Chocolate Cupcakes, White Chocolate Icing

The chocolate cupcakes

For the wedding I decided to do a twist on the chocolate cupcake – a chocolate cupcake with a white chocolate icing (who doesn’t love chocolate on more chocolate). For the cupcakes I used a one bowl chocolate cupcake recipe from iheartcuppycakes. I adapted the recipe for the icing from Cupcakes take the Cake

Chocolate Cupcakes:

Ingredients:
1 ½ cup flour
¾ cup cocoa powder
1 ½ cup sugar
1 ½ tsp baking soda
¾ tsp baking powder
2 large eggs
¾ cup milk
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 ½ tsp oil
¾ cup warm water

Directions:
1.Preheat the oven to 350F and prepare your cupcake pan (this recipe doesn’t take long to put together).
2.On medium speed of an electric mixture (or by hand) combine flour, cocoa, sugar baking soda, baking powder in a bowl.
3.Reduce the speed and add in the eggs, milk, oil, vanilla and water. Mix until combined.
4.Fill cupcake liners ½ to 2/3 full (I put about ¼ cup cup of batter, not scraping out what sticks in the cup) into a large cupcake liner and this works well.
5.Bake 17-20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
6.Let cool on a wire rack before icing.

White Chocolate Frosting:

Ingredients:
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
5 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
4 - 5 ounces white chocolate, melted and cooled to tepid
1/3 cup milk, heated to tepid
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Directions:
1.In a bowl beat the butter for 1 -2 minutes (works best with the paddle attachment of an electric stand mixer on medium speed).
2.Beat in 1 1/3 cup sugar.
3.Mix in the melted chocolate.
4.Blend in 1 1/3 cup of sugar and the milk.
5.Beat for 2 minutes on medium high speed.
6.Beat in the vanilla and 1 1/3 cup of sugar.
7.Beat for 2 minutes and check the consistency – if it is not thick enough (mine was not) add the remaining icing sugar ¼ cup at a time until it reaches the desired consistency.
8.Frost cupcakes.

Reviews:

These cupcakes were delicious and were a big hit at the wedding (especially with the kids!)

I used the leftover icing to fill some chocolate oreo cookies and they were fantastic!

Cupcakes and a Wedding

So the last few weeks I have been busy making cupcakes, testing icings to see how they stand up to the heat without losing it's shape (or melting all together). Why all the testing and baking? Well in a moment of insanity I offered to bake the cupcakes for my friends wedding. Why on earth did I think that was a good I deal, well I guess I will never know. But I ended up making about 100 cupcakes, icing them, transporting them 1.5 hours to the wedding, and setting them up before driving another 20 minutes to try and make the ceremony in time! Thankfully I got there in time, the icing didn't melt and nothing was destroyed in transport.



I ended up making a chocolate cupcake with a white chocolate icing and a vanilla bean cupcake with a strawberry buttercream icing. They were pretty, and held up well. Everyone seemed to enjoy them.



So I hope you enjoy the pictures and I will hopefully get the recipes up soon!

Pheasant Quilt

So sorry for the delay in getting this up (it has been done for a few weeks, and is residing in my parents living room now). I will get to the reason for the day in the next post (I promise I have a reason!).

Anyways, I got the quilt for my Dad done (albeit a little after father's day). He loves it and it goes well with the chair. Oh, and he had to try it out as soon as it arrived, despite the fact that it was the end of June and in the 20s (that is C) outside.



The quilting projects seem to be piling up quicker than I can get them done. I have a sock monkey quilt that will be finished in a couple weeks (just waiting to get the time to do the binding), doll quilts for some of my cousins, a quilt for my mother (fabric is on the way) and some small projects for a friend of mine. I can't wait!