Chocolate-Raspberry-Marshmallow Cupcakes

That's a mouthful, huh?

Nothing pains me more than a birthday without cupcakes...  so this year, I asked Jordan what he wanted me to make for his birthday party/100th unique beer at Pony Bar celebration...  I got a lot of vague, 'um, i dont know...'s so I just went ahead and picked something.

(ladies, if you are ever dealing with an indecisive man, just make a decision...  He'll immediately tell you what he really wants when you tell him what he's about to get if he doesnt say otherwise...)

That something that i picked never got made but what did eventually get made is the cake and frosting components that will now be my official standards...  Jordan's final request was raspberry chocolate cake...  and then somewhere along the way, he decided it needed marshmallow frosting...  So we set out.  I was hell-bent on keeping it as simple as possible so i decided i wanted to start with a boxed cake mix and just doctor it up a bit...  In googling, i stumbled upon "Too Much Chocolate Cake" and decided that, with a few slight modifications, that was going to be the base...

I knew that adding a raspberry jam filling would be simple (and i wasnt making my own jam or anything crazy like that), so next up was frosting.  We knew that the chocolate and raspberries were going to create a really sweet cake, so we wanted a frosting that was a little less-so...  In searching, we found Smitten Kitchen's post on making homemade devil dogs which included a recipe for Marshmallow/Seven Minute frosting...  seemed easy enough and like it might be a bit less sweet than the versions made with fluff, so we figured why not?

In the end, it all came together like one huge pile of YUM.  The sum much greater than the parts and the cupcakes a HUGE hit among friends, bartenders and other patrons alike...

---

Chocolate-Raspberry-Marshmallow Cupcakes
courtesy of me, with component parts from Denise on Allrecipes.com and Smitten Kitchen
Click here to import recipe directly into Pepperplate

For the cake:
1 package devil's food cake mix
5.9 oz instant chocolate pudding mix (this is one large package or about 1 1/2 small packages)
1 c sour cream
3/4 c vegetable oil
4 eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 c warm water
2 c mini chocolate chips

For the filling:

1 jar of your favorite raspberry jam

For the frosting:
2 large egg whites
1/2 c sugar
1/4 c light corn syrup
2 tbsp water
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

pinch of salt

***

For the cake:

Preheat oven to 350°

Line muffin tray with foil liners

In a large bowl, mix the first 6 ingredients together.  

Once they are all well-combined, stir in the mini chips.

Pour into cupcake liners, filling each about 2/3 full.

Bake 20 - 24 minutes or until toothpick comes out mostly clean.

To add the filling:

Once the cake is done baking and cooled, use a butter knife to cut a little divot out of the top of each.  (Each divot should be about 3/4 of an inch circle with about the same depth.)  

Pop out the divot, plop in a teaspoon or so of jam and then pop the divot back in.

For the frosting:

Set a saucepan on the stove and bring a couple of cups of water to a simmer.

Combine all ingredients in a metal bowl and set the bowl over the simmering water. 

Beat at high speed until frosting is thick and fluffy, 5 to 7 minutes. 

Remove bowl from heat, place on a heat-proof surface, and continue to beat until frosting has slightly cooled. 

Final Assembly:

Once frosting has cooled down, frost cupcakes, taking care to not knock the filling divot out.

If you have any mini-chips left over, sprinkle on top for decoration.

NOTE: Frosting will harden slightly as time goes on, so it is best to do any decorating while the frosting is still 'fresh'.

Matzo Crack

Years of growing up in a predominantly jewish town left me with all sorts of envy - how come we didnt have a menorah?  how come we didnt have matzo in the house?  how come my parents didnt know a place in the city that they drove 1.5 hours to just for bagels?

yeah, yeah, santa claus, easter bunny, italian pastry, blah blah blah.

However, one of the best parts of growing up in said environment and not being jewish is it meant i was able to selectively partake...  so even though the girl who's name translates to 'follower of christ' probably didnt need to buy the matzo/butter for lunch during passover, the nice lunch ladies let me anyway...  and in 9th grade home ec, they taught me how to make matzo brei...  (more on that later this week, hopefully...)

it really was no wonder i ended up marrying a jew, is it?  we now have all of the benefits of 2 religions!  lasagne, bagels, pastry, matzo brei! (have i ever mentioned that my absolute favorite part of any holiday is food?)

anyway, enough about me and my envy - this is about what you are going to bring for seder dessert tonight...  (or next year if you dont manage to catch this on April 19... or just eat whenever you want if you arent jewish but have distinct envy like i did...)

This matzo crack is so incredibly easy to make - I started on it at the same time jordan took the dog for her afternoon walk, and i was finished (save for the chilling) by the time he got back in...

There are a million ways to adapt this - a quick google search will tell you others have used almonds, coconut and a whole host of other things to top this off...  we went for the standard presentation and while it would be fun to experiment a little, it really is quite amazing even in this, its simplest form...

---

Matzo Crack
adapted from of Marcy Goldman - A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking

4-5 unsalted matzos
2 sticks unsalted butter
1 c firmly packed light brown sugar
scant 1 c bittersweet chocolate chips
fleur de sel/sea salt

***

Preheat oven to 350°

Cover a baking sheet entirely with aluminum foil and then place a piece of parchment on top of the foil (helps with sticking.  the internet says you could butter the foil instead but the parchment worked wonders...)

lay matzo out so that it covers the entire thing, breaking pieces up to ensure full coverage

place butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and turn heat up to medium.  When butter is mostly melted, add in the brown sugar.  stir, continuously, to incorporate.  When mixture starts to bubble, start your timer.  continue to stir mixture for about 3-4 minutes.  at some point during that time, you will notice that the butter/sugar is starting to come together and the mixture is getting less liquid and more almost marshmallow-fluff-ish.  this is a good thing.  If you think its getting too hot, briefly pull off of the heat and then return it a few seconds later.  (stir the whole time...)

remove from heat and pour over the matzo.  using a rubber spatula, spread the mixture evenly over your matzo.

place the cookie sheet in the oven and set your timer for 13 minutes.  After about 5, you will see that the mixture has started to bubble up.  this is a good thing.  check it every 3 minute or so to ensure that its not cooking too fast (getting darker brown would be a good indication)...  I opened my oven a few times to let some heat escape and turned the tray around once.  The minute you smell a hint of burning, remove the tray from the oven.

immediately sprinkle chocolate chips over the toffee and allow to sit for 5 minutes.

after 5 minutes, spread chocolate chips around with a rubber spatula until the entire tray is coated in a layer of chocolate.

sprinkle with fleur de sel/sea salt and place in the freezer.  After about 15 minutes, remove and score into whatever size pieces you wish to have and return to the fridge (if you have plenty of time) or freezer (if you are making this 45 minutes before you are supposed to head across town...)

once fully cooled, break into pieces and enjoy.

epic FAIL*

After seeing them just yesterday, I tried to make these Chocolate Yogurt Snack Cakes at 11pm last night. I was that excited to make them that it seemed reasonable to cook at 11pm.

Tried being the operative word...

I'm not sure exactly what went wrong - i'm thinking it had something to do with expired oil? (who knew vegetable oil expired??? how come no one ever told me this before???)

They look pretty - i wish they tasted that way...

(*edit: ok, they seem to be better - but still not great - the second day... yes, even though i hated them, i brought them to work anyway... I think unexpired oil, cut down by just a little, would be a big improvement... also, the addition of ice cream would help...)

---

Chocolate Yogurt Snack Cakes
courtesy of David Lebovitz’s The Sweet Life in Paris, via Smitten Kitchen, minor changes by me

7 ounces (200 grams) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup (125 ml) vegetable oil
1/2 cup (125 ml) plain, 2% greek yogurt
1 cup (200 grams) sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/2 cups (200 grams) flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

Preheat the oven to 350°F , line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper cupcake liners

Melt the chocolate with 1/4 cup of the oil, via microwave - first microwaving for 35 seconds, stiring, and then 1x or 2x more for 15 seconds each, stirring inbetween.

In another bowl, mix the remaining 1/4 cup oil with yougurt, sugar, eggs and vanilla and almond extracts.

In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the yogurt mixture. Stir lightly a couple times, then add the melted chocolate and stir until just smooth.

Divide the batter among the muffin cups and bake for 25 minutes or until they feel barely set in the middle and a tester or toothpick comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack before serving

speaking of the french...

you know those people who claim to like rice cakes?

you totally thought they were liars too, right? all "oh, rice cakes are good! i really think they totally make a great snack! i mean the chocolate flavored ones are almost like eating cake!!!"

i've always just looked at those people and wondered what chemicals, exactly, were in those rice cakes and was the government aware of the hallucinogens being transported via rice cake?

well kids - i've figured out the secret... its the perfect-storm combination of the american diet of rice cakes and water combined with all of the decadance of the french diet.

i owe Carolyn a debt of gratitude (did i get that saying right? if not, you know what i mean anyway...) for mentioning her 'altercation' with a jar of nutella... it reminded me that i, too, had nutella!

oh, my intentions were good... the supermarket had these awesome 'homemade rice crackers' - i dont know what they are, exactly, but they are bigger than a full sized pita bread and have 18 calories each and dont taste like ass, so they seemed suitable for scooping some tuna salad...

tuna salad got old and then my brain played rewind and thought - NUTELLA...

thanking god for my good fortune at having a jar and thanking the makers of nutella for making it fairly un-perishable (and therefore not an expired jar in my cabinet) i spread some of that chocolately hazelnutty goodness on that 18 calorie rice cracker and fatted & caloried the whole thing right up :)

the only problem i'm having? that whole 'portion control' thing that the french have down pat...

---

The Perfect Storm
courtesy of me

rice cakes or crackers (preferably fresh & 'homemade')
nutella

spread approximately 1 tbsp of nutella on an ~8in rice cracker.
Keep the layer fairly thin.

break into smaller pieces and eat while watching lightening dancing outside of your window.

trailer trash with a better address...

last week when blog war! started, i joked to Roopa that she would probably grow her own caco and sugar cane and make her chocolate covered peeps from scratch... cause she's kinda fancy like that...

while she didnt quite go to those lengths, she did make her peeps as highbrow as one can make peeps, i think.

and frankly, i cant compete with that, so i decided to represent the 'dirty jerz' the best way i knew how and go 100% in the opposite direction - as low brow as possible...

at some point in the process, i thought about those peanut butter kandy kakes that i love so much and wondered what they would taste like with a peep instead of yellow cake... then it hit me...

chocolate covered sandwich peeps. oh.my.god.

fillings include:
fresh honey roasted peanut butter
nutella
lorna doones
chocolate chip cookie dough
coconut

but the best part is the coating... because, if we're going for trash, then i'm committing...

bunnies had to die.


slowly and painfully.

and then the peeps had to be double coated...

ok, only some of them had to be double coated... because i ate some before i had gone and gotten more milky, waxy chocolate - this time in the form of eggs...

and i was much better with the second set, so they only required one layer (if you cant tell, the peep on the left is double coated, the one on the right is single coated).

In hindsight, single coated is the way better option...

turns out i was right - peanut butter kandy kakes with peeps instead of cake ROCK...

(single coated)

and the rest are, surprisingly, not so bad either...

(double coated)

---

Chocolate coated sandwich peeps
courtesy of me

1 package peep bunnies
6 oz cheap easter milk chocolate
filling of your choice


cut peeps in half with sharp knife
spread/place filling in the middle and close the sandwich back up
poke with a toothpick
melt chocolate - microwave style*, please. after all this is the dirty jerz version...
dip each into melty chocolate and place on wax or parchment paper
refrigerate until chocolate is hardened

eat without irony.



*break chocolate apart and put into microwave, at 50%, for 2 mins. remove and stir. continue to melt in 30 - 45 second increments, still at 50% until chocolate is consistency you desire.

mint chocolate crack

a few weeks back, when i made my crabcake feast, i intended to make dessert as well. However, wine took over that night and dessert fell by the wayside.

but i'm nothing if not determined. or is it stubborn? no matter, either way, there would be chocolate mint bars...

the pictures are kind of lacking as is the story, but these may be the perfect fudgy minty chocolately crackness...



perhaps the only thing i can teach you, oh lovely internet, is that a pizza cutter makes an awesome brownie cutter :)

---

Chocolate Mint Bars
courtesty of southernfood.about.com / Diana Rattray (with minor changes by me)

Brownies:
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup melted butter or margarine
1 cup sugar

1 ounce unsweetened melted chocolate
1 ounce semisweet melted chocolate
1/2 teaspoon peppermint flavoring

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Frosting:
2 tablespoons softened butter or margarine
1 tablespoon cream

1 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon peppermint flavoring
few drops green food coloring

Topping:
1 ounce semisweet chocolate, melted with 1 tablespoon butter


Preheat oven to 350°. *
Prepare 8x8 baking dish by lining with parchment and spray with cooking spray for baking (butter/flour)

Combine eggs, 1/2 cup melted butter, and granulated sugar; beat well. Add the 2 ounces of melted chocolate and 1/2 teaspoon peppermint flavoring; stir until well blended. Stir in the flour; blend well.

Pour into a baking pan. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes. (tester should come out fairly clean) Cool on wire rack.

Thoroughly blend the 2 tablespoons butter and the cream; add confectioners' sugar and 1 teaspoon peppermint flavoring, along with the food coloring. Spread over the cooled chocolate peppermint bars.

When frosting is firm, spread chocolate and melted butter mixture over the top and swirl, if desired. Refrigerate until topping is firm.

Cut into small pieces, as the bars are pretty rich.




*note... my oven may have been closer to 335° or 340°... i didnt notice this until the brownies were taking forever to cook... but they were kinda awesome, so you may want to do the same and leave them in for 35 - 40 minutes instead... just a thought.

i have a reputation to uphold, afterall...

oh my god, the pressure...

what will my first post be? something old? something that i just hadnt had time to cover before now? something 'borrowed'? something original?

all those questions went out the window when i saw rk's brownies...

originally, i was just going to copy hers and embrace my role as a direction-follower instead of an innovator... but then i realized that i had no dark brown sugar. no bittersweet chocolate. and that i dont like walnuts in my brownies.






so i started looking through the apartment, looking at other recipes and then, most importantly, looking at my liquor cabinet...
(ignore the triscuits, zucchini and febreeze. none of them made the final cut...)









the part of this that i'm most proud of??? not the kahlua, not the frangelico... but the sugar...

(that would be white sugar mixed with frangelico and kahlua and then swirled in with some brown sugar... how good does that look? ok... fine... so i guess it sorta was the liquor that i liked best ;) )



but it gets better...




i took them into work, as 20 rich, chocolately brownies in my apartment would be highly dangerous... (fine, fine, i only took 11 of them to work...)

---

the commentary by my cubemate?





to another cubemate:
"you should eat one of these brownies. It will make you smile even more than you already are"






and, upon recognizing that there was only one brownie left as another coworker approached and wondering if we should offer it up (ultimately, the other coworker left sans brownie):

"i'm just going to eat it cause i got really nervous when he came in here..."











i'd say thats a pretty good review, right?

---

Boozy Brownies

1 stick unsalted butter
2 oz unsweetened chocolate
2 oz semisweet chocolate

1/2 c white sugar
1/4 c kahlua
1/8 c frangelico
1/2 c light brown sugar

2 eggs
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla

1/2 c + 1 1/2 tbsp pastry flour


heat oven to 350°. Line a square baking dish with parchment paper & spray with the cooking spray for baking.

cut butter into cubes. if not using chips, break up chocolate. put all into a microwave safe container & microwave on 50% for 2 minutes. remove and stir. if you are using chips, it may all be melty. if there are still some lumps after some stirring, put it back in the microwave (still at 50%) in 30 second intervals, stirring in between until all lumps are gone.

while the chocolate is melting, grab another bowl and mix the white sugar with the kahlua and frangelico. when those are well blended, mix in the brown sugar.

in your main mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, salt and vanilla until they are fairly light and airy. add the sugar and whisk some more. add the buttery chocolate mess and whisk some more.

put the whisk in the sink and grab a wooden spoon and then mix in the flour until fairly well blended.

pour into the parchment paper-lined pan and throw it in the oven for about 40 minutes. you know its done when the top is a little shiny and you can stick your fancy cake tester in it (or a fork) and it comes out crummy or clean, but not wet.

cool and cut in the pan, then transfer out of the pan (using the parchment paper as a handle) to a flat surface. this will make it super easy to get nice, square brownies instead of having to spoon out the first one ;)

makes 20 mini brownies or 4 really really big ones.