twd: chocolate-chocolate cupcakes, boo-yah!

for this week's tuesdays with dorie, clara from the wonderful i heart food for thought chose chocolate-chocolate cupcakes and gently suggested doing a halloween theme for decoration.

there had been some lengthy discussion about the texture and crumb being dry, with lots of talk about ratios and flour weights. i don't think there are any "fool-proof" recipes (especially for baking) so i tend to think that any discrepancies mainly occur because of differences in conditions, particularly in the oven. so i decided to proceed as written, but keeping a careful watch on the baking time. i checked in 16 minutes and the toothpick came out wet; only 2 more minutes and it came out completely dry.



the result? well first, the batter was soo good! that bowl hardly had to go in the dishwasher i cleaned it so well myself - no shame!

and the cupcake? amazing! moist and chocolately. i did not have any problem with it being a crummy dry crumb. i suspect that was related to my 18 minutes baking, compared to dorie's written 22-25 minutes. i would've preferred a chocolate buttercream, but that's just me (or is it you, too?)

i wasn't at all creative in the halloween department. but do you ever need a pretty reason to eat a chocolately chocolate cupcake??

for the recipe, please click here!

chocolate, chocolate, chocolate

yes, it's true. i missed a day. not entirely my fault as yesterday i was out of the house from the time i woke up until 3 in the morning (thanks m!)

the worst part is i LOVE lip balm. and so to hopefully make up for my lapse and to unjeopordize the receiving of said lip balm, i offer not one but two awesome chocolate treats!



first up is martha's double chocolate brownie cookies. fudgy inside, relatively crispy outside. need i say more? these are delicious, and i promise you will be sneaking them all day long.



second up is david lebovitz's black bottom cupcakes. i first saw these on smitten kitchen and totally wanted to make them. this is a bittersweet bake today because david is in new york city for a little get together at city bakery. i just couldn't manage to squeeze in a trip to manhattan this afternoon and so i missed out on meeting him. oh well, i guess it's a good excuse for another trip to paris! ;-)



but back to those cupcakes. now i know bloggers tend to be generous with the adjectives. how many things can truly be fantastic, amazing, delicious, tasty, and wonderful? but honestly, these things were incredible. it was an instant ymmm from the first bite. so moist and good! and so much fun to make!


for martha's double chocolate brownie cookies, click here (there is a comment about them not spreading. i used a scooper and plopped the dough down. they spread just fine for me.) in the book, it suggests adding 3 oz coarsely chopped walnuts.

for david's black bottom cupcakes that i found via smitten kitchen, click here.

twd: bill's big carrot cake

i'm a pretty big fan of carrot cake, so when amanda of slow like honey chose bill's big carrot cake for this week's tuesdays with dorie, i was also pretty excited. carrot cake was one of those standard staples that i love, but have never made myself.



since i will be bringing this to work i decided to halve the recipe and make cupcakes instead. and because i am kind of lazy on a late monday night (yes, i am the queen of procastinate!!) i used those foil muffin cups on a baking sheet instead of regular muffin tins. now why does this actually satisfy my laziness?? i really have no idea. but it's all mental folks, and foil cups on a sheet make me feel better ;)


and as some of you may remember, i have not yet been converted to the ILDC (can anyone guess what that stands for?) and so i was a bit hesitant. but they smelled so good from the oven. sure, the cupcakes kind of sank and spread a little. and the cream cheese frosting was a little too thin for me, even with a little extra sugar thrown in. plus, i may have overcooked them (i had them in there for a full 30 minutes). and i had no time to make these cute little marzipan carrots and had to settle with the easy old sprinkle on top quick trick.

but the taste? ... delish!!


yeah okay, so the frosting was a little too sweet. but the cake was delish, even with the overcooking. in fact, it made this crunchy sugary top which was a perfect complement to the creamy frosting. i may tweak it just a wee bit if i make this again, but i think i finally may have found a dorie recipe that i like :)

to see more carrot (cup)cake than you ever thought possible, and for a copy of the recipe, please check out everyone else's concoctions!

swiss orange chocolate cupcakes

i work full-time five days a week. i go to school three days a week. including school and gym classes or tennis lessons, i don't get back home until past 9 o'clock at five nights a week. add all of that to my renowned lack of time management skills, and it is rare that i actually have any leisurely spent afternoons on the weekends.

yesterday afternoon, after the morning spent running errands, and before our friends would arrive in the evening, the most sensible thing would be to relax on the couch with mr. mimi as he watched in perennial disappointment as the maine went down.


but ladies and gents, i have caught the baking bug and the fever is running high. two or three hours down time? sure, that's all i need. i just NEED to bake something, anything. i need to measure, mix, whip, crack, fold, and pour.

and i had leftover buttermilk burning a hole in my fridge. so i dreamed and salivated around the daring bakers until i found a recipe with buttermilk and all the other ingredients on hand.



so here they are, quick and easy. i omitted the chocolate glaze because i only had regular size chocolate chips, so the cakes were quite chocolatey already (okay, okay, the real reason was because i was lazy). i forgot to dust the chips with a little flour so they wouldn't all sink in baking, but let's not get picky. they were delicious and buttery. almost too buttery. is there such a thing? :)

for the recipe, click here. thanks to mary at alpineberry!

twd: gooey chocolate cake

because i can't just get enough, i've just signed up for tuesdays with dorie. my first recipe was for gooey chocolate cake, a perennial favorite of chocoholics everywhere! good luck for mr. mimi, as he, too, very much likes this dessert.

this recipe is super easy to whip up, and more than likely you already have all the standard ingredients on hand. because it's so easy, this would make a great dinner party dessert.


we ate them right away, but i think thirteen minutes was a bit too long in the oven. it was very soft and slightly gooey inside, but it wasn't the real gooey lava. next time, i would probably cut off a minute or two (or three).

but with that said, we served them up with a scoop of soy ice cream (to make us feel just a wee less indulgent) and they were delish!! although not very photogenic :)

gooey chocolate cakes: serves 6
adapted from dorie's baking from my home to yours (2006, p. 261)

1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 tb unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
5 oz bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 stick butter, cut into 8 pieces
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
6 tb of sugar

1. preheat oven to 400F. spray 6 cups of a regular size muffin pan, dust the insides with flour and tap out excess. i used the disposable aluminum foils (as recommended by dorie) so that they would pop out easier.

2. sift the flour, cocoa. and salt together.

3. set a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water, put the coarsely chopped chocolate and the butter in the bowl and stir occasionally over the simmering water just until they are melted – you don’t want them to get so hot that the butter separates. remove the bowl from the pan of water.

4. in a large bowl, whisk the eggs and yolk until homogenous. add the sugar and whisk until well blended, about 2 minutes. add the dry ingredients and, still using the whisk, stir (don’t beat) them into the eggs. slowly and lightly stir in the melted chocolate and butter. divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

5. bake the cakes for 13 minutes (i suggest a shorter time if you want real gooey cakes). transfer them, still on the baking sheet, to a rack to cool for 3 minutes.

6. unmold cakes onto dessert plates and serve with a glass of milk or scoop of ice cream!

magnolia's got nothin' on mimi!

shiny happy frosting

this weekend, my dear good friend SV visited because he loves cars. we always have such a good time together and so he's always a good friend to have around and we wish he'd visit more often!

when the mimis first moved to new york city nine years ago, we lived in the west village. one day we discovered that we were about 3 blocks away from the famous magnolia bakery. back in the pre- sex in the city cupcake craze, this little bakery made quite a few good sweet temptations.

our trifecta of good friends (SV, H, and K) would often come down to visit and once we took them to magnolia on a perfect summer night. everyone fell in love with the old fashioned cupcake with melt on your tongue buttercream frosting. especially SV, who bought a boxful to go! and now every time he would come down to visit, he'd always make a side trip to magnolia for an orgy of buttery proportions.

well this time i was going to trump magnolia! sure, it was busy especially on a nice evening when everyone's walking down bleecker. but it eventually became the "you must try this. now." type of place for every out of towner and their fanny pack wearing mother. and nothing against tourists and their mothers, but the cupcakes have never been the same since. a little too dry now, and the frosting was too oily tasting. so the challenge was on!

i knew i wanted to make two different types for him, and i wanted to make it a surprise. ever since i'd first drooled over the photo of martha's yellow cake with chocolate frosting i've been wanting to make my own. then i spent the rest of my otherwise unfruitful workday afternoon scouring the internet for a second choice. i decided on coconut cupcakes from the lovely barefoot contessa. i have never made any of her recipes before, but it received rave reviews, so i thought why not?


the first thing SV saw when he walked in our door was four dozen cupcakes cooling on racks on the dining table, and he was in bliss! once i got them all frosted (which i found is much more tiring than i thought) i anxiously awaited his verdict ...

"they are as good as magnolia"

hmmpf!! good as?? good AS?!! what does that mean?!!

well, since he had two cupcakes that night, and another one the next morning, i'll take it as meaning pretty darn good and finally he admitted the only thing that would've made them better is if they were bigger :)


for the coconut cupcake recipe, click here. i toasted the coconut for the topping; i also followed other's suggestions and halved the frosting recipe and still had plenty for two dozen. they were okay. a bit too sweet for my tastes.

martha's recipe for yellow cake and chocolate frosting is in her baking handbook. no changes were made and it came out delish!



this is my first ever entry for sugar high fridays #41 hosted this month by danielle over at habeas brûlée where the theme was "sweet gifts"!

red velvet cupcakes

when i first started bringing my baked goodies to work, i took any requests too. the first one was for red velvet cake. that was like over four weeks ago, and for one reason or another, the red velvet never got made. they were all good sports though, and happily enjoyed whatever else i brought in, but i was always reminded of my promise to bring in some of the red stuff. and by now, because of all the anticipation, the pressure was on!

red velvet cake: makes 24 cupcakes (or 1 two-layer cake)
from martha's website

2 1/2 cups cake flour, not self-rising
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups canola oil
2 large eggs
1/4 cup red food coloring
1 tsp vanilla <
1 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp white vinegar

1. preheat oven to 350F. prepare two muffin tins with liners. in medium bowl, whisk cake flour, salt, and cocoa; set aside.

2. in bowl of mixer, combine sugar and oil and beat on medium until well combined. add eggs, one at time, beating well after each addition. add food coloring and vanilla and beat until well combined. add flour mixture, alternating with buttermilk.

3. in small bowl, mix baking soda and vinegar. add to batter, and beat for 10 seconds. evenly divide batter in muffin tins.

4. bake until cake tester comes out clean, about 25 minutes. transfer to wire rack to cool, remove from tins and cool completely.


cream cheese frosting: makes 2 cups
1 stick butter, room temp
8 oz cream cheese, room temp
1 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts

1. beat butter in electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. add cream cheese and beat until well combined, another 2 minutes.

2. add sugar and vanilla, beat until combined. fold in walnuts. top on cupcakes!