Owl Cupcakes

When Jack told me he wanted an owl party for his fourth birthday, I wasn't sure where to go with the food, but thanks to Pinterest, I found some great ideas for cupcakes.  And Brian suggested that I try the Hostess cupcake recipe from America's Test Kitchen.  So, in an effort to please both of my June birthday boys, that's what I did.  I only used the cake portion of the cupcake -- I told Brian he'd have to wait until Father's Day to get the whole cream cupcake -- so I topped it with green tinted buttercream frosting and the result (in spite of me accidentally forgetting to add the eggs -- I got distracted, okay?) was delicious.

Blooming cocoa in boiling water and adding chocolate chips and espresso powder gave our Chocolate Cream Cupcakes recipe plenty of chocolate depth. Simply plopping a marshmallow into the batter created moonlike craters in our cupcakes. Combining marshmallow creme and the right amount of gelatin gave us the perfect creamy filling.

The Chocolate Cream Cupcakes were too delicate to allow us to inject the filling with a pastry bag. Instead, we used a paring knife to cut inverted cones from the tops of the cupcakes, added the frosting, and plugged the holes.

Makes 12 cupcakes

To ensure an appropriately thick filling, be sure to use marshmallow creme (such as Fluff or Kraft Jet-Puffed Creme), not marshmallow sauce.

INGREDIENTSCUPCAKES

• 1cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4teaspoon Salt
• 1/2cup boiling water
• 1/3cup cocoa powder
• 1/3cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1tablespoon instant espresso
• 3/4cup sugar
• 1/2cup sour cream
• 1/2cup vegetable oil
• 2large eggs
• 1teaspoon vanilla extract

FILLING

• 3tablespoons water
• 3/4teaspoon unflavored gelatin
• 4tablespoon (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened
•  Pinch salt
• 1teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/4cups marshmallow crème (see note)

GLAZE

• 1/2cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 3tablespoons unsalted butter

INSTRUCTIONS

• 1. MAKE BATTER Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour 12-cup muffin tin. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in bowl. Whisk water, cocoa, chocolate chips, and espresso in large bowl until smooth. Add sugar, sour cream, oil, eggs, and vanilla and mix until combined. Whisk in flour mixture until incorporated. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups. Bake until toothpick inserted into cupcake comes out with few dry crumbs attached, 18 to 22 minutes. Cool -cupcakes in tin 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire rack and cool completely.
• 2. PREPARE FILLING Combine water and gelatin in large bowl and let sit until gelatin softens, about 5 minutes. Microwave until mixture is bubbling around edges and gelatin dissolves, about 30 seconds. Stir in butter, vanilla, and salt until combined. Let mixture cool until just warm to touch, about 5 minutes, then whisk in marshmallow creme until smooth; refrigerate until set, about 30 minutes. Transfer 1/3 cup marshmallow mixture to pastry bag fitted with small plain tip; reserve remaining mixture for filling cupcakes.
• 3. ASSEMBLE CUPCAKES Microwave chocolate and butter in small bowl, stirring occasionally, until smooth, about 30 seconds. Cool glaze to room temper-ature, about 10 minutes. Following photos 1 to 3 at left, cut cone from top of each cupcake and fill cupcakes with 1 tablespoon filling each. Replace tops, frost with 2 teaspoons cooled glaze, and let sit 10 minutes. Using pastry bag, pipe curlicues across glazed cupcakes. Serve. (Cupcakes can be stored in airtight container at room temperature for 2 days.)

C4 (Chocolate Coffee Cream Cheese) Frosting

Yesterday, Jack and I baked a chocolate cake to use up some of the buttermilk I bought for the chicken we made. But the sour cream was expired, so we couldn't make our usual chocolate sour cream frosting and I'm not crazy about the overly-sugary taste of buttercream, so I looked for a new recipe and found this: Chocolate Coffee Cream Cheese Frosting. Yum!

Ingredients
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
8 ounces cream cheese, softened at room temperature
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted (I only had 3 ounces, so I supplemented by adding 1 ounce of bittersweet chocolate)
1/4 cup extra-strong coffee (I didn't cool the coffee, but stirred it into the chocolate to help it melt faster)
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups confectioners' sugar (the recipe called for 3 c., but I liked the taste with just 2 c.)

Directions
Beat the butter and cream cheese together. Drizzle the melted chocolate (I microwaved it for 30 seconds, stirred, microwaved another 30 seconds, stirred, and then stirred the hot coffee in to it, a couple tablespoons at a time) and coffee over the butter and cream cheese. Add vanilla. Mix well. Mix in the powdered sugar one cup at a time. You can do up to 3 c., but taste it to see how sweet you want it.

Jack and I loved licking the beaters, and neither he nor Brian seemed to be bothered by the faint coffee taste, which I felt added an extra richness to the frosting. Delicious!

Grandma's Chocolate Cake: A Birthday Tradition

I'm a baking snob. I'll admit it. I think box cakes are cheating and I brag that I can spot a box cake a mile away. I think in part my need to bake from scratch has to do with love: I know how good a homemade cake tastes, so why would I make something that is not as good for my family, especially for special occasions, like birthdays. It's an act of service to those I love to make something from scratch, a way of demonstrating my affection.

But my snobbery has another legitimate source: my grandma. I learned from the best, and that genius with pastries and batter would never have considered making a box cake. And after eating her homemade concoctions, neither would anyone else.

My grandma makes the best chocolate cake EVER. Even the Barefoot Contessa's famous chocolate cake is essentially my grandma's recipe with a little bit of coffee stirred into the boiling water at the end for good measure. While I confess to liking the coffee addition, my little family has no need for added caffeine, so we stick to Grandma's version. Brian always requests it with chocolate frosting; my mom always liked it with peppermint candies crushed on top, too; Jack prefers his with sprinkles.

Grandma's Chocolate Cake
2 c. sugar
3/4 c. cocoa powder (we've tried the extra dark kind, but regular is better)
1/2 c. shortening (I like Butter Crisco in the stick form)
2 eggs
3/4 c. buttermilk (or in a pinch, make sour milk by adding 1 Tbsp. lemon juice to regular milk)
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. boiling water

I recommend a stand-mixer for this, since there is a lot of beating. I'm usually pretty resistant to using the stand-mixer because I'm a traditionalist, but it does make it so much easier.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease two round cake pans or fill 2 muffin tins with paper cups.

Cream together the sugar, cocoa and shortening. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add buttermilk with soda stirred in; beat well, scraping the sides of the bowl. Add dry ingredients and vanilla; beat for 2 minutes while boiling the water in the microwave. Add boiling water and slowly mix in to avoid spattering.

Pour prepared batter into the two cake pans or into the muffin tins. Bake for 35 minutes for layer cakes or 20 minutes for cupcakes.

Once cooled, frost with Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting

Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting
6 oz. chocolate chips (I prefer Ghiradelli bittersweet chips over the semi-sweet variety for a richer flavor)
1/4 c. butter
1/2 c. sour cream
2 1/2 c. sifted powdered sugar (I frequently skip the sifting in favor of mixing it all together by hand -- remember, I'm a traditionalist -- in the double boiler, so I only put in 2 1/4-ish c. of powdered sugar)

Melt the chips and butter in a double boiler over medium heat, stirring frequently until completely melted. Cool 5-10 minutes. Stir in the sour cream until blended. Stir in the powdered sugar 1/2 c. at a time. (As I said, I usually just stir it all in by hand with a spoon until it gets a smooth sheen to it and there are no chunks of sugar left, but it would probably be easier to put it all in a separate bowl and use a hand-mixer. On the other hand, you'd dirty more dishes, which is why I always do it by hand.)

Frost cake and store in refrigerator.

Jack demonstrates the delicious messiness of taste-testing a chocolate cake.

Dirt Pudding

It has become an annual tradition for Jack to take dirt pudding to daycare for his birthday, in part because one of his classmates is allergic to eggs, so cupcakes are out, but also because Jack LOVES the worms. Here's how we make it:

Dirt Pudding
1 box of Oreos, pulverized in a food processor until "dirt-like"
1 pkg. cream cheese
1/2 stick of butter
1 c. powdered sugar
2 6 oz. pkgs. Jello instant vanilla pudding
3.5 c. milk
1 tub Cool Whip
Sour gummy worms

Combine the cream cheese, butter and sugar. Beat in the Jello pudding. Beat in the milk, in two separate additions. Fold in the Cool Whip.

Layer the Oreo "dirt" with the pudding mixture so that you start and end with Oreos. I use a bucket (with shovel), but others have recommended a flower pot with a whole Oreo to cover the hole in the bottom. Top with worms.

We made a variation of this for Halloween by putting Chessmen shortbread cookies on top of a 9x13 dirt pudding mixture, to look like headstones, and then sprinkling candy pumpkins around the graves. Very spooky and super cute.

Barefoot Contessa Chocolate Cake

For Father's Day, I decided to make Brian a chocolate cake, since I pooped out on his birthday cake and we ended up getting a key lime pie instead. I noticed that the Barefoot Contessa cake was basically the same recipe as my grandma's cake, except that Ina adds a cup of hot coffee instead of a cup of boiling water. Any cake that involves coffee seems like a winner to me, so I thought I'd give it a try.

The cake turned out delicious -- very moist and yummy, except the middle didn't rise the way I'd like it to. I don't know if it was because I used 8" pans or because I used older baking soda. Either way, I'd try it again and hope for a more rounded center.

The frosting is extremely buttery but very yummy. Jack happily licked the spoon and showed his approval with a chocolate mustache.

We'll be trying the finished product after dinner.

Cinnamon-Chocolate Fudge

Source: Giada At Home

Recipe: Cinnamon-Chocolate Fudge

Rating: 5 out of 5

I made fudge for my department meeting today, and it received rave reviews. The sea salt on top is an amazing addition, and the recipe was incredibly easy. Just 8 minutes to cook it! The only problem is limiting the servings you eat.

Chocolate Pudding

Tonight I made some chocolate pudding for dessert from Cooking Light. As you can see, it received rave reviews from Jack.

It's made with bittersweet chocolate chips, and the creamy texture was definitely worth the 20 minutes spent stirring the milk mixture.