Deep Dark Chocolate Cupcakes {Rebake} w/Whipped Mascarpone Frosting (★ ★ ★ ★ ☆)

Some things are just not meant to be brought back.

Like...
Dinner, Circa 1950.

Sure, it was the golden age of domesticity, but what the heck were those housewives making?!

Vegetable and meat jello?

I'll be taking a rain check, thank you.
Stick me in a cryogenic freezer and ship me back to the land of deep fried oreos!

Or...
Village People's Y.M.C.A.

I know it's your wedding, but please, let's keep this macho-cheeseball of a song where it belongs. 
In 1978.

And...

Overalls!

Guys, overalls are coming back!  They're coming back???????!

This. is. a. travesty.

Of course, I'm guilty of wearing a pair or two everyday in the 90's.

But I was a kid!

I didn't know any better.

What I thought was the perfect solution to hiding my awkward teenage body was actually a fashion conspiracy to keep me looking like a large, lumpy sack of denim.

Why?

Because Junior High is about pain, people.



The truth of the matter is:
Everything comes around.

Everything.

Whether it looks exactly like it did before, is not the question.
The fact is...it's back.

Thankfully, for every terrible idea there is an equally wonderful one begging to be rediscovered.

Like jean jackets,

All forms of hair braids,

even "Sexy."


Oh, and these cupcakes.



I made these way back in the dark ages of this blog when I had no idea what I was doing.

I still don't really know what I'm doing, but at least now I'm organized about it.

Progress, people!

But even then, when everything was a complete mess, I still stumbled upon an amazing chocolate cake recipe.

We're talking I'm lookin' no further.  I'm plantin' my roots.  And unless someone asks me to try out their recipe because they guarantee that it is better, this is the chocolate cake I will be serving from here to kingdom come.

It's my chocolate cake "go-to."

The only problem was I hadn't made it since then.

That's the food blogger dilemma.  You find something amazing, but you can't ever make it again because you are supposed to be making "new" recipes, trying "new" things.

Well, you know what?

I'm breaking the rules.

Because this cake is too good to be forgotten.

...and mascarpone cheese is so absolutely divine, I needed it again too.

But in true blogger fashion, I've tweaked it.  (Don't shut me down, Google!)

Today, it's whipped!

See?  I'm still fit to be in the kitchen.

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I can't really explain this cake to you, other than it has the perfect balance of moist and denseness.
It's not too heavy, not too dry.  It's amazing.

Also, this frosting is very "whipped creamy."  Light and fluffy.  If you want something more solid, cut the cream in half.  Next time, I am going to do this.
----------

Deep Dark Chocolate Cake
copied from A Bloggable Life

• 2 Cups of Sugar
• 1 3/4 Cups of Flour
• 3/4 Cup of Cocoa (Hershey's Special Dark, if you want this coloring)
• 1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
• 1 tsp Salt
• 2 Large Eggs
• 1 Cup Milk
• 1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil
• 2 tsp Vanilla
• 1 Cup Boiling Water

Whipped Vanilla Mascarpone Frosting
adapted from Martha Stewart

• 8oz Mascarpone Cheese, Room Temperature
• 1 tsp Vanilla Paste (or Extract)
• 1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar (more or less to taste)
• 2 Cups of Heavy Cream
• Stabilizer: Unflavored Gelatin/Cornstarch (I did not do this and my frosting did not hold for longer than 30 minutes)

Makes 24 Frosted Cupcakes
Preheat Oven to 375F Degrees then lower to 350F Degrees
Bake for 15-20 minutes
Needed Muffin Tin & Cupcake Liners



Cupcakes:

1) In a large bowl, add sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Stir until combined.

2) Add eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla.  Beat for 2 minutes on medium speed. 

3) Mix in boiling water until combined.  Batter will be very thin and runny.  (See bottom righthand

    picture.  The batter doesn't even stick to the beaters).

4) Line muffin tin with cupcake liners.
5) Carefully pour batter into cups about 3/4 full.  I used a measuring cup to do this since the batter
    was so runny and I still managed to make a mess. 
6) Place pan into 375F Degree oven.  After 7 minutes lower oven temperature to 350F for the
    remaining 8-13 minutes.  Cupcakes are done when toothpick inserted into the center comes out
    clean.
7) Allow cupcakes to cool completely in the muffin tin before removing.

Frosting:
1) Place a medium sized bowl in the freezer to chill.
2) In another bowl, mix mascarpone, sugar, and vanilla until well combined.

3) Take bowl out of the freezer and beat heavy cream until stiff peaks form. This will take a few
    minutes so be patient (make sure you start with clean beaters for this!) {Here is where you would
    add your stabilizer...otherwise use immediately}
4) Fold cheese mixture into whipped cream.  I found this very difficult and ended up mixing with the
    beater very carefully and quickly.  Keep chilled.
5) Frost cupcakes and enjoy!

Blog police, you'll never get my pearls!

Salted Dark Chocolate Oat Cookies (★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆)

Salt fixes everything.

No, seriously...it does.

Think about it.

Whenever you cook something, or bake something, or "blah blah blah" [insert brûlée, flambé, etc] anything edible what's the one thing that is always missing?  The thing that item needs more of?  The one thing that just sets it over the edge?

Unanimously, the answer is salt.

The godsend.  

The cherry on top.

My mom is famous for making salsa and I've been her ever present taste-tester throughout the years...

but the scenario never fails.

"Can you taste this and tell me if it needs anything?"

"Um, I think it needs more salt."

"I already put in salt."

"I still think it needs some."

"I put in A-Lot of salt."

"Okay, but..."  [Skipping the argument and adding salt.]

"I'm telling you, I added a tuh... Oh.  That's good."

I mean what else gives pasta that pop?

Sautéed chicken that zip?

Fire roasted bell peppers that tang?

It's the most essential ingredient in play dough...a staple during our most fragile and pliable years.

And it's the best snail repellant I know of.  Oh, look at the fizz!

But salt just isn't for the obvious.

It's also for the dollop of whipped cream on your morning coffee.

For the slice of watermelon you packed in your lunch.

For the Dark Chocolate Oat cookies I baked you.

...Wait whaa?...

For whipped cream?  Fruit?  Cookies? 

Yup.  Especially for cookies.

A couple years ago, I decided to test what has been hailed as the best chocolate chip cookie recipe ever: New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies.  

The secret?  

Well, lots of nuances...but mostly it was the sprinkling of salt on each piece before it entered the oven. 

They were good.

And the salt?  Heavenly.

The cookies had a slight savory taste and the salt helps to bring out the other flavors already present in the cookie.

I have now become a salt-believer.

Every cookie should be kissed with this stuff.

Let me convert you.

It's for your own good. 

Salted Dark Chocolate Oat Cookies

adapted from Jens Favorite Cookies and Stresscake

• 1/2 Cup Butter (softened)
• 1 Cup Packed Brown Sugar
• 1/4 Cup Granulated Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 1 Tbsp Vanilla
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 Cup Flour
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/2 Cup Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa Powder
• 1/2 Cup Oatmeal
• 1/2 Cup 70% Dark Chocolate Chunks
• *Coarse salt for sprinkling 

Bakes approximately 30 cookies

Preheat oven to 325F

Cook for about 12 minutes. 

1) Preheat oven to 325F.  Cream together butter, sugar, brown sugar
    *Tip:  If you haven't left the butter out long enough you can pop it in the microwave to speed up the
      "softening" process.  Be careful though.  You want softened not melted butter.  Start with 5 to 10
      seconds and go from there.  Flipping the cube and checking after every time.
     *Tip 2:  My intention was to use only brown sugar, but I found that the cookies were a little too
       bitter.  I added the white sugar later because I ran out of the brown.  If you want you can substitute
       either of the two for each other.  I just really like brown sugar.

2) Add eggs and vanilla.  Beat until thoroughly mixed.
    *Tip: 1 Tbsp might be a little overzealous.  I love vanilla in just about anything so I increased the
      amount.  In hindsight though, I couldn't really tell the difference so the standard 1 tsp would have
      sufficed.

Just me at work. 

Wet ingredients

3) In a smaller bowl, mix dry ingredients together with a spoon.  Flour, oats, cocoa powder, salt, and
    baking soda.
4) Gradually add dry ingredients to butter/sugar mixture, beating well between each addition.

5) Add or chop up 70% dark chocolate chunks (chips) to cookie dough.

Dark chocolatey goodness

 6) Place rounded tablespoonfuls of dough on greased cookie sheet about two inches apart.

 7) Sprinkle a dusting of salt over each ball.  Bake for 11-13 minutes or until middle springs
      back when touched.

These are good.

Ooey.  Gooey.

A little bit of chewy.
A ton of chocolately.
A hearty texture.

And the zinger?

The one that puts even all of Charlie Sheen's outrageous catchphrases to shame?

Salt of course.  

#winning

And you know what else fixes things?
My new Canon EOS Rebel T3.
Feast your eyes.








Dark Chocolate is yummy.

Deep Dark Chocolate Cupcakes

Dark Chocolate Cherry Cookies

Dark Chocolate Cherry Cookies (★ ★ ★ ★ ☆)

True to my word, here is this Thursday's post.  The Dark Chocolate Cherry cookie.

Honestly, I don't even know what to begin to say about these.  Words just jumble up when I try to write.

They were that good.

I wanted to make something to bring to work.  You know the whole "winning friends and influencing people" thing.  And not only that, by getting them out of the house immediately it keeps the baking binge (you know...the just a bite here and the just one more cookie there) to a one day maximum. No leftovers. It's a win-win really.

All I knew is that whatever I made had to be dark chocolate.  I had visions of chocolate cookies so dark they were almost black...just like my Deep Dark Chocolate Cupcakes.

That's when I came across these Dark Chocolate Cherry Cookies.  Just one look and I knew these were the cookies for me.

Deep chocolate cookie.  Dark chocolate chips.  And to spice things up...sour cherries.

To get the super dark look, you need to use Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa powder. 

All cocoa powder is essentially dark chocolate because no milk has been added, but I've found that it's only this brand that provides the extra dark coloring.  

And don't be fooled into thinking it's because it says "dutch processed."  I've read that too.  But after I spent $12 on an imported box of "dutch processed" cocoa from Whole Foods, I learned a valuable...and semi expensive lesson.  For taste, maybe imported is best, but if you want the darkest cookies you need to go with Hershey's.  Plus it'll save you $7.

Cherries are kind of expensive.  If you want to use cranberries they might save you some cash and they're easier to find.

These were pretty tart, especially in contrast to the rich cookie.  Surprisingly, I think that substituting the cherries for cranberries would actually sweeten up the whole ensemble, if tart isn't really your preference.

I splurged and bought the best dark chocolate chips I could find.  I mean, go hard or go home right?  Believe me, it was an utter chore to keep from snacking on these.

Thick delicious batter.  The.  Best.  Chocolate.  Cookie.  Dough.  Ever.

Need.
Tums.

You can't tell me you're not drooling right now.

These turned out so good, I almost didn't want to share.  

But then something came over me and I had to share.  I had to get these into the hands of any person who was willing to give them a try.  And if they weren't, it was suddenly my job to convince them that they were committing a grave mistake.  

This is the type of cookie that ruins people.  Beware. 

I ate one...or several...every day for three days.  Just to see how they would hold up.  :)

The verdict?  Pretty well.  Pretty, darn, well.

Deep Dark Chocolate Cupcakes (★ ★ ★ ★ ☆)

What's more enjoyable than a good chocolate cupcake?

A dark chocolate one.

It doesn't get much better than that right?

Well, actually, it does. These DEEP dark chocolate beauties were THE best chocolate cupcakes...scratch that...chocolate "cake" period...that I've ever had.

One of my high school friends had been bugging me to teach him to bake. By now you have all figured out I'm not afraid to try things...and more often than I like, fail. So when I knew he was coming over I tried to stick to the basics. And what a good decision that was. My main goal was to make everything from scratch. Cake. Frosting. The whole kit and caboodle.

I found this recipe online and it was actually the almost black color of the cake that drew me to it. Little did I know what a great recipe I had stumbled upon. Hershey's Deep Dark Chocolate Cake

My favorite frosting (besides plain ol' whipped cream) is cream cheese. When I found this recipe for chocolate cream cheese frosting I got really excited! Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

The recipe was pretty good. I bought special cocoa powder just like it called for. I think it was all the way from Holland or something like that. Honestly, I couldn't tell the difference. Save yourself the $12.

I had to add a TON of cocoa powder in order for the frosting to taste like chocolate. The cream cheese flavor was just too powerful. I think this recipe would've been better suited for a vanilla cake...actually it would've been amazing. It wasn't bad on the chocolate, but just not the most ideal pairing.

I dropped off some of my extra cupcakes at my friends house and one of her roommates told me it was one of the first cupcakes she had thoroughly enjoyed in a long time.

Definitely my go-to chocolate cake recipe.