Chocolate Cupcakes Recipe

It seems that everyone has a go-to chocolate cake or cupcakes recipe and this one is mine.

It was given to me by a work mate years and years ago, she recited the recipe to me off the top of her head and the result was a fantastic tasting cake that was so easily made and easily adaptable.

You'll notice it is the same (only halved) as my chocolate cake recipe. I've also used it as the base in my Tim Tam Cupcakes, Mint Chocolate High Hat Cupcakes and Creme Egg Cupcakes.



It really is so easy you practically throw it all in one bowl and mix.

Don't worry about the coffee content in there, it doesn't give the cupcakes a coffee taste at all, just enhances the chocolate taste.

I like to make my own buttermilk as it's not incredibly cheap here and I always have heaps left over when I buy it for a recipe.

Chocolate Cupcakes
Makes 12 Cupcakes

Ingredients:
1 C Flour
1/4 C Cocoa
1/2 t Baking Powder
1 t Baking Soda
1/2 t Salt
3/4 C plus 2 T Sugar
1/2 t Vanilla
1 Egg
1/4 C Oil
1/2 C Buttermilk (I use homemade: milk mixed with 1/2 T white vinegar)
1/2 C Black Coffee (made with 1/2 t instant coffee, cooled)

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and line a muffin trays with cupcake cases.
• Make up coffee and let it cool down while you make the rest of the mix up.
• Make up home made buttermilk by combining milk and either lemon or white vinegar. Let this sit while you make the rest of the mix up, it will be lumpy when you go to use it.
• Sift dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
• Add eggs. I always crack my eggs one at a time into a cup first to make sure there are no egg shells or the egg isn't rotten or anything. That way it won't ruin your whole mix if there's something wrong with the egg
• Add vanilla, oil, coffee and buttermilk and mix on a low speed until combined.
• Mix on medium speed for about 1 minute. The mixture will be really really runny.
• Pour into cupcake cases and bake for 10 - 15 minutes until skewer inserted comes out clean.
• Leave in tins for 5 minutes then cool on a wire rack.
• Cool completely before decorating with your favourite icing.

Chocolate Buttercream
110g Butter (softened)
1 1/2 - 2 C Icing Sugar
1/4 C Cocoa (or to taste)
1/2 t Vanilla Extract or Essence
2 T Milk

• Beat butter for a few minutes until nice and fluffy.
• While butter is mixing (if you have a stand alone mixer) sift icing sugar into a large bowl and set aside.
• Add vanilla to the butter and beat for about 30 seconds.
• Start adding the sifted icing sugar one cup at a time.
• When icing starts to get lumpy add a Tablespoon of milk.
• Sift cocoa into icing and mix until well incorporated, taste test to see if it is chocolatey enough, if not, add more cocoa one Tablespoon at a time.
• Continue adding icing sugar and milk until you reach the consistency and taste you like.

Auckland Blues Rugby Cake

The Auckland Blues are the Auckland rugby team and this cake was made for a big fan!

Richie McCaw Cupcake

My work mate has a slight obsession with Richie McCaw, he's a rugby player in the All Blacks team and during the Rugby World Cup he was all our little team at work talked about! Haha!

I asked her if she got a Richie themed cake for her birthday and she said no so I obviously had to do something about that! So when I bought a batch of delicious Vanilla Cupcakes to work I made one very special cupcake for my work mate. She loved it so much she didn't even want to eat!

Happy Birthday Louise!

Happy 2nd Anniversary!

It has been two years now since I said I DO!

I still remember it like it was yesterday, we walked down the aisle to Canon in D, walked back up the aisle (after getting married) to Relient K. Had beautiful photos taken at North Head on the North Shore. We celebrated all night with friends and family and gave them all a surprise when we stopped mid first dance with a surprise choreographed fun dance. We ate delicious food followed by delicious candy at the candy bar.

It was the best day of my life.

I'm so lucky to have Mr S in my life and I thank God for blessing me with him every single day.

Love you S! xx

Savoury Sunday: Mexican Food and Julie Julia!

Yesterday I had the best day I've had in quite some time and funnily enough on a day I thought would be spent miserable and lonely! I had organised to meet up with some old workmates and go to Mexicalli, this cute California style Mexican food cafe that makes my mouth water just thinking about it! One way or another we just couldn't fit in with each others schedules and Mr S was working all day and would be back home at 8pm.

So I changed my plans and ended up spending the day at a training course for Sunday School which consisted of learning new techniques on story telling, creative crafts and having fun with food (had to do that one!) I had such a great time and can't wait for my next Sunday School lesson! After the course I popped into the mall to pick up a little for-no-reason present for Mr S, just to show him how much I appreciate him. I then found the perfect blazer to accompany any outfit, navy with folded back sleeves that have pinstripes on them.

I raced home,  checked some emails (okay, it was Facebook actually) and checked to see what ingredients I had in the kitchen then popped out to the supermarket to buy ingredients for a special homemade "Mexicalli" meal. I decided on soft tacos with mince and salad fillings, accompanied by delicious pear Old Mt Cider and chocolate mousse for dessert. The entire groceries came to only $22! That would probably get me two meals at Mexicalli but in my house it's a about five (with all the leftovers!) PLUS four alcoholic beverages AND two (it's supposed to serve four) desserts! Score!

The view from my window

If that doesn't sound like the makings of a perfect Saturday night (I'm too old for partying now, I'm a nana haha!) then perhaps the rainy day and great choice of dvd PLUS candy will convince you. I chose Julie Julia which is a movie I have waited far too long to see. This movie and I were made for each other! -My mother had told me this months and months ago but I never got around to seeing it still. The movie is about a food blogger who is trying to create every recipe from Julia Child's recipe book. I have to say there are some scenes that are airily close to reality for me, especially those tantrums I'm sad to say! I think this movie is one I need to add to my must-own-on-DVD collection along with the likes of the Wedding Planner and Kate & Leopold.

Great combination!

Soft Tacos

Ingredients:
500g Mince
1t Crushed Garlic
1 tin of Chopped Tomatoes
1 tin of Chilli Beans

Add to taste:
Tomato Sauce
Cumin Powder
Paprika
Chilli Powder
Salt

Filling Ingredients:
Carrot (grated)
Lettuce
Cheese (grated)
1/4 Red Onion (thinly sliced)
Tomato (diced)
Avocado
Sour Cream (I get the light one to make me feel better about eating it!)

Cheap ingredients that make a delicious and easy meal!

1) Cook the mince until brown. I like to add water to the mince then drain it to get rid of all the fat.
2) Add the garlic and fry for a minute.
3) Throw in the tomatoes, chilli beans and a squirt of tomato sauce (if you like tomato sauce as much as me)
4) Add at least 1 teaspoon each of the cumin, paprika, chilli and salt then add more according to your taste buds. I think it took me three tastes to get it perfect.
5) Prepare all your filling ingredients while the meat is simmering.
6) Place all ingredients out so everyone can serve themselves. Yumyumyumyum!

"Where's mine?" 

50th Anniversary Cupcakes

My husband would like to keep his identity a secret on my blog, which is totally fair enough. So, as you know, I just refer to him as "hubby" all the time. I actually never EVER call him Hubby in real life. I think that's right up there with Hun or Sugar. Both of which I would never call my husband. His name starts with S so I'm just going to go with Mr S. I think that sounds cool and sort of like a super hero...actually it sounds a lot more like a villian which is not what I was going for!

SooOoo, Mr S and I will be celebrating our 2nd year anniversary soon. How exciting! It's the cotton anniversary this year, *sarcastically* woohooo, we've got a long way to go to get diamonds unfortunately. We may buy some new comfy bed sheets or possibly clothing of some sort (underwear perhaps?)

It seems such a shame that you have to start over with the counting of years thing when you get married, so no matter how long you were together before marriage, it doesn't matter. We've actually been together six years now which I think is pretty cool! Two years married is still pretty cool but nowhere near as cool as 50!

My mums friend from church contacted me a while back about her 50th wedding anniversary coming up and asked for four dozen cupcakes. The decorating was up to me, it just had to be half chocolate and half vanilla.
I went for a golden and white theme with a little bit of blue. It's a bit hard for me to narrow done my ideas when the choice is up to me but eventually I decided to go with half buttercream and half fondant covered. The fondant ones I wanted to sort of look like a set and was inspired by some cupcake collections I've seen of Hello Naomi's (she is AMAZING by the way!) Judi and Russell loved their cupcakes and said they were the talk of the afternoon at their celebration.

Happy 50th anniversary Judi and Russell! You are a great inspiration to me and Mr S, here is to many more!

Cinnamon Pinwheel Buns

I did it! I finally made cinnamon pinwheel buns! I've been meaning to make these for, like...EVER! Way back in September I made French Toast because I felt like making these but didn't know how or have the ingredients, so I just put cinnamon on my french toast to get me by, well now I have finally made them! Yaaaaaaay!

This photo makes me drool a little bit...

My amazing friend from America who I met on Contiki trip around Europe sent me the Pioneer Woman cook book. (Thanks Alicia!)  If you don't know who Ree Drummon is or Pioneer Woman as she's referred to, then you should definitely check out her site/blog. She even has her own cooking show I hear! Well, there are so many amazing recipes in this cook book but it's hard to find time or an occasion to make them. I kept putting off these "Cinnamon Rolls" for so long because of the time it takes and the amount of ingredients. I ended up halving the recipe and still got two batches of buns out of it!

So here it is, the NZ-er-fied (yes that is a word) version of Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls:

Cinnamon Pinwheel Buns
Recipe adapted from Pioneer Woman Cooks
Makes 2 batches

Ingredients:
470ml Milk (I used a little bit less than 2 cups)
1/2 C Vegetable Oil
1/2 C Sugar
2 1/4 t Active Dry Yeast
4 1/2 C Flour
1/2 t Baking Powder
1/2 t Baking Soda
1/2 T Salt

Filling:
1C Melted Butter (Approx 225g)
1/8 C Cinnamon (Fill a 1/4 measuring cup half way)
1 C Sugar

• Heat the milk, oil and sugar in a pan over medium heat, but don't let it boil! Set aside to cool down to lukewarm.
• Sprinkle yeast on top of the milky mixture and let it sit for one minute.
• Add four cups of the flour to the mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until it is just combined.
• Cover with a tea towel and leave it to rise in a warm place (I chose my window) for one hour.
• Once dough has risen, add baking powder, baking soda, salt and the rest of the flour and stir thoroughly to combine. Use the dough straight away or you can refrigerate it for up to three days but you'll need to punch down the dough if it rises all the way to the top of the bowl. I used half the mixture and put the other half in the  fridge to bake later in the week.
• Sprinkle some flour on a bench and roll out half the mixture into a large rectangle.
• Brush on a generous amount of butter over the dough, using a pastry brush, remember to get it all the way to the edges and although your thighs don't want to hear this, the more butter, the yummier!
• Sprinkle half the cinnamon over the entire dough surface followed by half of the sugar, remember to get it all the way to the edges so there are no boring bits.
• Roll up the dough nice and tight and secure by pinching the edges together. This doesn't look very nice but it's very important!
• Transfer your cinnamony dough log to a chopping board and cut into even pieces about 3cm wide.
• Pour a couple of tablespoons of melted butter into a cake tin or pie dish and use a pastry brush to spread evenly.
• Place the rolls in the tin, I may have made mine a little over crowded but they were nice and sticky this way so it's up to you how many you put in the tin at a time.
• Cover the tin with a tea towel again and let them sit for at least 20 minutes to rise again.
• Preheat oven to 190 degrees C and bake for 13 to 17 minutes until they are golden brown. 
• While the buns are baking make the maple icing!

Dough after it had risen

Look at that buttery-cinnamony-sugary goodness!

Look what a mess I made!

Peek a boo!

I wish you could smell these!

Maple Icing:
450g Icing Sugar
1/4 C Milk
3T Melted Butter (use from the dough recipe)
1/8 C Strong Coffee (half of a 1/4C)
1T Maple Syrup

• Sift icing sugar into a large bowl.
• Add butter, coffee and maple syrup and half of the milk.
• Continue adding the milk until you reach the consistency you like, it should be nice and runny so you can pour it over the buns.
• Feel free to play around with the recipe and add as much or as little of the coffee and maple syrup as you like.
• Pour over cinnamon pinwheel buns while they are still warm in the tin. DELISH!
• EAT.

Perfection

Recipe Notes:
I made these according the recipe the first time: My first thought when eating one was that it was amazing, my second thought was oh my gosh this is SO buttery I could die of a heart attack! It actually only tasted that buttery while it was still hot and I enjoyed it MUCH more the next day, a bit like leftovers!
So I went back with my second batch and tried making it a bit more healthy with less butter and sugar and no icing at all. Not good.
Also, as you may notice from the photo, I didn't make the icing according to the recipe, the recipe was for two batches of buns and I only made one at a time so I just kind of threw in all the ingredients and played around until I liked the taste and consistency, this worked well for me but if you're new to icing it might pay to stick to the recipe!

So my advice is to stick with the unhealthy ones and just eat a few if you are watching your weight (like me!) here are some ideas of how to get rid of these fabulous tasting buns:
1) Eat them.
2) Give them away to a special friend.
3) Make your husband eat them (don't worry he'll love you for it).
4) Eat them.
5) Give some to your kitten, if she likes sugary things like Pecan does.
6) Eat them.
7) Take them to work and share them to get brownie points in the office.
8) Freeze them and eat them later.

9) Eat them then go for a run.
10) Sit in the sun and eat them. This was my view while eating my lunch the other day staring out at the cruise ship in the Viaduct in Auckland City. I took my sandwich, listened to my ipod, sunbathed for 10 minutes (otherwise I'll get burnt!) then finished off with a cinnamon roll. It was like heaven!