Chunky Chocolate and Banana Cupcakes

I've got a confession to make: I've never watched the entire movie of The Notebook. It's suppose to be really romantic, and I like romantic movies, but I've just never got around to watching it. My friend V wanted to put an end to this, and came to my place earlier this week for an evening of baking cupcakes and watching The Notebook. We didn't get around to watching the movie but we made a ton of cupcakes. We made two kinds from V's new book 75 Best-Ever Cupcakes by Carol Pastor. The first set we made were Chunky Chocolate and Banana Cupcakes. They were more like Chocolate Chip and Banana Cupcakes, but I thought they came out pretty good. My friend preferred the second set of cupcakes we did, Simple Cupcakes. I'll post that recipe on the next entry. Happy Baking!

~Ann

Chunky Chocolate and Banana Cupcakes

6 tbsp semi-skimmed (low-fat) milk

2 eggs

2/3 cup butter, melted

2 cups plain (all-purpose) flour

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup golden caster (superfine) sugar (we used regular granulated sugar)

5oz plain (semisweet) chocolate, cut into chunks (semisweet chocolate chips are fine too)

2 small bananas, mashed

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F. Arrange 12 paper cases in a muffin tin.

2. In a small bowl, whisk the milk, eggs and melted butter together until combined.

3. Sift together the flour and baking powder into a separate bowl. Add the sugar, chocolate and bananas to the flour mixture.

4. Stir gently to combine, gradually stirring in the milk and egg mixture, but do not beat it. Spoon the mixture into the paper cases. Bake for about 20 minutes until the cakes are risen and golden. Allow to stand for 5 minutes, then turn out and leave to cool on a wire rack.

-Makes 12 cupcakes

Ovaltine Brownies

Hi, hey, hello, hi there! Remember me? After a looooong vacation from the blog, I'm back. And with a super-duper delicious recipe. =9

Do you like brownies? Do you like Ovaltine? Oh great, than you are going to LOVE today's recipe.

Let's get to business!

~Ana.

Ovaltine Brownies

Slightly adapted from here .

125g dark chocolate, chopped

150g unsalted butter

130g brown sugar

2 eggs

125g all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon baking powder

2 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

75g Ovaltine - the original recipe calls for Horlicks

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350°F. Line a square 8in (20cm) baking pan with foil, leaving a 1in (2.5cm) overhang.

2. Melt butter and chocolate and let it cool a bit.

3. Add sugar and eggs, mixing well.

4. Sift flour, baking powder and cocoa powder over the chocolate mixture, add the Ovaltine and stir until smooth.

5. Pour over the prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes or until just set - be careful to not overbake.

6. Let it cool before cutting it - if you can resist that long. ;)

Serves 16.

Happy B-Day B.!!

Last Thursday was lil'sis b-day and off course I made cake. She demanded asked for a Cookies and Cream Cake, so Cookies and Cream Cake it was. And it had to look EXACTLY like this one. Yeah, she's kinda bossy...but it was her birthday so...

I have to admit that she did a great choice, though. This cake is amazing! So moist, and fluffy, and light. Not too sweet, just the way we like it. Perfect. The only change I made was to use whipped cream instead of buttercream. Oh, and I added crushed cookies to the filling. =D

PS.: Dec 1st was Ann's mother's birthday,too, so I'm also dedicating her this cake. Elaine, I hope you had an amazing day and have many more birthdays to come. Happy (belated) Birthday!! =)

~Ana

Cake

1 1/4 cups All-purpose Flour

2/3 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder (or Hershey's Special Dark)

1 1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Salt

3/4 cup Unsalted Butter

1 1/2 cups Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla

3 large Eggs, room temperature

1 1/4 cups Buttermilk

Frosting/Filling

600ml whipping cream

Sugar, to taste

Crushed Oreos - 4-5

For the cake:

1. Preheat oven to 350F/180ºC. Prepare two 8-inch cake pans with butter and flour.

2. Into a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt. Set aside.

3. In the bowl of a standing mixer, or a large bowl using a hand held mixer, beat together the butter, sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy. About 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until incorporated and scraping down sides as needed.

4. With mixer on low speed, add 1/3 of the dry ingredients, mix until incorporated. Then add 1/2 of the buttermilk, mix until incorporated. Repeat until the last 1/3 of flour has been used. Mix until incorporated and then beat for 1 additional minute. Batter might look curdled but it's okay.

5. Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared pans. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the sides begin to pull away from the edges. Allow to cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Turn the cakes out onto the racks and allow the cakes to cool completely. I used just one 9-inch cake pan and baked for aprox. 1 hour.

For the filling:

1. Beat  2/3 of the whipping cream and sugar until soft peaks form. 

2. Fold in crushed Oreos.

For the frosting:

1. Beat remaining whipping cream - with sugar to taste- until stiff peaks form.

Cake Assembly:

1. When the cakes are completely cool, cut each cake in half  horizontally. Use 1/3-1/2 cup of frosting to fill between each layer. When all the layers are stacked, set aside 1/2 cup of frosting then use rest to frost the outside.*

2. Using a ziploc bag and a rolling pin, crush all but 7 of the Oreo cookies. Apply the cookie crumbs to the sides of the cake*

3. Use the reserved 1/2 cup of frosting to create 7 swirls on the top of the cake, place a cookie in each swirl.

*I assembled the cake inside the cake pan and left covered with foil overnight in the fridge. Next day, I used a foam plate, smaller than the cake pan, as a base - you can use a cardboard wrapped in plastic wrap; inverted the cake, frosted with whipped cream - spreading a thick layer on top.

Now comes the hard part: using a spatula, try to lift the cake, together with the cardboard, and slide it into your palm. Be careful not to lift too much or the cake will tumble. Follow step 2. I find it easier and less messy to do this step with a rectangle pan or parchment paper underneath, or else you will end up with cookie crumbs all over your kitchen. Set on a nice cake plate. 

Recipe taken from Sunny Side Up in San Diego, that adapted from Family Circle Magazine, February 2009.

=B

Chocolate Marble Cake

I have quite a collection of baking pans and tools, however, as much as I like baking cakes I do not own a pair of round 8 inch cake pan nor a springform pan, which are essential pans for cakes. I keep promising myself that I will buy a set of cake pans, but because I am a professional procrastinator, I never get around to it. Hence this week, I am adding another quick bread/cake recipe, a chocolate marble bread, taken from Joy of Baking.com.

The writer stresses the importance in using real vanilla extract in vanilla based recipes, rather than imitation vanilla which leaves a bitter aftertaste. I have to admit that this is the first time I've used vanilla extract in a recipe on OSSD, and I could definitely taste the difference between real and imitation vanilla.

When making the marble bread, I remembered Ana's attempt at making a marble cake a while ago which did not have the swirls that she wanted. I was kind of worried that mine would turn into a mess as well, but I wanted to take on the challenge, and it didn't turn out so bad for my first marble cake ever. The only thing I screwed up on was not dividing the batter 50/50 so there was more chocolate than vanilla batter, but other than that, it turned out pretty good.

~Ann

Chocolate Marble Cake*

4 ounces (115 grams) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped (I used bittersweet chocolate chips)

1/2 cup (120 ml) milk, divided

1 1/2 cups (195 grams) all purpose flour

2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup (60ml) sour cream or plain yogurt

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (170 grams)granulated white sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Direction

1. Preheat the oven to 325F degrees and place rack in the center of the oven. Butter and lightly flour a 9 X 5 X 3 inch loaf pan. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper.

2. Melt the chocolate, along with 1/4 cup of the milk, in a stainless steel bowl that has been placed over a saucepan of simmering(Not boiling!)water. Remove from heat and set aside.

3. In a small bowl whisk the sour cream with the remaining 1/4 cup milk, and the vanilla extract.

4. With an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until well combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and sour cream/milk mixture, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour. Spoon half of the batter into a separate bowl. Add the melted chocolate mixture to one half of the batter and fold in.

5. With two spoons, place spoonfuls of the two mixtures into the prepared loaf pan alternately (chocolate, white, chocolate, etc.) Run a wooden skewer or knife through the two batters to achieve a marbled effect. (Be careful not to over mix or you won't get the marble effect.) Bake in preheated oven for about 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

6.Remove from oven and place on wire rack to cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan. Cool completely.

Makes 1 loaf

*Recipe taken from Baking with Passion by Dan Lepard and Richard Whittington

Coffee

Don't you just love walking into someones home, or even being in your own home, and smell freshly baked cookies that just came out of the oven? That's how it is at my place now, as I just finished baking Mocha Truffle Cookies-yes, you read correctly, Mocha-Truffle-Cookies...it tastes as divine as it sounds. Now I have to admit, that I baked these last minute because my last batch was a disaster. When I was making the dough, I knew there was something off about it, but I couldn't put my finger on what it was, even my mother who checked out what I was doing, commented that the dough looked unusually dry. It wasn't until I started baking the first batch that I realized that I totally forgot to add sugar. Perhaps the missing sugar is partial to the crumbly effect of the dough, but I was also suspicious of the large amount of flour ( 2 cups) that the recipe calls for. When I re-did the recipe, I included all the ingredients accordingly-even the sugar, however I cut the flour to 1 1/2 cups. The texture was perfect, the cookies came out great, and I'm loving the smell of my home.

-Ann

Mocha Truffle Cookies*

1/2 cup butter/margarine 

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1/2 tablespoon instant coffee

3/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups flour (I advise you use 1 1/2 cups)
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips

Directions

1. Melt butter with 1/2 cup chocolate chips in a large sauce pan. Remove from heat and stir in coffee crystals.

2. Cool five minutes and combine sugar, eggs, and vanilla with coffee mixture.

3. In a medium bowl mix flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Stir into coffee mixture, then add remaining 1 cup chocolate chips. Drop by tablespoonful onto lightly greased baking sheets. (I used parchment paper.)

4. Bake at 350F for 10 minutes. Cool 1 minute before removing from pan to cool on wire rack.

*I wrote down the recipe years ago and didn't put the authors name, so I have no idea where I got it from, but I did not create this recipe...even though I kinda wish I did.

Chocolate

XLIII

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.

I love thee to the level of everyday's

Most quiet need, by sun and and candlelight.

I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;

I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.

I love with a passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints, -I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life!-and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.

-Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)

Happy Valentine's Day!

-Ann

Brownie Hearts

From: www.marthastewart.com

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, plus more for cake pan

2 1/2 cups packed light-brown sugar

6 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped

4 large eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

Confectioners' sugar, granulated sugar, cocoa powder for coating bites

Direction

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter a 9-by-13 inch cake pan. Cut a piece of waxed paper to fit the bottom, and press it onto buttered surface. In a large microwave-safe bowl, combine butter, brown sugar, and chocolate. Microwave on high for 1 minute; stir. If the chocolate is not softened, continue to microwave at 10-second intervals, removing before completely melted.

2. Beat the eggs and vanilla into the melted chocolate with a wooden spoon. Beat in the flour and salt. Pour into prepared pan, and smooth the top. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out almost clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Let cool.

3. Run a knife around the edge of the pan. Turn the brownie cake out onto a baking sheet, and flip over onto a work surface. Cut out the brownies with a 2 1/2-inch heart-shaped cookie cutter. Dust with cocoa if you like. Form the scraps into 1-inch balls, and roll them in the coating of your choice.

~Makes 12 hearts

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Brigadeiro - or brazilian fudge balls - is the most popular and beloved brazilian treat. We love brigadeiro so much that we have shops dedicated only to brigadeiros! With ingredients such as condensed milk, butter and chocolate, is hard not to love these delicious, caramel-y-like treats.

The original recipe calls for chocolate powder - that one you put in the milk - but you can also use cocoa powder to make it less sweet, or you can do it like me and go for Nutella. Double yumminess!

PS.:You can wrap it up in a nice box together with Ann's scrumptious brownies and surprise your Valentine. =)

Happy Valentine's Day!

-Ana

Nutella Brigadeiro

1 can (395g) sweet condensed milk
2 tablespoons (40g) margarine
4 tablespoons Nutella
Chocolate sprinkles - about 1 cup, for decoration
Hazelnuts - about 50g, for decoration (Use 100-150g if you intend to roll them only in

1. Put the first three ingredients in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat and stir until it bubbles. Keep stiring until thickened - about 6 to 10 minutes.

2. Put in a butter-greased dish and let it stand until cool enough to handle.

3. While you wait for the brigadeiro to cool, roughly chop the hazelnuts, place them into a baking sheet and leave it for 5 min in a 190ºC oven, or until it gets some colour - keep a close eye on it because it can get burnt very fast. Let it cool completely.

4. Once the brigadeiro has cooled, grease the palm of your hands with margarine and roll a small amount of brigadeiro into a ball and coat it with the chocolate sprinkles or the chopped hazelnuts. I myself preffer the hazelnuts because it makes the Nutella flavour stand out more.

Tip: If you are too lazy or you absolutely can't wait for the brigadeiro to cool, you can put them into shot glasses and eat it with a spoon. Just cook for 2-3 minutes less in step 1 and pour into shot glasses. Be careful not to burn your mouth. ;)

Yields ~20 brigadeiros.

[Updated: We forgot to add 1/2 stick of butter to the recipe, sorry! It's already been corrected.]
This entry from Oh So Sinfully Delicious is super, extra, sweet! Why? Because we've made the next recipe in Brazil! All week long under the hot, hot Brazilian sun, we thought long and hard about what recipe we should do next. We wanted to do something that was totally different, so what did we come up with? Doughnuts! Okay, so they aren't Brazilian, but a) we've never made doughnuts on this blog before and b) we wanted to make doughnuts with a South American twist. The recipe is taken from the blog Joy the Baker, who retrieved this recipe from Gourmet magazine December '06. We made two batches of doughnuts, the first was a variety of regular doughnuts such as chocolate dip, and chocolate dip with rainbow and chocolate sprinkles (that's probably the first time we've typed "chocolate" so many times in one sentence!) The second batch were jelly filled doughnuts but instead of jelly we used dulce de leche (that's the South American twist). If you can't find dulce de leche, refer to this entry to make your own stash.

Doughnuts

Ingredients

1 (1/4oz) package active dry yeast (2 1/2 teaspoons) or 30g of fresh yeast

2 tablespoons warm water (105-115f)

3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour plus additional for sprinkling and rolling out dough

1 cup whole milk at room temperature
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened

3 large egg yolks

2 tablespoons sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 cup Chocolate dip

1/2 cup dulce de leche

1/4 cup of rainbow/chocolate sprinkles (optional)

About 10 cups vegetable oil for deep frying

1. Stir together yeast and warm water in a small bowl until yeast is dissolved. Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. (This is an absolute must. If this does not happen discard and start a new batch.)

2. Mix together flour, milk, butter, yolks, sugar, salt, cinnamon, and yeast mixture in a mixer at low speed until a soft dough forms. Increase speed to medium-high and beat 3 minutes more. (This step can be done with a spoon and bowl)

3. Scrape dough down side of bowl (all around) into center, then sprinkle lightly with flour (to keep a crust from forming). Cover bowl with a clean kitchen towel (not terry cloth) and let dough rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until doubled in bulk, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. (Alternatively, let dough rise in bowl in refrigerator 8 to 12 hours)

4. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll out with a lightly floured rolling pin into a 12-inch round (1/2 inch think). Cut out as many rounds as possible with 3-inch cutter, then cut a hole in center of each round with 1-inch cutter and transfer doughnuts to a lightly floured large baking sheet. Cover doughnuts with a clean kitchen towel and let rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until slightly puffed, about 30 minutes (45 minutes if dough was cold when cutting out doughnuts). Do not re roll scraps.

Now we must confess that after cutting the doughnuts we did not wait for another 30 mins for them to rise (they were already super puffy), and we did re roll the scraps, and in our opinion they came out perfectly fine. That could be because we used fresh yeast.

5. Heat 2 1/2 inches oil in a deep 4-quart heavy pot until it registers 350F on the thermometer. Fry doughnuts, 2 at a time, turning occasionally with a wire or mesh skimmer or a slotted spoon, until puffed and golden brown, about 2 minutes per batch. Transfer to paper towels to drain (Return oil to 350F between batches). 

Chocolate Dip

7 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp chocolate powder, such as Nesquick

1 tbsp margerine

2 tbsp milk

Put all the ingredients in a small saucepan at medium heat. Stir constantly until it  comes to a boil. Keep stiring until it thickens slightly - aprox. 1-2 min. Do not overcook or it will become very hard and impossible to dip the doughnuts in.

Start dipping the doughnuts imediately. If it starts to harden,  reheat it until it softens.

Dulce de Leche Filled Doughnuts

1. Repeat steps 1-4, however in step four do not cut a 1-inch hole in the center.

2. Put the dulce de leche in a pipping bag attacched with a small round tip.

3. Plunge the tip into the side of the doughnut, less than 1 inch deep. Squeeze the bag gently  and start withdrawing the tip slowly.

4. Sprinkle with icing sugar.

Ann's Thoughts:

First of all I want to say that Brazil was amazing!!!! I tried so many different Brazilian foods and baked goods, I was in heaven. It's funny that in Brazil we ended up making doughnuts which is so American but I've never made homemade doughnuts and before going back home Ana had purchased a doughnut book, which inspired us to make them. The only draw back to making doughnuts is that they are time consuming. It needs yeast to rise and that could take up to one and a half to two hours to rise. What was great about these doughnuts is that without the extra ingredients (the chocolate dip or dulce de leche) they are not sweet at all, which is a plus for those who cannot or not a fan of super sweet things. Out of the two batches that we made, my favourite was the dulce de leche, they were irresistible, it was hard to control myself not to eat more than just one!

Ana's Thoughts:

First post of the year! What a better way to start than by baking homemade doughnuts. Super yummy, soft, delicious doughnuts. My mouth is watering just thinking about it...I think I need another batch. =p

I've had this doughnuts before but this was the first time I've actually made them myself. First time I've made any kind of dough, actually. And it was so easy! So far, this is one of the best doughnut recipe, in my opinion. But I still have to try my doughnut book. I'll keep you posted. ;)

Go (dough)nuts and make some right now.

We consider biscotti as being the grown up version of cookies. These narrow crispy cookies are perfect for dipping in one's tea or coffee. For those who have not heard of biscotti, they come from Italy and originally are almond flavoured, but today come in a vast array of flavours such as dark or white chocolate, lemon and poppy seed, and espresso flavour, just to name a few. We've chosen to stick with tradition and do a vanilla and almond biscotti and we made a batch of chocolate chip biscotti for those with nut allergies. The vanilla and almond recipe was taken from food stylist and author Donna Hay. Changes we have made to the recipe are written in italics. So bake, eat, and enjoy.

Vanilla Almond + Chocolate Chip Biscotti

Slightly modified from our beloved book

2 cups plain all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 cup blanched almonds (we used 1/4 cup)

3 eggs

2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 cup dark chocolate chip

Preheat hte oven to 160ºC (325ºF).


Place flour, baking powder, sugar in a bowl and mix together.

Add the eggs and vanilla and mix well to form a dough. (You can use your hands. It's easier.)

Divide the dough in two.

Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead each piece until smooth.


Add the chocolate chips to one of the dough and the almonds in the other one and knead again.

Shape into logs and flatten slightly. Place the logs on a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper and bake for 35 min.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.

Cut the logs into 5mm thick slices and place on a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper.

Bake for 10-15 min. or until the biscotti are crisp. Store in an airtight container and serve dunked into espresso coffee or liqueur.

Makes 40.

Ann's Thoughts

Biscotti has to be the most time consuming batch of cookies I've ever made because it consists of baking it, then waiting for it to really cool down, and then re-bake it again-so I'd say it takes about an hour and a half to make, compared to the average cookie which takes ten, twelve, fifteen minutes to bake? Anyway if you do decide to make these cookies, plan accordingly because they do take time to make.

This recipe is suppose to yield 40 biscotti, but the way Donna Hay makes them are way too thin. We made ours thicker and ended up with half that amount.

Our batch did not come out the way we wanted them to (see Ana's comments below). But it was an honest mistake, which I've made a couple times before on this blog. Next time we bake this, we'll get it right.

Ana's Thoughts

Disappointed. I'm so disappointed. With myself. I messed up this recipe. =( Such an easy recipe and with just a few ingredients and I managed to spoiled it. I put baking soda instead of baking POWDER. Damn you English and my lack of attention! I'm starting to think that we here at OSSD definitely don't get along very well with baking powder/soda.

Because of this little mistake our biscotti had a bitter aftertaste. =s Such a shame. Everything else went well, though. They were very easy to make. I'll definitely be making them again.

Try it. You will love it. Just remember: baking POWDER, not baking soda!

'Til next week!

;)

Receita em Português
Biscotti de baunilha e amêndoas e gotas de chocolate
2 xíc. de farinha
1 1/2 col. (chá) de fermento em pó
3/4 xíc. de açúcar
3/4 xíc. de amêndoas, sem casca (Nós usamos somente 1/4 de xícara.)
3 ovos
2 1/2 col.(chá) de extrato/essência de baunilha
1/4 de xíc. de gotas de chocolate meio amargo (Opcional)


Preaqueça o forno a 160ºC.
Numa tigela grande, junte a farinha, o fermento e o açúcar. Acrescente os ovos e a baunilha e misture até formar uma massa. Divida a massa em duas.
Em uma superfície levemente enfarinhada, sove as massas por aproximadamente 1 minuto, acrescente as amêndoas em uma das massas e as gotas na outra. Sove mais um pouco.
Role a massa até que fique parecida com uma baguete média. Coloque em uma assadeira de beiradas baixas forrada com papel manteiga e leve ao forno por 35 minutos. Retire do forno e deixe esfriar completamente.
Corte as "baguetes" em fatias de 5 mm e leve para assar por mais 10-15 minutos ou até que fiquem crocantes, na mesma assadeira.
Rende 40.

Happy B-Day Ann!!!

Today's Ann's birthday! Yay! So let's sing happy birthday together! (insert lot's of people singing happy birthday awkwardly and out of sync here.)

I wish you all the best!

Hope you have a great day! 

Oh, and go buy something nice for you. You deserve it. =D

Ana.

.

.

.

New post out tomorrow!

The chocolate cake caught your eye?? Stay tunned for next week's post! ;)

*Quick note*

I know it has been a while that we've been writing this blog but I still can't figure Blogger text formating out. I think it has a life of its own, 'cuz in every post the spaces between paragraphs are different. *sigh* So don't mind the loooong gaps. Ana.

*End of Quick note*

So what is the the best thing about Halloween?

Dressing up in the most scariest, wildest, funniest, cutest costumes ever?

Scaring others or receiving a fright fest from scary movies, haunted houses, etc?

Eating tons of candy?

All of the above?

Everybody has a different reason for what makes Halloween so great and even though as adults we (apparently) aren't allowed to collect our own stash of candy, we can find other ways to participate, such as baking our own treats. We turned to the queen of Halloween recipes, Martha Stewart, whose array of creative Halloween recipes from cookies to cocktails got us excited. We baked devil's food and pumpkin cupcakes, which are very fitting for the season, and decorated them into scary spiders and worms. Changes to the recipe are made in italics. Happy baking, and have a very spooky but fun filled Halloween!

Halloween Cupcakes

Spider Cupcakes
Original idea from here

Ingredients

Devil's food cupcakes (See recipe below)

Black sanding sugar (we used chocolate cookie crumbs)

1 bag cinnamon candy (we substituted this with mini red M&M's)

1 bag marshmallows

1 bag black licorice (we substituted this with No Name grape flavoured string candy)

Directions

1. Make Devil's food cupcakes.

2. Ice mini cupcakes with whipping cream (or your favourite icing) and coat with sanding sugar/chocolate cookie crumbs. Use cinnamon candy/mini M&M's for eyes. For legs, attach 8 pieces of black licorice/grape string candy. For fangs, cut out tiny cone shapes from a marshmallow and attach.

*Devil's Food Cupcakes
From here

Ingredients

3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder (we used regular cocoa powder)

3/4 cup hot water

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt (We used regular table salt)

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter

2 1/4 cups sugar

4 large eggs, room temperature

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup sour cream, room temperature

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line mini muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together cocoa and hot water until smooth. In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

2. Melt butter with sugar in a saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring to combine. Remove from heat, and pour into a mixing bowl. With an electric mixer on medium-low speed, beat until mixture is cooled, 4-5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add vanilla, then cocoa mixture, and beat until combined. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture into two batches, alternating with the sour cream, and beating until just combined after each.

3. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each 3/4 full. Bake, rotating thins halfway through, until a cake tester (or a toothpick) inserted in centers come out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool 15 minutes, turn out cupcakes onto racks and let cool.

*We don't exactly know how much this recipe yields and it is not specified on the site. See Ann's comment below.

Pumpkin Cupcakes
From here

Makes 18 (We halved the recipe and ended up with 12)

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon coarse salt (or table salt)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (we omitted this ingredient. Why? We simply didn't have any.)

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice (we omitted this one too, same reason as the nutmeg)

1 cup packed light-brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup (2 sticks unsalted butter, melted and cooled)

4 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin puree

Halloween themed candy, orange and black jelly beans, sprinkles, etc...

Whipping cream, or your favourite icing. May we suggest the maple cream cheese frosting that we used in our pumpkin cake recipe.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice; set aside.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together, brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter, and eggs. Add dry ingredients, and whisk until smooth. Whisk in pumpkin puree.

3. Divide batter evenly among liners, filling each about halfway. Bake until tops spring back when touched, and with a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 20-25 minutes, rotating pans once if needed. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely.

4. Spread whipping cream/frosting and decorate with desired candies.

Ann's Thoughts

57: Ana and I ended up making fifty-seven cupcakes! There were cupcakes everywhere, on the desk, by the fireplace mantle, on the dinning room table, all over the kitchen, I wouldn't be surprised if there are a few cupcakes hiding in Ana's bedroom. I partly blame this on Martha Stewart. She or whoever published the devil's food cupcake on her site did not record how much cupcakes the batter contained, and it did not occur to us until added 1 1/2 cups of butter, and over 2 cups of sugar which seemed suspiciously a lot. We ended up making what seemed like an endless supply of devil's food cupcakes- it was like we were punked.

The theme for these Halloween cupcakes was bugs which consisted of spiders and worms....so worms aren't really scary at all, but when we saw an image of cupcakes infested with gummy worms it was too cute not to do. Decorating these cupcakes reminded me of doing arts and crafts in elementary school. The only thing is that it's not as easy as Ms. Martha makes it look. The legs for the spiders either fell off, destroyed the cupcake as we kept poking holes in them, or just looked weird. Ana was able to make only one pair of fangs our spiders because it was so time consuming. The worms were easier to make. Ana being the smart cookie that she is, inserted toothpicks inside the gummy worms and gently pushed them into the cupcakes so it looks like they are digging themselves inside the cupcakes.

This week I felt the emphasis was on decorating, however the devil's food cupcakes were literally sinfully delicious! Our pumpkin cupcakes were also really good. We didn't get a chance to decorate them (they were simply too many cupcakes to decorate) but they are the best pumpkin cupcakes I've ever tasted.

Ana's Thoughts

Oh Halloween, I wish you were a tradition in my country, too. Then I could eat...err have all the candies to decorate these cupcakes every year. Please come to my country. I'd appreciate it. Thank you.

Ok, enough with the wishful thinking. haha Making and decorating these cupcakes was really fun! The cupcakes themselves were pretty straightforward - be aware that if you choose to make the full recipe you'll end up with more than 50 cupcakes! We chose two different recipes, a pumpkin and a devil's food cupcake. A devil's food, how appropriate. Haha. We here at OSSD think about every detail. Anyway, they were really tasty, specially the pumpkin. Mmmm

I had so much fun decorating them! I wanna do it again!

The only problem for us this week was the pictures. We usually do all the photo shoots with natural light but this week we had to do it inside the house because it was already dark outside, not to mention cold. So they didn't turn out the way we wanted. =S

Anyway, Happy Halloween!! Eat lots of candy, dress up with a funky costume and make these cupcakes!

See you next week. ;)

Receitas em Português


Devido à preguicite aguda, essa semana não postarei as receitas traduzidas. Se tiver interesse por alguma das receitas (Cupcakes de abóboras ou Cupcakes de Chocolate) é só deixar um comentário abaixo. =)

Olá!! Ana here. Somewhere in the blogosphere I read that today is the National Chocolate Cupcake Day. How awesome is that?! A day to celebrate cupcakes. Yumy! Even though I think by National they mean only in USA, why can't we, Canadians or Brazilians or even better the whole world, celebrate this day, too? 

So we here at OSSD decided to get in the spirit and post a cupcake recipe for you guys. And these cupcakes are special because they come straight from Brazil! Made by my lil' sis B. =) So go on and have a cupcake. Enjoy.

Happy Cupcake Day!!!

The recipe for the cupcakes were taken from here. (If you want the english version just ask me.;) ) 
The chocolate frosting was taken from here.

Thanks for the lovely cupcakes B!! =D

Stay tunned for our new post, later today. ;)