Chocolate Cupcakes on a lazy Sunday evening!

A few weeks back, on a rare occasion, all of the grown children of my household were home (barring 1 girlfriend - T-bear, you were missed terribly!!). This sort of thing never happens as we're all in our 20s and usually all over the place. My brother is typically at school somewhere in the US, my step-sister in past years has been at school in Kingston, and I'm just all over the place. Needless to say this was a big deal!

While we were prepping dinner and catching up on what was going on with everyone, my step-sister mentioned that she had a craving for a simple chocolate cake with plain chocolate frosting. Apparently this is hard to come by which I find to be insanity! How can no one make just simple chocolate cake with chocolate frosting any more? Have we really become so entertained by all of the crazy cake flavours out there that we've forgotten that sometimes the simplest things are the best? Before I go off on a huge tangent about simplicity in the kitchen, I digress!

So to help the poor girl out in her quest for chocolate cake, I decided to whip up a batch of Martha Stewart's One Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes. I was fascinated by the claim of these actually only using one bowl and truth be told, it worked... Well... one bowl and one sifter but still! This batter takes all of 5 minutes to mix and produces results comparable to cake mix without all the added grossness that goes into mixes. The ingredients were all found in my kitchen and I think it's safe to say that they would be found in most other kitchens too. I cannot stress this enough... GO MAKE THESE CUPCAKES! You will not regret it one single bit! 

These little beauties have the most gorgeous shiny tops ever. They are good enough to eat sans frosting even!

The cupcake liners don't hurt either! You can never go wrong with polka dots!

Once we had the cupcakes made, it was time to frost these babies up with a simple chocolate frosting. My frosting was made with butter, icing sugar, a few tablespoons of cocoa powder, some vanilla bean paste (or you could use vanilla extract) and a touch of milk. I know that usually I am religious at piping my frosting but sometimes you have to live a little and just do what feels right. These were not cupcakes for an order, they were cupcakes for a family dinner in the backyard while playing (slightly intoxicated) ring toss on a 6 foot tall Eiffel tower.

All I can say is YUMMMMMM! Now, I think the best part about these is that they were enjoyed by all. Exhibit 1 is a montage of my brother, Brandon, devouring his cupcake!!! I can't help but laughing at his facial expressions! 

We had some strawberry buttercream frosting left from this post and we managed to make little cupcake sandwiches that were devoured as well! Even our cat, Mo, had some!

So next time your family is over and someone is craving some simple chocolatey deliciousness, promise, promise, promise me that you will give these a try! Pinky promise!!!! 

I hope you are all enjoying a wonderful weekend now that the rain has finally stopped! 

Happy weekend-ing and happy baking! 

t
xoxo

Buttermilk Apple Muffins..from a while ago!

I don't actually want to acknowledge how long I've been partially writing this post. Let's just say that my apples were purchased in the fall and the muffins were baked then too!!! Ah well, better late than never! 

I know that I've mentioned before that I adore apples! I think they're fantastic and when they are in season, they make my life better! The only thing that made apples better was spending the day with this little bugger while hunting for perfect pumpkins and buying apples too:

 

This is my youngest brother Jordan! He was vital in helping me find just the right apples for these delicious muffins. This kid was a trooper as we hiked through the pumpkin patch and froze our buns off trying to find perfect pumpkins. It was a day of broken pumpkins and cold weather but we had so much fun! Anywhoo, back to the muffins!

The 20 Minute Supper Club, which is now owned and operated by Canadian Family, still has some of the best recipes that I've seen both for meals as well as snacks. I decided to try their recipe for Buttermilk Apple Cake but I decided to make them as Buttermilk Apple muffins instead. I'm a big fan of muffins for breakfast or a snack and even more if they're fruit filled. These muffins fit the bill all around. 

Gorgeous, heavenly apples

The filling for between the layers of dough.

The recipe calls for leaving the skin on... I will next time but I peeled most of mine this time around. So there was slightly less fiber in these than the recipe calls for.

I love all of the good bits in the batter - flax, whole wheat flour and buttermilk. Be sure not to overmix the batter!

Fill the muffin cups half way, add some of the brown sugar topping, and then add another dollop of batter on top!

These muffins aren't overly sweet but the apples help make them delicious!!!

I found that this recipe makes 12 muffins which is just perfect. I also think next time I'll add more apples. 

Buttermilk Apple Cake

adapted from Canadian Family's Buttermilk Apple Cake recipe

Ingredients

1/4 Cups butter, softened

2/3 Cups packed brown sugar

1 1/2 Cups buttermilk

1 Cup all-purpose flour

1 Cup whole-wheat flour

1 tablespoon flaxseed meal

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoons salt

6 apples, finely chopped (leave skin on for more fibre) - I used macintosh apples

1/4 Cups packed brown sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

 

1. In a large bowl, beat together butter and sugar until combined. Beat in buttermilk.
2. In another bowl, combine flours, flax, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt. Add to buttermilk mixture and stir well. Add apples and mix until combined. Fill each lined muffin cup just slightly less than halfway with the batter.
3. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle onto batter in each muffin cup. Top each muffin with a dollop of remaining batter.
4. Bake at 350°F for about 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean. Let cool in pan.

Happy Baking Everyone!!!

t

Mushroom Turnovers & a Busy Weekend

I truly can't believe how quickly this past weekend flew by. I look forward to being able to just relax and veg for a bit and unfortunately this was not one of those weekends. However, it was full of adventures all around that made it all worth it.

Friday night was spent with my baby brother, Jordan, who will very politely and proudly tell you that he is "5 and three quarter years old". We had a sibling sleepover which was full of mac'n'cheese (Mrs. K's recipe) and movies and snuggles all around. Honestly, how cute is he!!??!?

Then, on Saturday morning we headed to Andrew's Scenic Acres to pick out some pumpkins. I learned the hard way that when going to get pumpkins at the patch, bring more than on adult because almost 6 year old children do NOT like to help carry pumpkins. That being said, we did have quite the adventure :)

After our patch adventure, there was some serious pumpkin carving (photos to follow) and then I headed off to the Delicious Food Show at the Better Living Centre in Toronto. I promise there will be an entire post about it within the next few days.

On Sunday, our family got together to remember my Grandfather (my Dido) since it's been a year since he passed away.

Baba, Dido and I in early 1989

We had a lovely lunch together and I whipped up some mushroom turnovers to bring over to Baba's house. I'm sorry to say that I didn't take any process pictures but the end result was delightful.

Here's the quick rundown of how I made them.

• Bring your puff pastry to room temperature (frozen puff pastry makes this RIDICULOUSLY hard to say the least). 
• Slice 1 pint of mushrooms
• Melt 1 tbsp of oil and 1 tbsp of butter in a saute pan and add 1 small onion and 1 clove of finely chopped garlic. Cook on medium heat until softened. Add 1 tsp of fresh thyme leaves. 
• Stir in 3 tbsp of marsala wine and 1 tsp of maple syrup. 
• Add the sliced mushrooms and 1/4 tsp of salt. Saute until the mushrooms are soft and cooked through. 
• Stir in 3 tbsp of heavy (35%) cream and cook until a thick sauce is made. 
• Roll out your puff pastry into a 9 x 13 rectangle. Cut the rectangle into 12 square-ish rectangles. 
• Add one spoonful of filling to the middle and fold the square in half and pinch the edges. 
• Place on a baking sheet and brush with a beaten egg. 
• Bake at 400F for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. 

Ta-Da!

 

Look at the delicious layers of pastry!

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend and that it was slightly more relaxed than mine.

Happy cooking!

t