Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes

Top of the morning to you! Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

I have made these cupcakes a few times and I love them. These cupcakes are quick, easy and delicious and a great treat to celebrate St.Patrick's Day. 

Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting.

Guinness Cupcakes
Recipe from Dave Lieberman at Food Network

1 cup of Guinness Stout

1 cup unsalted butter

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 cups all purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

2/3 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 24 cupcake cups with liners. Bring 1 cup stout and 1 cup butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly. 

Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt in large bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Divide batter among cupcake liners, filling them 2/3 of the way. Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean. Cool cupcakes on a rack completely.

Buttercream Frosting:

1 cup butter softened

4 cups powdered sugar

3 tbsp heavy cream

Food Coloring Optional

Place room temperature, softened butter into the bowl of mixer. Cream for three minutes. Add powdered sugar slowly and not all at once or it will fly all over the room. Add cream and then mix on medium high for another 5 minutes. Add food coloring if desired. Add extra cream if necessary.

I hope you have a very Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Cocoa Buttermilk Cake with Cocoa Mascarpone Frosting

Good morning! I hope that your week is starting off well. If not this recipe for Cocoa Buttermilk cake with Cocoa Mascrapone Frosting, may give your spirits a lift. I found it on the Better Homes and Gardens website and it is DELICIOUS!

Dark Cocoa Buttermilk Cake

Recipe from Better Homes and Gardens

Ingredients:
3/4 cup of butter at room temperature
3 eggs at room temperature
21/3 cups of all purpose flour
3/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp of vanilla
11/2 cups of buttermilk or sour milk


Directions:

Grease one 13 x 9 inch pan. Set aside. Preheat oven to 350. Then in a medium bowl combine the flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda, baking powder, mix and set aside.

In bowl of a mixer, beat butter on high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar and brown sugar, beat until combined. Scrape sides of bowl and beat another 2 minutes. Add eggs on at a time, beating well after each addition, then add vanilla.

Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to sugar egg mixture, on low speed just until combined, then beat an additional 20 seconds. Pour into prepared pans and bake for 40-45 minutes. Check after 35 minutes as your oven may run hotter than mine. Check with a toothpick to be sure it is done. Once cooled spread with frosting.


Cocoa Mascarpone Frosting
Recipe from Better Homes and Gardens

Ingredients:

4 oz of mascarpone cheese softened
1/2 cup of butter softened
1/3 cup of cocoa powder
2 tablespoons of heavy whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla
41/2 cups of powdered sugar

Directions:

In a large bowl combine mascarpone cheese, and butter, cocoa powder, heavy cream and vanilla, beat until creamy. Gradually add powdered sugar and continue to mix on LOW until smooth. Add additional cream to make it the consistency that you like.

This cake is moist, easy to make and scrumptious. And the frosting is creamy and so chocolaty, almost like fudge. 

I hope you try it and if you do let me know what you think!

Enjoy your day!

Linking to:
Stone Gable
No Minimalists
Rattlebridge Farm

Happy Valentine's Day

"All you need is love but a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt."

~ Charles Schultz~

I hope you have a fabulous Valentine's Day and hopefully a little chocolate too!

Enjoy!

Nestles Toll House Cookies and Hot Chocolate

 

Is there anything better on a snowy, cold day than making chocolate chip cookies? I have fond memories of my mother making Nestle Toll House Cookies for us and today I decided to make my own. 

I followed the recipe straight off the package with one exception, I added more chips because I like them with a lot of chocolate. I actually did manage to bake a few before I ate about a quarter of the dough raw. That is not recommended because of the raw eggs but I can never resist. 

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels

Directions

 Preheat oven to 375° F. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Some ovens make take longer or less time. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

I hope you are safe and warm and with power! Enjoy your day!

Chocolate Pancakes

Good morning! I thought I would start the day out with chocolate for breakfast, not a huge departure from a normal day where I start out with a huge cup of steaming French drinking chocolate. But today I was craving pancakes so I tried out a recipe that I found in Southern Living at Christmas. The pancakes were everything I thought they would be and more!  Delicious, fluffy and chocolaty. 

Chocolate Pancakes

From Southern Living

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups milk
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 (4-oz.) dark chocolate baking  bar, finely chopped
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whisk together first 5 ingredients in a large bowl. Whisk together milk and next 4 ingredients in another bowl. Gradually stir milk mixture into flour mixture just until moistened. Pour about 1/4 cup batter for each pancake onto a hot buttered griddle or large nonstick skillet. Cook 3 to 4 minutes or until tops are covered with bubbles and edges look dry and cooked. Turn and cook 3 to 4 minutes or until done. Place in a single layer on a baking sheet, and keep warm in a 200° oven up to 30 minutes.

I personally like this recipe with just powdered sugar sprinkled on top, it is just sweet enough and still not over the top. The actual recipe from Southern Living is for German chocolate pancakes with German chocolate syrup. When I made these I used a little OK, maybe a lot of homemade chocolate topping; they were delicious but probably more of a dessert than a warm hearty breakfast. 


Linking to:

I Should be Mopping The Floor

3rd Annual Vancouver Hot Chocolate Festival

Image from City Food

Oh my goodness, dreams really do come true! Can you imagine 27 days of hot chocolate made by 23 different venues, in 60 different flavors? 

Hot Chocolate is my FAVORITE thing to drink, EVER. I have it 356 days a year not matter the weather, 7 below or 107. It is my beverage of choice, like coffee and tea to others. 

I hope that if you are close to Vancouver and you are lucky enough to attend the 3rd Annual Vancouver Hot Chocolate Festival that you come back and tell me all about your impressions of this seemingly wonderful festival!

Have a great day and stay warm!

Hot Chocolate Master Blend

I know that many are experiencing unseasonable weather, either cold where it is normally warm or hot where it is normally snowy and cold. Either way, what could make you feel better on a winter day than a good book and of course a good cup of cocoa.

I make hot chocolate everyday 365 days a year, it is my beverage of choice and I love trying new recipes of standard hot chocolate.

In the December issue of Traditional Home Chicago Chef Mindy Segal  of the restaurant Hot Chocolate, shared her recipe for Hot Chocolate Master Blend.

This blend can be for a delicious cup of hot chocolate as well as several other delicious chocolate desserts, such as chocolate sauce, ganache, chocolate marshmallow cake and more.

Hot Chocolate Master Blend Recipe
From Chef Mindy Segal

21/2 lbs of high quality milk chocolate finely chopped
12 oz. high quality bittersweet chocolate finely chopped

On large cooking sheets combine both ingredients, freeze for one hour. Then process the mixture in a food processor to make fine granules. Do not process to long or the chocolate will melt. Transfer to a storage container. MAKES 9 cups.

One Perfect Cup of Hot Chocolate

1/3 cup of milk
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup of The Master Blend (from above)

Combine milk and cream in small saucepan and heat mixture until just boiling. Remove saucepan from heat, and add The Master Blend, DO NOT STIR. Let stand for 5 minutes. Then whisk until smooth.

I hope you have a great week!