Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes = Wonderful!

Last week we were invited to a friend's place for BBQ. We were to not to bring anything but who does that? So, I brought desert. Cupcakes! Chocolate cherry ones to be exact. I needed a recipe to test run making cupcakes for my daughter's birthday party. I have never made cupcakes before. I have made a lot of cakes and what seems like thousands of muffins but nary a cupcake to be seen. I had some beautiful fresh local cherries and felt the urge to use them so I did some googling and figured a chocolate cherry cupcake was the way to go. Really, it was brilliant and I am not only happy with the results but I used the same recipe to make 105 cupcakes for the party.

Anyhoo...I bring to you Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes with Whipped Cream Frosting.



I modified the recipe by using chopped fresh cherries instead of maraschino cherries. (I think I chopped about twenty to make 1/2 cup.) And I used vanilla in my frosting instead of maraschino syrup. Also, I left out the chocolate sauce because of time restraints. Oh yes, and I used fresh cherries as garnish instead of maraschino ones. (Eww. You know they bleach those and add colour and flavour right?)



And just for awesomeness sake, here is a picture Wednesday at her first kiddy table at said BBQ. :D She was so well behaved, she ate all her dinner, played with Sidney, not just with her toys. She gave kisses and hugs and only needed one time out for fence climbing lol. It was a wonderful way to spend three hours. :D



Wednesday is on the left in blue.

The Joy of baking mini-muffins.

I had been craving blueberry muffins like mad a couple weeks ago so I finely buckled down and baked some. Ron had been insisting I make bread so I haven't baked anything to avoid the nagging lol. But when I went to finally make bread I discovered we had no yeast. So, blueberry muffins it was!

My best friend gave me the 75th Anniversary Edition of The Joy of Cooking for my birthday and it is quickly becoming my go to book. With 4500 recipes how could it not? But, on a more related note, I made their basic muffin mix, adding the blueberries and a 1/2 cup sour cream + 1/2 cup plain yogurt in lieu of the cream.

Here is a pic....



Mmmm just look at that cinnamon sugar sprinkle!

I could not find a link to the recipe sorry, you'll just have to read the text.

Basic muffin recipe (mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients)

Preheat oven to 400

Whisk in one bowl.
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Whisk in second bowl.
2 eggs
1 cup milk or cream (I used 1/2 sour cream + 1/2 plain yogurt)
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter softened
1 tsp vanilla (which I totally forgot)

Add the wet to the dry ingredients and stir until just moistened. Add 1 1/2 cups blueberries and again stir until just combined. Do not over mix. batter should NOT be smooth.

Divide batter among muffin cups. (I used mini muffin cups and got 36)

Bake at 400 for 10-12 minutes. (I did my first 24 for 14 minutes because I used frozen blueberries which chilled the batter significantly and the second batch of 12 for 12 minutes.)

If you are doing regular muffins bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes.
If you are baking jumbo muffins bake at 400 22-25 minutes.



WARNING: If you make mini muffins like I did, you may end up eating a dozen before the cool. Just sayin'.