Still, I bake for special occasions and I enjoy every second of it, for example these cute mini cupcakes I made to garnish a friend’s present with some sweet delight.

Their name sounds like a tongue twister if you say it out loud and if you repeat it quite a few times, it will blow your mind, just like their taste. Putting kitkat pieces in brownie batter was definitely not my worst idea.

To top the whole thing and underline the hazelnut taste in the candy bar, I put some whipped cream with nutella on top. The Kit-kat piece stuck in the cupcake is just one ore feature to make the delight more intense. So if you have a good friend whose birthday is near or if you just crave something both creamy and chocolatey, you might very well consider this recipe.

Kit-kat Cupcakes

(makes about 30 cupcakes)

225 g (2 sticks) butter
300 g (1 1/3 cup) sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs
85 g (3/4 cup) dark cocoa powder
120 g (1 cup) flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
8 mini Kit-kat bars

Topping:

250 ml heavy cream
2 heaped tbsp nutella or any other nougat cream
5 mini Kit-kat bars

Preheat oven to 175°C (350°F). Cut the Kit-kat bars into chunks and set them aside.
Melt the butter in a microwave. Combine with sugar. Add the eggs one at a time and stir in vanilla. Sift together all dry ingredients and stir them in. At the end, put in the Kit-kat chunks. Line a muffin mold with cups and fill with dough up to 2/3. After about 18 minutes you will have cute mini cupcakes waiting for decoration. Let them babies cool properly.

Beat the heavy cream until stiff and finally stir in the nutella. Place about 1 tsp of topping on each mini cupcake.
Now cut each Kit-kat single bar into half and stick the halves inside the cupcakes, so they stand upright.

Et voilà, adorable sweetness.

Bananas and chocolate are known for their ability to make people happy, especially in combination.

I found this recipe about 2 years ago and loved it ever since. It is from a German Chefkoch user, which explains why it contains quite a lot baking powder and few sugar. But trust me, you won’t miss any sweetness (especially if you put a chocolate glaze on top). I threw in some nutella and baked the originally one-dish recipe in muffin molds, which made exactly 12 cute buddies.

They make a perfect snack if you have lots to learn, as they strenghten both your nerves and your concentration.

Banana Choc Muffins

125 g butter or margarine
130 g sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 pinch of salt
2 eggs
200 g flour
1 pck. instand vanilla pudding powder
4 tsp. baking powder
1 tbsp. milk
3 tbsp ground hazelnuts
2 ripe bananas, cut into small cubes
2 tbsp nutella

100 g semi-sweet chocolate

Preteat the oven to 175°C (350°F). Line a muffin pan with paper molds.

Stir together the butter, sugar, vanilla, salt, eggs, flour, pudding powder, nutella and baking powder until the mass is smooth.

Stir in the nuts, milk and banana with a spoon.

Fill the muffin molds up to 3/4 and bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpicker comes out clean. Let them babies cool.

Melt the chocolate in the microwave or over a water bath and pour over the muffins.

Serve and enjoy.

My bf’s mother made cassis jam. Yippie! This sweet and refreshingly sour treat is just the right thing to nash on during summer.

I was inspired by its taste and the fresh red fruit, I found in a nearby supermarket. The last week of school, my class had a big breakfast together and I wanted to bring something handy. So I thought of whoopie pies.

Pretty chocolate dough, filled with a light cassis buttercream, drizzled with white chocolate, topped with a red berry.

Voilà! They were done easily and quickly, a lot faster than I had expected.

Chocolate Cassis Whoopie Pies

(makes about 25 whoopie pies)

chocolate cakes:

175 g (1 1/2 cups) all-purpose flour
50 g (3/8 cup) dark cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
125 g (1/2 cup – 4 oz) unsalted butter, room temperature
175 g (7/8 cup – 6 oz) white sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract or seeds from 1 vanilla bean
3 large eggs, room temperature
80 ml (1/3 cup) whipping cream, room temperature

frosting:

75 g (1/3 cup) butter
150 g (5 oz.) cream cheese
6 tbsp cassis jam – or to taste

Preheat the oven to 175° C (350° F). Line two sheets with parchment paper.

Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt in a medium-sized bowl. Set aside until needed.

In another bowl, cream together the butter and sugar, until fluffy and white. Add vanilla. Add one egg at a time and whisk in between until fully incorporated. Now add the dry ingredients while you continue to mix. Stir in the whipping cream. Do not overbeat.

Fill the dough into a piping bag and pipe circles of about 3 cm diameter onto the parchment paper, then bake for about 10 minutes until the dough has set. Remove from the paper and let cool.

Prepare the cream by melting the butter in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Cream with cream cheese and jam.

Find 2 equal pies and put the cream on top of one with a spoon or using a piping bag. Place the second pie half on top and squeese slightly.

Decorate with melted chocolate and fresh cassis. Enjoy cooled.

It has been quite hot the last few days here and I was not brave enough to stand next to the oven very often, waiting for hot treats to come out. Anyway, no one wanted to eat the chocolate cake I planned doing (because I always love chocolate cake, no matter the temperature). Which was kind of depressing and I had to find a way to make my cake more attractive. The answer was fruit! I threw a good 150 g (5 oz.) of fresh raspberries into a brownie batter and it turned out very good.

I even decided to bring these brownie cupcakes as a gift for a little sweet baby boy.

These animals on top made of icing are marvellous, aren’t they?

Hope to be able to come back soon with a new recipe!

THere has been the day of youth dedication ceremonies in town and I was involved with a baking contingent. As always I asked for wishes – and they said chocolate. Chocolate cupcakes, chocolate frosting. Not too heavy. I was so glad I could try a combination I had been waiting for so long: brownie cupcakes with nougat frosting. And I can tell you, the stuff turned out to be double chocolaty and double tasty.

Both components – the bater and the buttercream – have already introduced on this blog, but I guess it is easier for you to have them both on one page if you want to make these babies.

I advise you to put the cupcakes in the refridgerator for at least 2 hours after piping the frosting on top, because the cream needs some time to set and gets a better consistence after cooled down. And one more thing: plan enoutg time for making these, as the cream and the cakes mustn’t be warm anymore before put together.

Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes

(makes about 2 dozen cupcakes)

300 g (3 sticks) butter
450 g (2 2/3 cup) sugar
3 tsp vanilla extract
6 eggs
125 g (1 1/8 cup) dark cocoa powder
180 g (1 1/2 cup) flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

found at my baking addiction

Preheat oven to 175°C (350°F). Melt the butter in a microwave. Combine with sugar. Add the eggs one at a time and stir in vanilla. Sift together all dry ingredients and stir them in. Line a muffin mold with cups and fill with dough up to 2/3. After 35 minutes you will have sweet, flat cupcakes, waiting for decoration. Let them cool completely.

20 g (2/3 oz.) corn starch
2 egg yolks
50 g (1/4 cup) sugar
300 ml (1 1/4 cup) milk
250 g (2 sticks) butter
100 g (3 oz.) nougat, melted
50 g (1 2/3 oz.) semi-sweet chocolate, melted

found at Chefkoch.de

Mix 50 ml (5 tbsp.) of the milk with corn starch. Add egg yolks and sugar and mix well. Heat the remaining milk until it starts to boil. Slowly add the egg mixture and stir until the cream thickens.

Cream the butter in a seperate bowl. Incorporate in cream.

Melt nougat and chocolate over a water bath, then incorporate as well.

Chill at least for 1 1/2 hours in the refridgerator. Then pipe on top of the cucakes and decorate. Cool the cupcakes for two more hours.