A little bit of heaven in your mouth cupcakes.

My week long frenzy to make a perfect cupcake has come to an end. I got on google and racked my brain as to what I was doing wrong. I tried the two leading well known cupcake recipes. Nadda. I had muffins and not cupcakes. Very disappointed. Then I went old school. Talked to a few older ladies on how the heck they make fluffy, yet moist cupcakes.

What they had said, I knew already.

With my newly reconfirmed knowledge, I forged ahead and made another batch. This time I prayed that they weren't destined for the trash can.

I will forewarn that you will not get the same results if you sub anything other then flavor add ins like coconut, etc.

I got 36 cupcakes from this recipe. The frosting makes enough to frost all the cupcakes. I had a container left because I couldn't stop eating the cupcakes when they came out of the oven.




Ingredients:

1 cup of softened to room temp butter
1 and 3/4 cups of Bakers Sugar.
8 egg yolks
3/4 and 1/4 cup of milk
2 Teaspoons of vanilla extract
2 cups of cake flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

For frosting:
1 cup butter softened to room temp
3 cups confectioners sugar
6 oz of good white chocolate such as Ghiradelli baking chips. Which is a little less then half a bag if it's 11 0z.
3-5 Tablespoon of heavy cream or half and half
2 Tablespoons of Vanilla extract.

Directions:
1- Pre-heat oven to 350 ° F. Line muffin pans with cupcake papers.

2- Shift together all the dry ingredients.

3- Cream together butter and sugar until fluffy, at least five minutes on slow speed. If you are not doing this it's not fluffy.

4- Add in the egg yolks one at a time and then add in the vanilla.

5- Add in the flour and milk alternatively until well incorporated. I had to use a little more then 3/4 cup of milk, so keep at least 1/4 on hand. You want thick and loose but not runny.

6- Bake in your oven middle rack in the center until they are lightly brown and the largest cupcake when poked with a knife of toothpick comes clean.

*Tip*

I always remove my cupcakes out of the pan as soon as they get out of the oven because I find they tend to dry out a little bit from over cooking from the hot pan. It takes awhile to get this method down without burning yourself.

For frosting:

1- Cream butter with sugar on low speed for at least five minutes until fluffy.

2- While creaming butter and sugar, melt the white chocolate in the microwave until melted, 40 seconds at a time, stir after each time until melted. Let cool until warm, not hot.

3- Add in vanilla, melted chocolate and two tablespoons of half and beat on high speed for at least six minutes until light and fluffy. If it's too thick add in some half and half. If it's too thin add in some powder sugar.

4- Since I lost my frosting bag I used a ziplock bag and snipped off the end of corner and gently squeezed.

Final thoughts:
Although I grew up on cake mixes from a box, this was a change. It tastes better then a boxed mix and by far isn't as hard as I though and took about the same amount of time to make. I will continue to use this recipie and with that...

This recipe gets four stars out of five. ★★★★☆

Enjoy!

The OH EM GE experience.

So what dose one do when they've been pretty much sick for the past two months? You dive into something warm, moist... and chocolate.

I know what some of you were thinking. Dirty minds.

This is the next best thing! The best part is that it is 100% homemade and took less then an hour to prepare and forever to savor.

It is decadent, moist and isn't overwhelmed by the chocolate gooey-ness that little bit of heaven on earth offers.

This will make 6-8 3.5 oz ramekins. I buy my ramekins from World Market for 2.99 for a set of four.

Ingredients:

Batter-
1 cup and three tablespoons of flour
1 and 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
3/4 cup of white sugar
1/4 cup of vegetable oil
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

For chocolate sauce-
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1 cup milk
1 and 2/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 ° F and spray your ramekins with non-cooking spray, don't forget the sides of the ramekins.

1- In your mixing bowl add all the dry ingredients until well combined.

2- Add in the 1/4 cup of veg oil until crumbs appear.

3- Add in the milk, egg and vanilla. Mix until just combined. This is not a boxed cake mix, you will produce a tougher cake if you mix it too much. Set aside.

For chocolate sauce-

1- In a pan add your sugar, milk, cinnamon and coco powder. Take a wisk or a fork and mix until well combined.

2- Bring to a boil and TIME it for ONE minute. When it has boiled for a minute, remove it from heat and add in the vanilla. It is ready to use.

Back to the cake-

1- Take the chocolate sauce and use about three tablespoons on the bottom of each ramekin.

2- Use an even amount of cake batter and slowly pour it over the chocolate sauce. I would say start with 1/4 cup at a time, I fly by the handle and don't care if there is more in one then the other.

3- Place the ramekins on a cookie sheet and bake for 30-35 minutes until a knife comes out clean, you might get some chocolate sauce but that is ok.

4- It is best while warm and with some of the chocolate sauce on top.

Final thoughts:
This is was an experiment. I knew what I wanted and I was going to try to achieve what I was looking for.

I first wanted to make an upside down chocolate cake with this, it did not turn out as I thought it would. That in it's self knocked down a star because I wanted to play with the plating of this, I thought a sliced strawberry over the sauce and a fine dusting of powdered sugar would make an excellent plating. But as you can tell the rustic plating seems just as delicious as a more upscale plating would. Being able to dig into this was heavenly, you close your mouth and utter an "Oh my God..." is exactly what you need when you need it.

That being said, this was exactly what I wanted when it came to taste, texture and form. Now I have extras to store in the fridge and reheat when the craving comes.

This recipe gets four stars out of five. ★★★★☆

Enjoy!

Back on the saddle with Pumkin Cake!

When the Cook is sick... the Cook don't cook!

I was put down with a pretty bad abscess in my jaw and jaw joint and then midway of treatment, I was hit with Strep. Go figure! So there went my whole plan of wanting to make a cookie every week.

Well I am cooking again, so that must mean I am on the mend or going through cooking withdrawals. I am on a soft food diet again, so instead of making a cookie this week, I thought cake would be better. I had left over pumpkin that needed to be used up so, I made a pumpkin cake.

It is made with a cake mix, I cheated but I used what I had on hand!

Ingredients:

Pumpkin mixture-
3/4 can of pumpkin
1 1/2 blocks of cream cheese at room temp
3/4 cups of packed brown sugar
1.5 tsp of pumpkin pie seasonings
1 tsp of cinnamon
1 tsp of ginger
1/2 tsp of nutmeg
2 tsp of vanilla

Cake-
1 yellow cake mix
4 eggs
1/3 cup of vegetable oil
1 cup water
1 package instant pumpkin flavored pudding (if you can't find this, you can use vanilla or cheesecake and add a teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice to the mix)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 ° F

1- In bowl combine all the items for pumpkin mixture and mix until well combined.

2- Spray 9x13 cake pan with non cooking spray. Pour pumpkin mixture evenly on on bottom of pan and set aside.

3- In bowl combine all the items for cake and mix until well combined. ( I didn't use a whole cup of water, you may have to judge based on texture, etc)

4- Pour cake mix over pumpkin mixture and place into oven.

5- Cook at 350 ° F until edges are slightly brown and then cook on 200-250 ° F until center is set and firm. It will take 45 minutes to an hour for this cake to be fully cooked.

6- When a butter knife comes out clean, remove from oven and lightly dust with powdered sugar.

Final thoughts:

Considering I winged this recipe, I am not sure if I am going to rate it. But I do think it's good enough to pass on and I hope you will try it and review it for me and let me know how many stars you think it deserves.

It's made with a cake mix so you have plenty of wiggle room to experiment!

Enjoy!

Not quiet like I remembered, but good.

I would never turn down something sweet and full of mouth watering carbs. I do not always like overly sweet and sugary goodies. I love molasses cookies. They remind me of my childhood. The kind from my past were the kind out of the store bought package with the glaze on them. I would take those over a chocolate chip cookie in a heart beat. Someone passed on a recipe and being brave, I decide I was going to make some.

Although they are sweet but savory and chewy, they aren't the best in my book. I like a stronger molasses taste and a nice bite of ginger in the back when I swallow. The directions threw me for a loop. For a moment, I thought lost the mojo in the kitchen. I had hit a snag. The directions were not correct.

I ended up with molasses scrambled eggs. I should of known better but being the diligent cook I am I followed the directions. I poured it out and started all over again. Then I tweaked it a bit. Which I am pretty sure it was an improvement.

Ingredients:
2/3 cups Unsalted butter
3/4 cups of Dark brown sugar
1/3 cup of Molasses
1 Egg
1 1/2 teaspoon of Vanilla
1 1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon Ground Ginger
1 teaspoon Baking soda
2 1/4 cups of All purpose flour

1/2 cup Sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 ° F

On low medium heat place a 3 quart sauce pan and melt your butter.

When butter is melted, add in brown sugar, cinnamon and ginger. Mix until brown sugar is melted. Remove completely from heat and add in vanilla.

Break your egg into a small bowl and whisk.

*Do not skip this step or you will have scrambled eggs*

While whisking your eggs, ladle in a small amount of the hot molasses and butter into the bowl with the egg. Do not stop whisking while doing this. Continue whisking and add in another small amount of molasses and butter while your still whisking. Do this one more time and when you are done, whisk the eggs and molasses back into the pan.

Stir in the baking soda and flour until well mixed.

Place the white sugar into a bowl.

Take a rounded table spoon of the dough and dip the tops into the sugar and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for seven to nine minutes until edges are lightly brown. Remove immediately from the hot pan and allow to cool. Store in a air tight container.

Final thoughts:
If you want a more molasses taste, use dark molasses. You can add more ginger too if you like more ginger. If you want a chewy tasty cookie, with a medium to light molasses flavor, then this is your cookie. For me it wasn't exactly what I was looking for but it puts me on the right path to find the right molasses cookie.


That being said I give this recipe three stars out of five. ✯ ✯ ✯

If you have a cookie recipe you would like me to try and review please email me at Samantha1983Dec@Gmail.com