Cupcakes

Cupcakes are treats for just about any occasion. Mardi Gras is no exception.

Mardi Gras is just around the corner, as in this Tuesday, which means it’s time for our friend Linda’s annual Mardi Gras Party. That also means I need to finish up the cupcakes today after work before the party tonight. Typically for Mardi Gras one would have a King Cake, which is a pastry-like confection drizzled with a glaze and colored sugars with coins and babies baked inside. I make King Cupcakes, which are instead a type of cream cheese pound cake and topped with colored glazes, coins and babies. This year I’m skipping the babies. We could all use more money, but there are enough babies.

For the chocolate lover, I’m also making a quadruple chocolate cupcake, which is a chocolate cake with three different types of chocolate chips and topped with a chocolate sour cream frosting. I was originally going to make black forest cupcakes, but didn’t want to deal with cherries. Of course now that my brain is working again after a copious amount of coffee, I wish I would have made some white chocolate voodoo dolls to top the cupcakes with. Perhaps, if I have time, I’ll do just that.

Chocolate Wasted

Pinterest has finally come through. I did something with it.

Ever since I found this cake while scrolling through Pinterest mindlessly with a colleague at work a few weeks ago, I’ve been obsessed with making a cake called Chocolate Wasted. Posted on the blog Art of Dessert (http://artofdessert.blogspot.com) back in October 2011, it isn’t hard to see why, unless, of course, you’re allergic to chocolate. That would be sad because this cake is loaded! I finally had a reason to make it… a fellow chocoholic friend was having a birthday.

I’m not a stickler for recipes and generally use them as guidelines, so I opted instead for my basic dark chocolate fudge cake recipe but made it more decadent by doubling the butter and using Bulgarian buttermilk and a couple tablespoons of honey. For the frosting I almost made straight bittersweet chocolate ganache, but decided to make a more truffle-like frosting instead so I replaced half of the heavy cream (forty percent minimum milk fat, of course) with salted butter. It was amazing. Having used Guittard bittersweet chocolate for the frosting and semisweet for the drizzle (with a pinch of sea salt for good measure) I figured Hershey’s Special Dark chips would work for the sides as its cocoa content is in between the two. That and I was using Hershey products to cover the top of the cake. Miniature versions of Hershey Bars, Mr. Goodbars, Krackles, Special Darks and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups along with Rolos, Kisses and Whoppers.

The end result? Amazing. Seriously. You should totally make this cake and get chocolate wasted too.

Cravings

Do you ever have a craving for something that simply will not be satiated until you have it? What about something you’ve never even had before?

At work during the slow times, my colleagues will waste away the hours looking at the site Pinterest. Honestly, I don’t understand the obsession these people have with the site, not even after my own stuff was pinned. Or, more accurately, I didn’t. Yesterday one of them came across a chocolate cake that looked absolutely amazing. A click revealed a blog called Art of Dessert (http://artofdessert.blogspot.com) where there on the screen was the most decadent looking chocolate cake ever, a Chocolate Wasted Cake. Chocolate cake, chocolate buttercream frosting and filling, covered on the sides with semisweet chocolate chips, with miniature Hershey Bars, Kit Kats, Twix Bars, Kisses and Whoppers piled on top before being drizzled with melted chocolate.

Must. Make. This. Cake.

So before leaving work yesterday my coworker asked if I would make this for her and I politely (who am I kidding, this is me) said no way in hell. Now I can’t stop thinking about it. Every time I walk into the kitchen I want to pull out everything chocolate and start making this! I want it to be Halloween again so there are fantastic deals on bags of candies to pile high on top of this sinful confection! Ah, but it is almost Valentine’s Day so perhaps there are some candies on sale that will work. Hmmm… I have a bad feeling about this.

Now I’ve gone and requested an invitation to join Pinterest. I’ve ransacked my cupboards to reveal I have everything for the cake and frosting just not the excessive amount of chocolate candy goodness required to take this cake from, well, cake, to amazing. Something tells me this craving will not go away until I finally cave in and do something about it.

Sleep and Chocolate

When choosing between chocolate or being able to sleep, sometimes the decision can be difficult, especially when a delicious organic and fair trade dark chocolate presents itself. I chose chocolate and didn’t want to wake up this morning.

When I was younger I could chug a pot of coffee or eat a ton of chocolate and fall fast asleep without consequence. Now, however, it seems as though only a small amount can keep me awake anymore… except for when I want to be, of course. My relationship with caffeine has obviously changed.

So last night, after enjoying a third of a dark chocolate bar I got months ago and watching The Adventures of Merlin, I tried to sleep because I was still exhausted from the weekend at camp. Instead I slept a little and was awake for a little and that was the routine all night. Was it worth it? Yes. But we’ll see how well I fare at work today!

Prepping Projects

I have Friday off of work because I’m working Saturday. Finally, a day to sew to my heart’s content.

I know, I know. If I really wanted to I could be sewing right now instead of blogging, but here’s the thing… I’ve gotta prep first. It may sound crazy, but I can’t just pick up on a project at any time because, well, I don’t have them lying around the house waiting to be finished. I have to unpack everything, figure out where I left off and check to make sure everything is in order before I start. Okay, so this really only applies to quilting stuff. Fine, so it is just an excuse to not sew even when I really want to because once I start I have a hard time pulling myself away. There, now you have the real reason.

Allow me to explain a few things.

I am the type of person who likes to paint, but I find myself in the same category of painters as Vincent Van Gogh in that I won’t spend more than a day on a painting. Of course, unlike Van Gogh who actually painted stuff and then didn’t sign his work if he didn’t finish it, if I think it will take more than a day to finish I won’t even start it. Yes, that means my brain actually goes through the entire process ahead of time to calculate how much time it will take to complete. You honestly don’t have to tell me how crazy that sounds because I already am well aware of my own neurosis.

Before I start work on a cake, I have to make sure I have everything in order, or at least a general idea of what I want to accomplish. This includes all of the ingredients and any decorations that will need to be made ahead of time, which obviously requires planning ahead. However, I find myself a little more lenient on cake prep than others, probably because it is food and I read something very intriguing one time that said that people hesitate to eat something that looks perfect, so having a few minor imperfections will ease up on their apprehensions to just eat the damn cake. This is from a very well respected lady in the cake business, so I have since taken her advice.

When I’m quilting, I like to make sure I have everything I need to at least complete the front, but preferably the entire project. I like to look at everything all at once to make sure it will all go together into one cohesive product. Sometimes this will only take a couple hours from start to finish as I’ve done on a few of the baby blankets I have made, and other times I will spend weeks researching and rearranging and trying to get the right fit for the project, which was definitely the case on The Uninspired Quilt.

I also must apparently admit that this same theory kind of applies to me and chocolate. You see, when I get a box of chocolate, I eat it. Not like one or two pieces at a time, but I sit down (maybe) and devour the entire box. The exception is a double Whitman’s Sampler box, since it is two tiered. With those, I eat one layer, close the box, then eat the second layer another day. Call it a disorder or whatever you wish, but I love chocolate and hate to see lonely pieces sitting next to empty wrappers.

So today I am going to go into my craft room, pull out everything for The Uninspired Quilt and possibly even prep it for quilting. I’m just going to use the backing fabric folded over for the binding on the front, so I won’t have to prepare a separate binding for the project. Now I just need to decide if I want to go with my original plan of using a dark brown thread for the quilting, or simply use a natural color thread that will hide my sometimes erratic lines better? And I suppose while I’m at it decide if I want to hand quilt the insides of the blocks or just use the sewing machine for the whole thing. Ugh… I wish I had a box of chocolate right now.

Gluten Free Chocolate Cupcakes

With the growing number of gluten intolerant and celiac disease people, it only seems natural for the recipe world to follow suit. But honestly, I was tired of making my Honeycakes and itched for something new.

Okay, so here’s the deal, a few people in our church are gluten intolerant. Because of that whenever I make cupcakes for an event I usually make a dozen or so gluten free cupcakes too. Usually this means making my tried and true recipe for gluten-free, dairy-free, cane sugar-free cupcakes sweetened with honey instead, but I figured I’d try something new… and something chocolate… this time. Apparently they were a huge hit, as even the non-gluten-free crowd were savoring these sweet morsels of deliciousness.

Gluten Free Chocolate Cupcakes

Makes 16-20 cupcakes

15-ounce can unseasoned black beans
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
6 tablespoons unsweetened baking cocoa
3 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup nonfat Greek yogurt

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.


Drain excess liquid from beans, rinsing slightly. Add to a blender or food processor along with the vanilla extract and mix until smooth and pasty. If it starts to stick, add a little water. In a bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, baking soda and baking powder. In a separate bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer), beat eggs, sugar and yogurt together, finally adding the bean puree. Once thoroughly mixed, fold in the dry ingredients until just combined. Line a muffin tin with cupcake holders and pour the batter in, about 3/4 full. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick or knife inserted into the cake comes out clean.


Place cakes on a rack and cool.


Frost with your favorite chocolate frosting recipe, though personally unwhipped chocolate ganache is a perfect complement to create the chocolate overload necessary for pure bliss.