The polls are now open! I’d really appreciate your vote for the Iron Cupcake Earth Chocolate challenge. Every vote equals more chances for me to win awesome cupcake related prizes! Thanks so much for the support!
You can vote for 3 cupcake creations maximum. Mine are:
The Baking Bird I, The Baking Bird II, and The Baking Bird III. Poll is located on the right hand side of the screen on this website:
More chocolate variations on a cupcake! And this time, it’s holiday themed and pepperminty all over. Delicious and in spirit! I kind of experimented with these ones by placing a nice, big marshmallow in the center of the cupcakes before I placed them in the oven. The result: a marshmallow gooey mess of a volcano erupting out of the center and then later a crater that sunk the cupcakes down as they cooled. But it was yummy! A little surprise of marshmallowey goodness at the end. The frosting had a nice little hint and touch of creme de menthe, which also added a nice light green Christmasy tinge. I chopped up some peppermint bark and sprinkled it on top along with some green sprinkles. I’m submitting these to the Baking Bites Holiday Cupcake Contest and possibly to the Iron Cupcake contest, as well. Wish me luck!
INGREDIENTS for the cake portion:
1 cup chocolate soymilk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon chocolate extract (and/or peppermint if you have it)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line muffin pans with paper or foil liners.
2. Whisk together the chocolate soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl and set aside to curdle. Meanwhile, mix your dry ingredients in a separate bowl while you let that curdle — sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Then go back to your soy milk/vinegar mixture and add the sugar, oil, vanilla extract, and chocolate extract. Mix and beat until foamy. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and beat until no large lumps remain.
3. Pour into liners, filling 3/4 of the way. Place marshmallows in the center. Bake 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.
This one took me a while to get along to doing. I joined Iron Cupcake several months ago as it first started out, but didn’t have any time to participate! This month, I made myself do it. I mean, chocolate?!? Are you kidding me? That’s the best opportunity to make up a cupcake variation on chocolate for goodness sakes. I thought up so many different combinations it was hard to choose. I knew I wanted to do something with the lavender sugar I had sitting around just waiting to be used. Lavender would be incorporated into the chocolate cake part, and what to do with the frosting? I thought of using a type of dried fruit but nothing clearly popped out. With the help of discussing it with a few fabulous bakers I know, I settled on a orange and lemon zest vanilla frosting. It was superb. I topped each cupcake with dried lavender buds, shavings of orange chocolate, and orange and lemon zest. I was quite pleased with these. Lavender and chocolate are a GREAT combination (try making some lavender hot chocolate! and lavender chocolate ice cream is also quite divine…), but it was hard for me to distinctly taste the lavender because it was so mild. But I suppose that’s a good thing.
In a small bowl, cream the shortening and margarine until well combined. Add the confectioners’ sugar in roughly 1/2-cup additions. After each addition of sugar, add a splash of orange juice and other liquids and beat will with a handheld mixer on medium speed. Add vanilla and zests and beat for a few more minutes until smooth, creamy, and fluffy. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use.
Note as of 12/9/08: I am also submitting this recipe to Iron Cupcake Earth Challenge: Chocolate for the month of December 2008, in addition to a few others. Please vote for me at No One Puts Cupcake in a Corner starting Monday, December 29th at 8PM (open through Friday, January 2nd at 12PM)! I will be posting a few other cupcake recipes, so vote for those as well. The more votes I receive, the greater the chance I have at winning awesome cupcake related prizes! Thanks!
From the looks of it, I’m assuming they’re new since I can’t find them ANYWHERE online. A few weeks ago as I was walking through New Leaf scanning the isles, these caught my eye out of nowhere. I gasped. NEWMANS?!?! PEANUT BUTTER OREOS?!?!?!?! I about died. Yeah, and the best thing about it was that I snagged the LAST PACKAGE (well, I would have hoarded a few more packages if possible but that’s okay, at least I got lucky). And they were on sale for $1.99. Without a second thought I immediately knew what I’d be doing those babies–making chocolate peanut butter oreo vegan cupcakes, of course!
1/4 cup margarine, softened
1/4 shortening (I prefer organic which has no partially hydrogenated oils)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (sifted if there are clumps)
2 & 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
3 tablespoons soy milk (chocolate preferably)
1 & 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Cream together margarine and shortening until well combined. Add the cocoa powder and incorporate well. Add the confectioners sugar in about 1/2 cup batches and beat well (to avoid dusting your kitchen), adding a little splash of soymilk after each addition. When all ingredients have been well incorporated, add the vanilla and beat until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes with a hand mixer, 7 minutes if mixing with a fork). Stir in the chopped oreos.
I couldn’t resist sharing a little non-culinary creativity since I feel pretty puffed up with myself for finally making my own set of earrings from beer bottle caps. And yes, of course, they are from the Hitachino Nest Beer that I’ve been obsessed with for quite some time now. So far, I’ve only opened two bottles, hence why I didn’t go on to make a necklace (which I intend to do in the near future). These were so simple and easy to make. One trip to the craft store, $1.19 later, and a little bending and twisting of some wires, wah-lah! I had my own pair of owl bottle cap earrings.
