A cup of cocoa would make this day.

It's raining and just icky outside...makes me wish I was curled up at home in a blanket with a mug of cocoa.  Sadly, I'm doing that work thing - but now I'm dreaming of real hot cocoa.  None of that Swiss Miss packet garbage...gimmie the good stuff!

So, even though I can't partake in a mug of chocolatey goodness at this moment, I can share a recipe:

1/3 C. dark cocoa powder
1/2 C. sugar
pinch of sea salt
1/3 C. boiling water
3 1/2 C. whole milk
3/4 tsp. vanilla
1/2 C. half & half

Combine dry ingredients in a heavy saucepan, add boiling water and whisk until blended.  Add milk and heat on medium setting, do not boil.  Once mixture is hot enough, remove from heat and stir in the vanilla.  Whisk in half & half to cool cocoa down to drinkable temp.  Top with homemade whipped cream if you like - or add marshmallows!

It Ain't Easy Bein' Green...or something.

A while back, I purchased some Matcha powder from Whole Foods.  I'd never really tried green tea lattes or anything like that before, since I usually just stick with coffee (or Irish Breakfast tea, when I'm sick).
I wasn't a fan of the green latte, but I did think that the light flavor would be excellent in cookie form - so I created a Matcha shortbread cookie and drizzled some dark chocolate on top.

My co-workers were skeptical of these green cookie wedges, and I don't blame them.  I mean, they're GREEN.
One bite led to two...and then before I knew it, there were crumbs left in the box!

Happy Valentine's Day, my lovelies!

Mmmm Bacon!

Now, I've had chocolate with many things: cheeses, chili, lime, ginger, all sorts of liquor and so on.  When trying to come up with a pairing for this challenge, I realized I'd never had chocolate and bacon together.  I know it's a combo that's pretty popular, but we never have REAL bacon in our house.  We like to pretend that turkey bacon tastes just like regular bacon because turkey bacon is not as evil as pork bacon.  Or something.  The first thing I had to do was purchase REAL bacon.  Mmmmmmmmbacon.

I knew it was a cupcake that had been done before, but I'd never done it...so to get the bacon flavor going right from the start, I replaced the oil in my favorite chocolate cupcake recipe with bacon grease.  Sounds kinda gross, eh?  Perhaps, but wow...that smoky bacon flavor really pops with the cocoa.  When I baked the cupcakes, I did everything I normally did...but I guess the change in the "oil" altered the balance just enough that the cupcakes domed over onto the pan.  I hate when that happens!  

While the cupcakes were cooling, I prepared the frosting - Pure Maple Buttercream.  I could eat this frosting by the spoonful if I didn't feel so guilty about doing so...my son on the other hand, doesn't share my guilt.  He's currently running around the house pretending he's The Flash whilst on a sugar high.  


Atop the frosting I placed a piece of chocolate covered bacon, hand dipped by yours truly.  And sugar sprinkles...I love sugar sprinkles.  If you combined bacon and French toast and then covered them in chocolate...yea, that's my cupcake.  

Gummy Goodness

A month ago when I started asking my son what he wanted for his 4th birthday, he would reply with the same answer every time:

"I want to have a party at Chuck E. Cheeses and play games and have a strawberry cake."

Sounded simple enough, right? Well, his older sister is very much allergic to strawberries and I didn't want to make multiple cakes - cupcakes were definitely the way to go. 

I have this very versitile cupcake recipe that I use for almost everything, and just alter certain ingredients as I go along. Someone once told me that baking is an exact science, you can't just wing it. Well, everytime I wing it, I have a new favorite cupcake!

I made a white cocoa cupcake and filled it with a mixture of strawberry Squeezie Fruit (ever try the stuff? It's amazing!) and white cocoa buttercream. Then I topped the cupcakes with more white cocoa buttercream. My son loves gummy treats - gummy bears, gummy worms, all of the above. So I took some Wonka squishy Sploshberries and placed them on top of the buttercream. After adding a little red sugar crystals, I was done!
Of course, I set some unfilled cupcakes aside for my daughter so she wouldn't have to endure the hives that strawberies give her. 

The cupcakes were a hit at his party. Our party hostess even requested one! I'm glad I brought some to-go bakery boxes too, because some other parents wanted to take cupcakes home to their families.

Oh, I make messes...

Holy cupcake fail yesterday...it's a recipe I've used before that I tweaked to my own specifications and it's turned out every time.  Yesterday?  Not so much.  The cupcakes tasted really good, but had more of a spongecake like texture and a crustier top.  Weird.  Oh well...I set them aside to figure out what to do with them.  What did I end up making?  Well, they were mango margarita cupcakes...so I made mini mango margarita trifles with pastry cream and a blueberry and mango tequila reduction. 

Holy omg goodness.  I did a layer of the cake, then tequila infused mango puree, then a layer of the pastry cream (which I made with orange liquor), then more cake and mango puree.  It needed more color...too yellow and orangeish.  So I put a cup of mango tequila in a saucepan along with about 4 tablespoons of sugar, threw in a cup of fresh blueberries and let that cook down.  I drizzled it on the trifle and it suddenly became GORGEOUS.  I figure tomorrow, I'll finish the mini cups off with a dollop of whipped cream along with a drink umbrella and they'll be perfect for the 4th of July festivities.  
Drew tried one, said it was AMAZING.  He called me a savant.  HA!