Chocolate, Chocolate Cupcakes

I recently baked cupcakes for a retirement party.  

When I asked the retiree to name her cupcake preference she said, "Chocolate.  Chocolate, chocolate".  And, so I baked. 

There was a lot of chopping involved.    

Chocolate Babycakes

With Chocolate Ganache

Devil's Food, indeed!  They were delicious.  I didn't wait for the ganache to fully set, as called for in the recipe . . . it was getting late!  Instead, I dipped the cupcakes in the thickening ganache and left it at that.     Not pretty piping, as I had planned, but perfect all the same.

A Strawberry Tea

I recently helped to plan and organize a Strawberry Tea for a friend.

A few months ago, we made the invitations.

The picture is a bit fuzzy, but I don't think you can deny their excessive cuteness! The date and time were written on the tea bags and each dangling tea bag label was stamped with a sweet tea name.

Tranquility

Serenity

Bed of Roses

You get the picture.

Last Friday evening, I got to work on the cupcakes (Strawberry Cupcakes are requirement for a Strawberry Tea).

The Baker's Assistant

The cupcakes turned out well.

The perfect shade of delicious pink. No food colouring required.

We planned the party for mid June in the hopes that it would be sunny and warm. We planned on having bushels of local strawberries to consume.

It ended up being cool and damp. The local strawberries had not arrived!

But, there was a wood fire, lots of tea sandwiches and strawberry shortcake. Yum!

Messy kitchen = good party!

Day 15 - Chocolate, Chocolate!

I finished my two week cleanse on Sunday. Yay! I was not completely sugar-free, but I think I did pretty well over all. I am planning on continuing to keep my diet low in sugar, wheat and eggs for the rest of the month.

Except for one wee little thing . . .

Cupcakes!

I had been thinking about making a sweet Valentine treat since my cleanse began. First, I was going to make Chocolate Sugar Cookies but, I couldn't quite handle the thought of royal icing.

Then, I decided to make White and Dark Hearted Brownies and set out to Michael's to find a tiny heart shaped cookie cutter. However, when I arrived at the store, all I could find was flowers, bunnies and eggs. No good.

Who knew that Valentine's treats required so much advanced preparation?

In the end, I decided on my old standby, cupcakes. Sweet, chocolaty and loved by all.

Chocolate, Chocolate Baby Cakes, mmm.

My Cupcakes are Famous!

I am a faithful reader (viewer?) of The Lunch Box Project, a very cute food blog dedicated to not making, but painting, food. At the beginning of December, Lisa Orgler, of The Lunch Box Project, requested cupcake submissions for a cupcake poster she was planning on producing. I submitted my sweet little Spring Blossom Babycakes and, low and behold, they got selected!

My cupcakes in their original sweet glory.

My cupcakes are famous! And still looking very sweet.

The final, deliciously delightful, poster: Let Them Eat {Cup}cakes!

The poster is for sale on Etsy, a zero calorie treat for cupcake lovers everywhere.

Orange and Black Cupcakes

It has been a big week of Halloween Festivities! It all began with "Gouls Night Out" at a house of a coworker. We got our palms read (very cool) and I made my favourite spooky martini, the Dark Night (see recipe below). The next day, I joined some friends and their families for some pumpkin carving fun. I brought my Orange and Black cupcakes. They have a brownie bottom and are toped with orange flavoured (and coloured) buttercream. Yum! And finally, we dressed up at work on Wednesday for a costume competition between teams. My team got together to make our own fascinator hats and we went as "mad hatters". We didn't win, but I loved our team craftiness!

Dark Night Martinis

- Shake just over 1 oz Black Sambuca

- With just under 1 oz Bailey's Irish Cream

- And 4-6 ice cubes

- Pur into a martini glass and add two maraschino cherries

Brown Butter Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Icing

I can't remember the last time I made cupcakes, it seems that I have been on some sort of unintentional cupcake hiatus. But, that has ended and cupcake season has arrived! One potluck down, one potluck and two halloween parties to go! I don't think I will make cupcakes for each gathering, but you never know.

In any case, I started off cupcake season with these delicious beauties, Brown Butter and Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Icing. The brown butter added a lovely fall toastyness and cream cheese icing is always a winner in my book. They were a hit!

SWAK and Unwrap

I have to admit, I've lost interest in the Daring Bakers. I love baking, but it is hard to bake on someone else's agenda. I don't really want to put a lot of effort into making food I don't really want! I haven't lost interest in cupcakes though. Here is my latest creation. I call them "SWAK Babycakes" as they remind me of Terry's Chocolate Oranges ("whack and unwrap"). These cupcakes have dense brownie bottoms and are topped with orange flavored buttercream. Delish!

PS I just checked out the Daring Bakers challenge for October and it was French Macarons . . . maybe I will have to try those out after all!

It's Strawberry Season!

Mmmm. I love berries. I think that raspberries are my favourite, but I was recently reminded of the bliss of a perfectly ripe strawberry when I bought some from a local orchard. I don't know when I last had a decent strawberry, but these berries reminded me of the "fake" strawberry flavour in lifesavers.

I just HAD to capture the strawberry goodness I discovered, so I made jam. Two batches. I made a batch of uncooked freezer jam and a batch of traditional pectin free jam. They are both delicious.

The traditional jam (front) tastes very much that: sweet, sticky, traditional jam. The non cooked freezer jam (back) tastes like perfectly ripe strawberries. I can't decide which one I like best. My cat, Ollie, was convinced that he also likes jam. I am not so sure how jam fits in with an "obligate carnivore" diet, but who am I to question good taste?

I also recently made my Strawberry Fields Forever Cupcakes. I make them with frozen strawberries, but I bet they'd be even better with local fresh berries. I might have to test that theory :)

Spring has sprung!

I didn't participate in the Daring Barkers March challenge as I am not a huge lasagna fan.  However, I did make these little cuties instead:

 

These are my Spring Blossom Babycakes - basic chocolate cake with vanilla icing tinted in spring pastels.  I think they are adorable :)

Sweet Jesse Babycakes

These are some cupcakes I made for a recent baby shower.  They are vanilla cupcakes with blue tinted vanilla icing and I used Martha Stewart Mix-and-Match Cupcakes for both recipies.  My swirly icing didn't turn out quite as expected, but it is hard to go too wrong with cupcakes!

Me, daring?

I've just joined the Daring Bakers, an online baking adventure club of sorts.  As a blog is needed to chronicle my accomplishments (or disasters), I've set up "A Chocolate Life".  

I consider baking to be an act of love and I am hoping this blog will also allow me to ramble about other things that I love and make me happy -- my home (in Victoria), puppies, music, friends and who knows what else . . . 

One thing I love to eat, bake and talk about is cupcakes.  So, to begin, here are a few pictures of my past baking experiments:

Chocolate Candy Cane Cupcakes, December 2007

Strawberry Fields Forever, Spring 2008

Caramel Apple Cupcakes, October 2008