Comfort Cupcakes

Remember when I said that I needed to bake when I got home from Florida?  This blizzard we're experiencing provided the perfect motivation (not that I really need any to bake) for something with old-fashioned goodness.  Naturally, chocolate immediately enters my thoughts....and cupcakes are always a treat, since everyone gets their own, personal dessert to unwrap and lick those wrappers, since, well, some of the melted....and still a bit liquid....ganache remains on the cupcake liners as well as your fingers.  

So here's what I baked:

Chocolate Cupcakes with Marshmallow Buttercream Filling and Chocolate Ganache Frosting 

I used Rose Levy Beranbaum's "Perfect All-American Chocolate Butter Cake" recipe from her indispensable cookbook, "The Cake Bible."  The batter includes a cup of butter, eggs, and unsweetened cocoa, and produces the lightest cake result, yet rich enough to satisfy that chocolate urge.

The filling is one I've used in my Whoopie Pies, spooned into a pastry bag, then shot into the tops of the baked and cooled cupcakes.  

Nothing is better than a ganache glaze, so after bittersweet chocolate was melted and whisked with simmered heavy cream and a bit of light corn syrup added for shine, I spooned equal amounts over the tops of the cupcakes. 

(You can see my pot of coffee (Italian Roast) along with my milk frother in the background)

May I say, "Yum?"

Girls' Night

Before cutting....

Once upon a time a group of women gathered together to play that infamous dice game known as, Bunco.  We'd talk, eat, drink, laugh, roll dice, keep score, and exchange gifts.  As time moved on, we realized that the game was getting in the way of valuable gab time, and the better option was to just relax with a few glasses of wine and good food.  We're now Bunco drop-outs, but the laughs and yummy food abound when we're together.  Last night was our Christmas gathering, and I wanted to make a special dessert to bring as my offering.  Looking through my seemingly endless recipe files, I finally decided on Bon Appetit's, December 2009, Peppermint Meringue Cake with Chocolate Buttercream.  We girls love our chocolate, and the peppermint added just the right holiday touch.  The only thing I changed was to make two meringue layers instead of three.  There was no specific reason, I just liked the idea of two chocolate and two meringue layers filled and frosted with the rich ganache-like buttercream.   The recipe can be found on Epicurious at the following link:
Peppermint-Meringue-Cake-with-Chocolate-Buttercream

After...

Banana Nutella Chocolate Cream Tart

The Donna is coming! The Donna is coming!  The tension is palpable....the excitement drawing near....my sister is arriving tomorrow from Marco-la-la-land.  She's unique; we're the same, but different; and I love her.  So naturally, I had to bake a banana something or other for her.  Her birthday was in October and because she'd hit me, I won't give her age away, but I can tell you from my heart, she doesn't look anywhere near her __ years. 

So, here's what I came up with this year for "The Donna," as we like to call her. 

Banana Nutella Chocolate Cream Tart

Chocolate Tart Shell*

2 cups pastry cream OR
1 package 2.75 oz. pkg. vanilla pudding (not instant) made with whole milk and 1 vanilla bean (split in half—seeds scraped into mixture—add bean), chilled until ready to use
4 bananas
1 tablespoon dark rum
½ cup Nutella
1 cup whipped cream (the real deal…not Cool Whip, etc.)

1. Make pastry cream or pudding; chill until ready to use.
2. Make Chocolate Tart Shell; cool
3. Spread Nutella carefully, on the bottom of the cooled tart shell.
4. Fold whipped cream into pastry/pudding.
5. Slice bananas; add rum; toss to coat; add to pudding/whipped cream.
6. Spoon banana/cream mixture over Nutella.
Chill, covered, until ready to serve:  (I'd assemble this right before serving)
7. If desired, (and I highly suggest it), follow my recipe for the "fostered" bananas in my October's posting for Rum Roasted Banana Bread (as much or as little as desired) and when ready to serve the tart, spoon the bananas in the Foster sauce over each serving.  You'll thank me. 

*Chocolate Tart Shell
1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
8 tablespoons butter, chilled
2 tablespoons shortening
2-3 tablespoons ice water

In a food processor, combine flour, sugar, and salt. Pulse to blend. Add butter, cut into pieces, and shortening; pulse again until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add water and blend just until dough holds together; do not over mix.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Press into greased 9-inch tart pan, pushing mixture up sides. Chill for ½ an hour. Pierce holes around tart with tines of fork; bake for 18 minutes or until tart shell has no more moisture on surface.
Cool completely on rack.

Seven-Minute Frosting

The Coconut Cream Cake with Seven-Minute Frosting that I baked for my company this weekend was luscious......but it is the frosting that appeals to me more than the actual cake. It's sweet without being sickening, it's creamy which is always desired in a dessert, and it melts in your mouth without having a heavy feeling.....leaving the consumer desiring more. Yum. The next 7-minute frosting I make will fill and frost a dark chocolate cake. One that will hint at a bittersweet chocolate glaze on each of its 3 or 4 layers; then layered with coconut 7-minute filling; and frosted with plain and simple 7-minute frosting. Reminiscent of the Mounds Bar. Now all I need is a palm tree.