But today I am going to share a couple new dessert recipes with you! I've done a lot, or a ton, of baking in the past few weeks. The first was for the "Spring Forward" party at work. You see, our night shift crew signed up to work the time change shift, 13 hours. So to get us through, we planned a party! And all the babies behaved themselves during that special hour :) It was grand! This was our spread --->
The recipe I'm going to share is for those cupcakes in the corner. I've been wanting to try out mocha frosting for a while after my friend Tori, the icing queen, taught me the secret to perfect mocha icing. In my quest to try the icing, I discovered what I think will be my "go-to" chocolate cupcake recipe. It's delicious. And easy. And homemade. And includes buttermilk. Everything I need.
Best Chocolate Cupcakes
- 1/2 C unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 C sugar
- 1/3 c vegetable oil
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 3/4 C buttermilk
- 1/2 C semisweet chocolate chips
1. Preheat oven to 350*. Line muffin pan with paper liners.
2. In a small bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, oil, egg, and vanilla until smooth. Alternately whisk in flour mixture and two of buttermilk, beating until batter is smooth. Stir in chocolate chips.
4. Scoop batter into prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven for 22-27 minutes, or until tops of cupcakes spring back when lightly touched.
5. Let cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool completely on rack. Top with frosting.
**The secret to the mocha frosting is to dissolve a 1/2-1 tsp espresso powder in water until paste forms. Then mix into your favorite buttercream recipe. Here is mine.
Over St. Patrick's Day weekend, our student ministry had their Beach Weekend retreat. I volunteered to do a little baking. Which turned into a lot of baking. Desserts for all our meals and our ice cream sundae bar- for 100 students and leaders. Challenge accepted. I won't share every recipe, but I do have some new favorites! There were chocolate chip cookies, butterscotch oatmeal cookie bars, chocolate chip pound cake, peanut butter cookies (1 C peanut butter, 1 C sugar, 1 egg- 350 for 8 minutes- that easy), Andes mint brownies, and snickerdoodles, rolled in green cinnamon sugar of course!
I made a special little something for my girls- Green Velvet Cake Truffles! They were fun, a little messy, but super cute! And once again, I found a new favorite Velvet cake recipe- which starts with a cake mix! As much as I would rather start from scratch- this recipe makes some of the best I've tasted!
Green (Red) Velvet Cake
- 1 box white cake mix
| Cupcakes I made from leftover batter |
- 3 Tbs oil
- 1 1/4 C water
- 2 Tbs cocoa powder
- green or red food coloring
1. Prepare cake with mix, eggs, oil, water, and cocoa powder. Stir the food coloring into the batter until fully combined. Pour batter into greased 9x13 in baking pan and follow package directions on baking cake. Cool completely.
For truffles - 1 can cream cheese frosting
- 1 pkg white Almond Bark
2. Once cake is cooled, crumble into a large bowl. Add the cream cheese frosting and mix well. (With hands works best!)
3. After mixing, form mixture into small balls with hands. Place on a cookie sheet and chill for several hours or freeze to speed up the process.
4. Microwave the bark according to package directions. Dip the cake balls into the melted chocolate bark, covering completely. Place coated cake balls onto a wax-paper lined baking sheet. Sprinkle with colored sprinkles and let harden.
Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of these but they were yummy!
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