Chocolate Cupcakes and Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Both of these recipes are simple and classic. They're easy to make and always a hit. I usually don't use cupcake papers, but I found tin foil ones at the store and was able to put the batter in the papers and bake them right on a cookie sheet. I halved each recipe so that I wouldn't have a ton of each type of cupcake, but I will put the full ingredient amounts here. Also, I piped the icing on the cupcakes using a reusable Wilton piping bag fitted with a large star tip. When piping icing on cupcakes, hold the bag upright and then when you're ready to pull the tip off, don't pull straight up, rather pull to the side. This will eliminate an unwanted pointy tip. Don't overfrost because the frosting is VERY sweet.

The first recipe is a Devil's Food Cupcake. The recipe is from Chockylit (http://cupcakeblog.com/?p=10). She uses a chocolate buttercream frosting on her, but I opted for vanilla so as not to cause chocolate overload.

Ingredients:

Oven: 350 degrees

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder( I used Trader Joe's)

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup butter (Unless you're using a Kitchenaid Mixer, I'd let it soften a bit)

2 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

Directions:

1- Add everything to a mixing bowl except eggs

2- Mix on low until incorporated

3- Mix on high for about 2 mins

4- Add the eggs

5- Mix on high for about another 2 mins

6- Measure out into cupcake papers or tin. Fill about halfway

7- Bake for about 15-20 mins or until knife comes out clean. Transfer to wire rack to cool

The second recipe is for Vanilla Cupcakes. The recipe is from Confessions of a Bake-a-holic (http://bradleykitchen.blogspot.com/2010/04/vanilla-cupcakes-with-vanilla.html).

Ingredients:

Oven: 375 degrees

3/4 cups butter (Again, unless you're using a Kitchenaid Mixer, I'd let it soften a bit)

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 1/2 cups flour

1 1/4 cups milk

Directions:

1- Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy (About 2 mins- It should come together)

2- Add eggs and vanilla and mix well

3- Add baking powder, salt, flour, and milk

4- Mix until well combined

5- Measure out into cupcake papers or tin. Fill about halfway

6- Bake for about 20 mins or until knife comes out clean. Transfer to wire rack to cool

The third recipe is for Vanilla Buttercream Frosting. It's a basic recipe, so you can find it on pretty much any website. It will be enough to frost cupcakes from one recipe both recipes if you halve them.

Ingredients:

1- 4 cups powdered sugar (This is about 1 box. You can do 3.5 cups to make the icing a little less sweet)

2- 1/2 cup butter, softened

3- 1 tsp vanilla

4- 1/4 cup milk

Directions:

1- Beat butter and powdered sugar until combined

2- Add vanilla and milk

3- Beat everything until light and fluffy.

Frost when cupcakes are cooled. Should you have any additional frosting, you can freeze it.

Have fun:)

Chocolate Truffles with a Hard Outer Coating

I found a super easy truffle recipe online so I decided to make truffles on this snowy Saturday, but I didn't really like the chocolate combination the recipe called for and I also didn't like that the outer coating chocolate was not tempered, so I decided to change that as well.



The recipe is adapted from The Pioneer Woman (http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/10/chocolate-truffles-with-sea-salt/), but I've changed some of the essentials.

Truffles
8 oz bittersweet chocolate. Depending on what you like, you can use 60% cacao, but I bought 70% at the store because I'm not as much of a fan of 60%.
8 oz semi sweet chocolate.
Small can of Sweetened Condensed milk

Over a double boiler of simmering water, add the chocolate and the sweetened condensed milk. Keep mixing until totally melted. Put in the refrigerator for about 2 hours so it can become workable. After 2 hours, take chocolate out of the refrigerator and roll chocolate into small balls. This will become the middle of the truffle.

Once all the chocolate is rolled into small balls, it is time to temper the chocolate. Tempering means heating and cooling chocolate to dip or coat things. Tempering will also give chocolate a nice shine and won't melt in your fingers. Those truffles from Godiva and Lindt have a tempered chocolate coating. When you temper, it just means that you are distributing the crystals evenly in the chocolate. For tempering, you need a candy thermometer. Make sure it measures temperatures under 100 degrees as well as over.

While the process of tempering is easy, you have to remember that chocolate is very very picky.

Here is the method I use to temper chocolate as adapted from Ghirardelli's website:

Grate or chop the desired amount of chocolate. Place two-thirds of the chocolate in the top pan of a double boiler. Heat over hot, not boiling, water, stirring constantly, until chocolate reaches 110°–115°F.
Place the top pan of the double boiler on a towel. Cool to 95°–100°F. Add the remaining chocolate to the top pan, stirring until melted. The chocolate is now ready to be used for molding candies, coating, or dipping.
When you take the chocolate off the stove and start dipping, it cools very quickly. Stay near the stove and warm the chocolate on the double boiler every so often so it does not harden as you dip. It is very hard to get the chocolate as perfect as the store bought truffles, but that's what makes these special. Let them sit out for awhile to harden. Immediately after dipping each truffle, you can add a topping to it, like toasted coconut or nuts or anything else. You might want a friend to help you with this part because like I said, properly tempered chocolate will harden quickly. So irresistible!

have fun:)