes. That means I win.

Do you know what else wins? Coffee-Chocolate flavored things. I think this flavor combination is called “Mocha”, but since I am not a coffee drinker I am really not an expert on the subject.

Okay, we are taking a detour here because everyone just went “WAHTTT? You don’t like coffee? Aren’t you a college student living in Seattle? You’re crazy. Coffee is so amazing. It keeps you awake and it tastes good. I love coffee! How can you not like coffee? Coffee…” I don’t like coffee. It tastes like burnt water. Yes, even the so called “good” coffee. It’s gross. I drink it maybe once a month when I am on the verge of physically harming myself because I am so tired and I need caffeine. Usually a cup of tea is enough caffeine for me, (okay, detour within a detour: TEA is amazing. Like the polar opposite of coffee. Okay, back to detour one…) but sometimes when I only have two hours of sleep behind me and I have no hope of getting to bed before 1 or 2 am I have to resort to the evil of coffee to get me through. Ugh.

There. Detour over. We are back to happy things like Valentine’s Day and cookies.

Cookies! Chocolate Coffee cookies to be exact. I usually don’t decorate cookies with Royal icing for two reasons. Reason one is that it takes foreverrrrrr. For. Ev. Er. I could probably get faster if I did it more often and practiced. But I don’t because it takes forever. As aforementioned. But really, it took me about five hours to make thirty cookies start to finish. That’s a lot of hours, amigos.

Reason number two: it just doesn't taste as good as it looks.  And while I like things to look pretty, I like them to taste good more. (That was a terrible sentence grammatically speaking. But it’s okay, this blog is a judge free zone.) Royal icing is so super sweet with no flavor other than just: SUGAR OVERLOAD FLAVOR!! But the chocolate coffee cookies are so intensely dark tasting that a sugar crust to go with it is perfect. It is pretty hard to find a fault with pretty cookies that taste good. :D

And they are perfect for Valentine’s Day! 

• Chocolate Coffee Cutout Cookies
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup  butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla 
• 1 Tablespoon instant coffee granules
• 1/2 teaspoon salt*
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup  cocoa
• 2 1/4 cups flour
• Beat together the sugar, butter, baking powder, vanilla, espresso powder, and salt until fluffy.  Beat in the egg. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl again.Whisk together the cocoa and flour, then beat into the egg and butter mixture until well blended. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes, or up to overnight. Preheat your oven to 375°F. Lightly grease baking sheets. Divide the dough in half. Sprinkle both sides of each piece with extra flour, to keep the dough from sticking. Working with one piece of dough at a time, roll 1/4 in thick. Cut into heart shapes with a cookie cutter. Place the cookies on the prepared baking sheets and bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until their edges are firm and you start to smell chocolate/coffee wafting through your flour covered kitchen. Allow to cool completely before decorating with icing of your choice. 
  
  
  
  

Valentines: A little sweetness...

The holiday of love is right around the corner, isn't it?
Happy Valentines Day, everyone! 
I've never been the kind of person who sits grumpily at home on Valentines day and curses everyone that has a cute significant other and declares that February 14th is only a day for Hallmark to ruthlessly swindle the desperate hearts of couples and make them spend lots of money on useless things like roses and chocolate. I like Valentine's day, and I don't really ever remember having a "valentine" to share it with. But it's cute. And fluffy. It involves chocolate. And really, we hate people who get on Christmas, right? Why is Valentine's any different? Why don't we have "The Grinch who Stole Valentine's Day?" Because the world is full of people who resent the love birds around them, that's why. 
So stop the Single Awareness Day phenomenon, eat cupcakes instead! 

Actually, if you are lonely and disgruntled this 14th, shoot me an email with your address and I will personally send you a Valentine. Because I like making valentines. I also really like making Valentine cupcakes too. I was that kid who made all my valentines homemade and then brought cupcakes to the party at school. Yup. 
I also read classic romantic novels that had lines like this one: "Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same." -Emily Brontë
Yeah, I was that kid. You'll have to forgive me. Maybe these can help?

Chocolate Covered Cherry Cupcakes
When I was a wee lass (Or maybe, like, a 23 year woman? Just maybe.) I loved chocolate covered cherries. I know a lot of people find them a less than favorable candy. Tooth achingly sweet and artificial cherries wrapped in chocolate? Um, Yes! I'm sorry, but they're awesome. As are the cupcakes versions. :)

Chocolate Covered Cherry Cupcakes
Chocolate Cupcakes

1 c. cake flour

3/4 c. sugar

1/3 c. cocoa powder

3/4 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 c. milk

1/2 c. coffee

1/4 c. oil

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

Stir together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Add the remaining wet ingredients and stir until moistened. Divide into cupcake wrappers and bake at 350 for about 12 minutes, or until the tops spring back when touched. 

   Cherry Buttercream
1 stick butter, soft
1/3 c. shortening
3 TB maraschino cherry juice
4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup finely chopped maraschino cherries
12 cherries for decorating
Cream butter and shortening. Add juice and mix. Slowly add sugar. Stir in chopped cherries. Pipe onto chocolate cupcakes using a wide opened tip. 
   Chocolate Ganache
9 oz of semi sweet chocolate, shaved
1 c. cream 
Warm the cream to just boiling in a saucepan on the stove top  Pour over the chocolate and stir until all melted and smooth. Fill a pastry bag and drizzle over frosted cupcakes. Dip the 12 maraschino cherries into the remaining ganache and set on the cupcakes. Tada! Your very own valentine...an edible one, score!

Trees and Red Velvet

I complain about the weather a lot.

I'm sorry.

To all the people who have heard me whine about the rain, the cold, the clouds, the grey...I apologize. It's Seattle! It rains. And while I used to love the rain, living here has sorta ruined it for me. I used to wake up in the middle of the night and hear the water on the roof, the pitter-patter in the dark and it would make me so happy. Now when I hear rain it is terrible news. I roll over in my bed and I become a midnight pessimist. Everything is awful, nothing is good. What is the point of it all anyway? Tomorrow the cuffs of my pants will get soggy, my fingers will be cold, it will be no fun driving...

Sometimes I feel like I need to leave and go somewhere where the sun shines and never come back to soggy-town.
But the things is, when the sun does shine, it is beautiful. It is gorgeous. Absolutely 100% spirit lifting. I think it's the deprivation that does it, never seeing the sun makes it a really big deal when it finally comes out.
One of the things that makes my day so much better when the sun comes out is the trees.

Trees are awesome. I remember one time when me and a friend were on a hike I told her that I didn't think I would ever fall in love because no boy would ever understand how much I liked trees. (She thought I was crazy. She was completely right. I was nuts. I am nuts.) I've since come to realize that understanding a person and what they enjoy might not have anything to do with if you fall in love with them or not. Eh. Give me a break, I was 13, and the idea of trees affecting my romantic life was poetic.
Anyways, enough about my weird middle school days...but trees! Trees are great, and the huge tall dusky ones that live here in Seattle were the inspiration behind this cake.

Oh, and this post of Chocolate and Carrots here. She had the idea first. But I out did her...because I have cupcakes too. ;) Three layers of red velvet. Cream cheese icing. Chocolate trees.
And it went perfectly! Not a hiccup. I thought for a moment that I might have over-baked the first two layers. Nope. Just right.
I don't even like Red Velvet cake and this stuff was good.

Best part? It was sunny the day I took these pictures! ;) The sun makes everything better. So much better.

"When we are stricken and cannot bear our lives any longer, then a tree has something to say to us: Be still! Be still! Look at me! Life is not easy, life is not difficult. Those are childish thoughts. Let God speak within you, and your thoughts will grow silent. You are anxious because your path leads away from ...home. But every step and every day lead you back again. Home is neither here nor there. Home is within you, or home is nowhere at all." -Herman Hesse

Oh, and I made cupcakes too. Ha. You thought you were going to escape from cupcakes this post. No such luck, amigos. 

Notes: 

-This recipe is for one two layer 8 inch cake. I made a double batch which gave me three layers and one dozen cupcakes. Either way is tasty and awesome. 

-The original recipe calls for a whole bottle of red coloring. I used one half for each batch, which resulted in a more subtle red color. I like it better this way. That's how traditional red velvet looks. (at least, in my obvious expert opinion it is. Ha!) If you like a deeper color red than use the whole thing. Dump it in there like a crazy person! Whoohoo!

-This cake will stick to your pans. It is inevitable. It's because its so tasty the pan doesn't want to let it go. It's okay...just put a wax paper circle or parchment paper circle in the bottom of your cake pans after you grease and flour them. Your cake will pop right out and you can peel the paper off your layers after they're cool. 

-I had some raspberry pie filling (just a tad) leftover from some hand pies I made last week so I spread it very very thin in between the layers, just on top of the cake, under the frosting. I wanted to keep it from being too dry. But it isn't part of the recipe is definitely is up to your discretion. But seriously, I'm questioning your discretion if you veto raspberries at anytime. ;)

-I had to make three batches of icing for the cake and cupcakes. But two should cover it...and that's if you love mountains of frosting on your confections. 

Red Velvet Layer Cake
2 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
2 TB cocoa
2 cup sugar
1 cup oil
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
2 tsp vanilla 
1/2 bottle red food coloring
1 tsp vinegar
1/2 c. coffee 
Preheat your oven to 350. Grease and flour your cake pans. Cut wax paper or parchment paper circles to put in the bottom. Whisk together your dry ingredients in a big bowl. In another large bowl combine the sugar and oil and eggs. Add the buttermilk, vanilla, and red food coloring. It will get interesting now because it now appears like you're involved in Aztec human sacrifice. Red food coloring looks really bloody. Dip a knife in this sugary mixture and run around licking it to scare people.  Just kidding. Stir this carefully and methodically so everyone knows you are sane and would never murder anyone. Stir in the coffee and vinegar. Combine these wet ingredients with the dry and stir until everything is combined and moistened. Divide evenly between your cake pans or cupcake tins. Bake 30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Don't over bake. Let cool 10 minutes, and then turn out onto a plate. Peel off the wax paper circles when cool enough to touch. 

Cream Cheese Icing
1 stick butter-soft
1 8 oz package cream cheese-soft
4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1-3 TB of heavy cream if needed
Cream butter and cream cheese together. Add sugar slowly, while keeping the stand mixer on the lowest setting. (Or you could dump it all in at once on high speed and have it spray you in the face and you could sneeze powder sugar boogers all day. That works too.) Add vanilla. If it is too thick to spread or pipe, add the cream one spoon at a time, whipping well after each addition. It will get fluffy and perfect in no time. Spread this all over, between, on top of your red velvet masterpiece. Oh yeah. 

Halfway though our frosting party. Look at that! It's a lot of cream cheese. It's so happy.

Annnnnnndd...I was debating whether I should include a post about chocolate drawing. Because the little chocolate trees are really what made the cake fun and pretty looking. But I have a bunch of homework to do now and if I don't write a chocolate post now, I can write it later! You know, next time I want to procrastinate from doing any kind of schoolwork. Yuup. Oh! and the beautiful photos of the Northwest Wilderness were taken by my super talented sister, Laura Lango. (click on the link! There's lots of pretty pictures there. I promise.) The food pictures are mine, however. Which explains their complete lack of allure, of course. ;)

Nutella Cupcakes: This Season's Flu Remedy

Sometimes sad things happen. Sometimes discouraging things happen.
Sometimes the flu hits you like a sack full of bricks and you spend your time on the couch sleeping, coughing, and collecting used tissues instead of going to school, finishing baking orders, and getting up at 5:45 to go to work every morning.

And then after you've been out of commission for a week, you have an exam to take as soon as you get back. (First of the quarter, which is always iffy since you don't really know how that certain professor tests...) Oh. And then a large birthday party to cater the day after. And a doctor's appointment with a blood draw done by that one nurse that isn't good at it AT ALL.

Life. It's just kinda like a carousel that doesn't stop, it just goes faster. and I'm already a little sick. Heh. :D
Sometimes on this dizzying carnival ride of living, you make really delicious cupcakes and they all get eaten before you can take photos.

Okay, so that isn't the worst thing that could happen, really. And it was my fault. My camera's battery died when I took pictures of the Raspberry Take Over cupcakes last week, and being the lazy, awful (and sick) procrastinator that I am, I didn't recharge it. And then we had a crowd of cute kids come over for a while the other day and well. Needless to say, there weren't any cupcakes left over for photographing.

But I did draw a jar of Nutella for you! And a cupcake. It was nice, sitting in front of the fireplace getting warm, drinking tea, and sketching little cupcakes. It was almost as nice as the Nutella buttercream on those cupcakes. That might have been illegal it was so good. It was so good that my dad started describing it to my mom, foodie style. He even used words like "balance" and "rich". Weird stuff. The apocalypse might have been triggered by the Nutella cupcakes; wacky things are happening all over the place. 

Nutella Cupcakes

Chocolate Cupcakes: 

1 c. cake flour

3/4 c. sugar

1/3 c. cocoa powder

3/4 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 c. milk

1/2 c. coffee

1/4 c. oil

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

Stir together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Add the remaining wet ingredients and stir until moistened. Divide into cupcake wrappers and bake at 350 for about 12 minutes, or until the tops spring back when touched. 

Nutella Buttercream:

1 stick softened butter

1/3 cup nutella

1 tsp vanilla

4 c. powdered sugar

3-4 TB. heavy cream

Cream butter and Nutella until thick (about 3 minutes) Add sugar and continue mixing until well blended. Add vanilla and cream. Beat at high speed until frosting becomes fluffy, at least 3 minutes. 

Nutella Cream Filling:

1/2 c. heavy cream

1/4 c. nutella

Whip cream until stiff. Add 1/4 cup of the cream to Nutella and stir to lighten it. Add this lightened Nutella to the remaining cream and fold it in gently. Fill your cupcakes! :D

Welcome to 2013!

I'm not going to fill this blog post with all the wonderful or sorrowful things that happened in 2012. Because why look back when we can all eat cupcakes instead? Know what I mean, know what I mean? Of course you do.
2013 is going to be awesome.
I'm determined to make 52 new cupcakes this year. One new recipe a week.
I'm a little frightened by my own determination. 52 cupcakes is a lot of cupcakes.
But it's okay. Because the first test recipe turned out spec-tac-oo-lar.
Spectacular!
So here's to a little toast to the New Year...with a Chocolate Bailey's Irish Cream Cupcake!

I turned a chocolate cake recipe into a little party with a generous dose of Bailey's Irish Cream in the batter. I had two bottles of Baileys, one the traditional flavor and then another that was Caramel. I decided to go with the good old Irish Cream this time around, but Caramel would have tasted uh-MAYzingg!
Not like these weren't amazing already. :)
But the best part by far was the frosting, of course. Isn't the frosting always the best part? Or is that just me and my frosting love taking over?

It was a Swiss Meringue Butter cream with a dash of Irish Cream. I've never made Swiss Meringue Butter Cream before, but I will be making it again very soon. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe even every single day this year. Because it was super amazing delicious. I can't believe I had never attempted it before. It just seemed long winded and unnecessary.
Oh wow. It is necessary all right. So very necessary. Necessary for all the cupcakes every made. Necessary for your happiness. Necessary for world domination. Yeahhhh...
I'll quit praising these cupcakes now and give you the recipe. :)

Bailey's Irish Cream Cupcakes  Yield 12
1 cup flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tablespoons of Instant Coffee Granules
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup oil
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup Bailey's Irish Cream
Fudge Ganache

Preheat oven to 350 F.Sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and coffee granules. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour milk, oil, vanilla, egg, and Bailey's. Mix well until there are no lumps. Spoon the batter into cupcake liners and bake for 22 minutes or until the tops spring back when you touch them. Let them cool completely on a rack before you frost them.
Fudge Ganache:
4 oz dark chocolate (I used chocolate chips)
1/2 c. cream
2 Tablespoons butter
In a saucepan heat cream and butter over medium heat. When hot pour over chocolate and let stand til partially melted. (About 3 or 5 minutes) Stir the chocolate until completely smooth and refrigerate until the consistency is thick like frosting. Spread on top of the cooled cupcakes before you pipe on the butter cream.

Bailey's Irish Cream Swiss Meringue Butter Cream
This recipe makes more than enough for 12 cupcakes, but feel free to refrigerate the rest. Or eat it with a spoon. That works too.

5 egg whites
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, cut into cubes
2 tsp Bailey's Irish Cream

Put a pot of water on to simmer and take the butter out of the fridge to soften. Using the double boiler method mix the egg whites and sugar in a mixing bowl and cook over the simmering water. Whisk constant, but gently until the temperature reads 160 F. Or, if you don't have a candy thermometer like me you can cook it until the sugar is all dissolved and the eggs are hot. Remove the bowl and start whisking! Whip until thick, glossy, and the bowl has cooled down, about ten minutes. If the bowl isn't cool, the butter will melt when you add it to the mixture. Bad news. :( Anyway...when the bowl is cool, start adding the butter cube by cube. The frosting will deflate, but keep whipping! Soon it will be fluffy and light and perfect! Stir in the Baileys and proceed to devour it like a dinosaur pipe onto the cupcakes.

Happy New Year, lovelies! I would really love to see if anyone else wants to do this 52 cupcakes in a year challenge with me. I think it would be fun to see everyone else's baking adventures. I have 52 ideas set up already, or you could come with your own. (Which would be even cooler!) Let me know in the comments!

Chocolate Donuts!

Every Sunday when my mom organizes the kid worship at church, she offers donuts to the team to compensate for asking them to get to the church building at the crack of dawn. (Ever wonder why the word "dawn" definitely rhymes with "YAWN"? Yeah, I know. Why didn't you notice that til now?)
Usually she ends up running late because she has to drive down to Safeway and get a box of average looking and tasting donuts. She hates it. Like, really really abhors detests HATES it. It's the worst part of her morning. So I took it upon my baker self to make homemade donuts for everyone. It was a win win win situation. I get to spend all night (and some parts of the early morning) in the kitchen, my mom wouldn't have to drive to Safeway and pick the least-stale box of donuts and thus avoid late arrival at church, and everyone would get to eat homemade donuts!

These should make about 3 dozen (plus donut holes!). I don't have a donut cutter so I just used a biscuit cutter and then a pastry tip turned upside down to cut out the middles.

• 4 1/2 c flour
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 c sugar
• 2 Tbs unsalted butter, melted
• 1 c milk
• 1 tsp vanilla

1. Sift together the dry ingredients.
2. Beat eggs with sugar until light.
3. Add butter, milk, and vanilla.
4. Add dry ingredients and mix until a soft dough is formed. Do not over mix, it will make your donuts hard and stiff instead of fluffy.
5. If dough is too soft to roll, chill it for half an hour.
6. Roll dough out 1/2 inch thick on a floured surface and cut with donut cutters.
7. Fry in hot oil until golden on both sides, turning once. (I'm guessing the oil was about 350 degrees, I just eyeballed it because my thermometer is broken.)
8. Remove from oil with a slotted spoon, hold over hot oil for a few minutes to drain, and then finish draining on paper towels.
9. Top/decorate them however you like! I shook them in a bag with cinnamon and sugar or powdered sugar for the church goers. We also made a chocolate glaze with cocoa powder, sugar, and milk and topped them with chocolate jimmies. You could cover them with nuts or rainbow sprinkles too if you wanted. :)

Cupcake Challenge: Inspire me Cupcake

Week two!
I'm still excited about the cupcake challenge, but this is the second week in a row that the cupcakes haven't turned out right. The first (Cherry Limeade) I blogged right away about the cupcakes and yes, for the first day they were awesome! But when I put them away and tried them the next morning it was like eating playdough! >:P Blech. They got super chewy and hard and gross. I was significantly fallen.

This week I made Rocky Road cupcakes. Like last week, I followed a recipe from the internet...
I think I might have to stop doing that.

These weren't as bad as the last batch, but they weren't very good either. The cake itself was really dry and hard to eat. When they first came out of the oven they were like brownies so that was good. It's just when they had cooled they lost that brownie trait and became crumbly bricks. :(
I think in the future I'll use my own chocolate cake recipe because, quite honestly, it kicks some cupcake booty.
Decoration wise they were magnificent. Topped with a chocolate ganache, melted marshmallows, and chopped nuts...everyone that ate one ate it because they LOOKED delicious, not because they actually were. ;)

So already, even on week two, I'm learning things!
1. You aren't going to get it perfect the first time through. You'll have to go back, tweak things, work it through and put elbow grease into your recipes to make them as good as you want.
2. If a blog is cute and everyone raves about the author/photos/cuteness factor/creativeness it doesn't necessarily mean that their product is actually good. It could end up being really sucky.
3. If at first you aren't happy, get back up and turn on that kitchen aide again. You'll always be good at baking something (Like homemade donuts for instance!)

Malted Milkshake and Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

I really love cupcakes. I love thinking about them, looking at them on the internet, making them, decorating them, writing down recipes for them, eating them...I just really dig them. So of course, when I got an order to make not one kind of chocolate cupcake, but two, I didn't complain.
I actually had so much fun I thought to myself that maybe I'll just be a cupcake only bakery. No more cookies or cream puffs or loaves of bread...and then I remember how delicious half and half cookies were and how giddy I get watching cream puffs rise, and kneading dough? *sigh* Naw, I'll stick to being an all around classic bake-everything-I-can-get-my-hands-on bakery.

Chocolate Friends Forever... 

Perfectly puffed domes! 

All finished!

Before getting sprinkled with jimmies.

I'm proud of this photo. I'm getting better guys! I just need a decent camera that isn't 10 years old!