Thursday, August 21, 2008

beautiful disaster

can you believe the summer is almost over? i'm leaving on monday! on one hand i really don't want to leave because there is so much i still haven't done yet that i really wanted to....but on the other hand, i miss my boyfriend, my friends, swing dancing...and i'm ready to go back. it's frustrating having your life split onto opposite sides of the country.

actually yesterday was my last scheduled day at work. granted, i'm on-call today and tomorrow...but seeing as how i didn't know if i'd be in again, i brought good-bye cupcakes yesterday. everyone loved them and said they looked cute [one of my managers actually said they looked "gourmet"], which was especially flattering considering how badly they started out.

it was my first time using those paper cup things rather than muffin liners and i made the mistake of filling them 2/3 full. yep, every single one overflowed.



disaster. oh, and it gets worse. i quickly realized that because the overflow had crusted around the ring of the paper cups, i couldn't get them off! which meant that i had to cut every single one of those stupid things off of the [what i hoped would be] salvageable cupcakes. yes, it took awhile.

once i freed them from their cages, they actually didn't look too bad. the were perfectly circle shaped and the sides looked moist. almost as if i took a circle cookie cutter to a cake. the tops, though. those weren't looking so delicious.

yay for frosting!


i'd say i did a pretty good job considering i had never done piping before :] and here you can see why they needed the frosting so bad. notice how the tops are all crooked and unlevely [when there is no right word, make one up].


in the end, i was kinda proud of them. i got a lot of compliments on them [both on the taste and the appearance] and, after trying one myself, i decided that they were the best ones i've ever made. the cake was moist and not overpoweringly chocolaty. the frosting was smooth and slightly sweet. there was just the right amount of it to compliment the cake and i'd say it was a pretty good balance. yay for success!


the recipes were mixed and matched from baking bites. i'm realizing that i do a lot of stuff from that site. if you haven't been there, you have to check it out...great stuff. i'm posting my variations of the recipes, but you can click the links for the original ones [in their original uses].

Devil's Food Cupcakes
[from baking bites]

ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
3/4 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2-oz dark chocolate
1 cup water, boiling

directions:
Preheat the oven to 350F and line two 12-cup muffin tins.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in eggs one at a time.

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. Add half of flour mixture to the butter mixture, followed by the sour cream and vanilla extract, followed by the addition of the rest of the flour mix. Stir well between each addition and mix until no streaks of flour remain.

Stir the cocoa powder and the dark chocolate into the boiling water (easiest in a large measuring cup). Pour chocolate water into the rest of the batter and stir until uniform.

Evenly distribute batter into prepared baking cups. Bake for 13-15 minutes, until a tester comes out clean and the cakes spring back when lightly pressed. Rotate the pans after about 8 minutes.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
[from baking bites]

ingredients:
4-oz cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
1-oz dark chocolate, melted and slightly cooled
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 tsp milk
2-3 cups confectioners’ sugar

directions:
In a large mixing bowl, cream together cream cheese, butter and melted chocolate. Beat in vanilla and milk, then add in the confectioners’ sugar gradually until the frosting reaches your desired consistency (make it a bit stiffer if you wish to pipe it onto the cupcakes instead of spreading it with a knife).

Transfer to a ziploc bag fitted with a narrow tip and pipe onto cooled cupcakes.

3 comments:

My Sweet & Saucy said...

Thank so much for stopping by my blog! This chocolate cream cheese frosting sounds amazing!

Anonymous said...

They look adorable!

Stephanie said...

mmmm chocolate cream cheese frosting, i love the stuff. your frosting swirls look so cute!