CUPCAKES!

Well, darned if this isn't becoming a dessert blog. That's cool because dessert is my favorite thing to make.

These are the best chocolate cupcakes ever! The cake recipe comes from THE SUGAR BAR.

Here it is with US measurements and a couple small tweaks (like baking time):

3/4 cup butter
1 cup soft dark brown sugar
1/2 cup caster sugar
3 eggs
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 tbs coffee granules
1 1/2 cup milk (I used semi-skimmed)
2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat to 375.

Beat butter till soft, smooth, creamy and pale. Add sugar and beat till creamy. Beat in eggs one at a time.
Whisk flour, baking soda, salt, cocoa and coffee granules together. Mix the vanilla and milk together in a small bowl or pouring jug. Add a third of the dry ingredients into batter, mix well. Add half of the liquid, beat well. Alternate till you end with the dry ingredients.
Line muffin tray with liners. Fill cups 2/3 full.
Reduce oven heat to 345. Bake 20 minutes or so.
Let cool completely before icing.

I used a variation on AMY SEDARIS'S amazing frosting meant to go along with her vanilla cupcakes. If you are looking for the ultimate VANILLA cupcake, look no further than Amy Sedaris, my hostess and homemaking heroine. I added a little bit of peppermint oil to make my icing minty, so I have choco-mint cupcakes. See here (my first cooking pics)!!!

Speaking of cake....

Today I made brownies. This is an adaptation of the Ghirardelli Award-Winning Brown Recipe, with a couple of twists.

You will need:
2 eggs
3/4 cup of sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup Ghirardelli sweet ground chocolate and cocoa powder
2/3 cup all-purpose flour (I actually used 1/3 all-purpose, 1/3 whole wheat)
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
*Using a spoon, stir the eggs with the sugar;
*Add the vanilla.
*Stir in the melted butter.
*Sift the chocolate powder with the flour, baking powder and salt and stir flour mixture into the egg mixture.

At this point, you could just spread the mixture in a GREASED 8 inch square pan. HOWEVER, I recommend this twist.

CLH TWIST: Spread half of the mixture in the pan - spread it all around so it covers the bottom of the pan. Then take some chocolate bars and place them flat on top of the brownie mix in the pan. I used one caramel bar and one orange-chocolate bar. Then spread the rest of the brownie mix on top of the chocolate bars, making sure the spread it out to cover the entire area of the pan.

*Bake 20-30 minutes or until just set. Let cool completely. (CLH TIP: I did wait to let them cool completely. oops).

THESE ARE RIDONKULOUSLY TASTY.

Mug Cake!

There are MUG CAKE HOW-TOs (like this one from WIRED) floating all over the web, but I figured my loyal readers (AKA my cat Baxshebo) would want the CLH seal of approval.

I made a yummy Mug Cake just this evening. Here's how:

*Spray a large-ish coffee mug with cooking spray

*Put the following in said mug:

-Nine (9) tablespoons of hot cocoa/hot chocolate mix
-Four (4) tablespoons of whole wheat flour

*Stir together.

*Crack an egg into the cocoa/flour mix and stir to mix.

*Add 3 tablespoons of canola oil and 3 tablespoons of water and stir well - make sure to scrape all of the dry mixture from the bottom and incorporate it into the batter.

*stir in half a handful of chocolate chips

*Microwave on high for three (3) minutes.

The cake will rise above the top of the mug before your eyes as it cooks. After the beep, carefully remove the cake-in-mug from the microwave (use a potholder - it will be hot) and dump the cake onto a plate.

Listen - this isn't about presentation. It's about having chocolate cake for stuffing down your gullet five minutes after your initial decision that you want chocolate cake. It tastes best hot and fresh!

Cookies

Cookies scare me much less than bread. I've been making them for years. Here are a couple of delicious cookie recipes I've made recently and LOVED.

I've twice used this RECIPE FOR CHOCOLATE COVERED CHERRY COOKIES from awesome blog Lovin' From the Oven, and it is divine.

CLH TIP: Make sure to use 2 TEASPOONS of cherry juice in the chocolate sauce (like the recipe says) rather than two tablespoons (like I did the first time). Also, be sure to place the cherry halves cut-side up in the cookie divots.

Most recently I made really chewy, yummy, WHOLE WHEAT CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES from the also awesome blog Serious Eats.

CLH TIP: It's OK to eat more of these because they have whole wheat flour in them*

*may not technically be true