Miniature Devil's Food Cupcakes

As promised last week, here's the recipe from the cupcakes pictured with the chocolate buttercream frosting. The recipe is an adaptation of a recipe from the Chocolate Bliss recipe collection pictured at the right. You can purchase it on Barnes & Noble online or Amazon.

One funny thing about the recipe is that the directions start off with "This one-bowl batter makes dark, moist, cupcakes." The recipe then proceeds to give directions to use small, medium, and large bowls! Ha! So much for "one-bowl batter."

The cupcakes were pretty tasty, but to be honest, I'd just as soon use a Duncan Hines Devil's Food cake mix.

Nonetheless, here's the recipe.

Miniature Devil's Food Cupcakes

Ingredients:
1/4 cup cocoa
1/4 cup boiling water
3 tablespoons buttermilk*
2/3 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
3-1/3 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

*If you don't have buttermilk, add one teaspoon lemon juice to 2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons milk. Stir and let sit five minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line mini-muffin pan with baking cups.

In medium bowl, stir the cocoa and hot water together. Add buttermilk and stir until blended. 

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt.

In a large bowl, beat the butter with an electric mixer. Add sugar and beat until fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually beat in cocoa mixture and flour mixture. (See what I mean about three bowls?)

Using a small cookie scooper, scoop batter in mini muffin cups. Bake 10-15 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan for two minutes. Remove to cooling racks and cool completely before frosting.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Here is a chocolate buttercream frosting recipe that I rather enjoyed. I'll post the recipe for the cupcakes next week.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:
3 oz. unsweetened chocolate
2-1/2 cups powdered sugar
5 tablespoons milk
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla

Melt the chocolate in the microwave. Beat the powdered sugar and milk until smooth. Beat in melted chocolate, butter, salt, and vanilla. If frosting is too thick, add a little more milk. If it is too thin, add a little more powdered sugar.

Homemade Fudge

I think this is the last of the Christmas cookies my friends and I made that I'll be blogging about. We needed something chocolate, and homemade fudge certainly fit the bill. The recipe originally came from allrecipes.com and was called "Aunt Teen's Creamy Chocolate Fudge."

Homemade Fudge

Ingredients:
7 oz. marshmallow creme
1-1/2 cups sugar
2/3 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk chocolate chips
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1 teaspoon vanilla

The original directions called for an 8x8 pan, but we found a 9x9 pan actually worked better. Line your pan with aluminum foil.

In a large saucepan, combine the marshmallow creme, sugar, evaporated milk, butter and salt. Bring to a full boil over medium heat and cook for five minutes, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat and pour in both kinds of chocolate chips. Stir until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Stir in nuts and vanilla. Pour into prepared pan. Chill in refrigerator for two hours or until firm. Cut into bite-size pieces.