…because calling them “Zebra Muffins” would be too much. What my brother wanted, was a simple white and chocolate cake muffin. What I wanted was something with a little twist in outer appearence, yet delicious.
This uffin recipe is probably the most European I have ever tried. It is light, fluffy, not too sweet. This is the thing about European cakes. They make you want more. These muffins make a perfect sweet sunday breakfast with a tall glass of milk an a spoon of nutella.
Our winter holiday here is almost over and afterspending the first 5 days of it in bed with a fever I guess… it is time to relax :D. Therefore the muffins. They possess stimulating force.
Check this one out, chillers
Striped Muffins
(makes 12 muffins)
150 g (1 1/4 cup) flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 pckt. vanilla pudding powder
125 g (1/2 cup + 1 tbsp) sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs
150 g (1 stick + 1 tbsp) butter, softened
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp milk
Preheat oven to 175°C (350°F). Line a muffin pan with paper molds.
Mix flour, baking powder and vanilla pudding powder in a bowl. Set aside.
Put butter, sugar, eggs and dry ingredients into a mixing bowl and beat with mixer until the dough becomes even.
Pour half of the dough into a bowl and set aside. Add cocoa powder and milk to the leftover dough and incorporate these ingredients.
To make striped muffins, place 1 tsp white dough, then dark dough on top in the middle of the muffin molds. Continue like this until the molds are about 2/3 full.
Bake for 25 minutes and then, have a bite :)
Are you already in a Halloween-y mood? I am. Especially every Tuesday, when I have to get up at 6.15 am to be in time for my earliest lesson, which starts at 6.55, before the regular first lessons at school. It is creepy enough to be the only one who wakes up when it is still dark outside, but wandering through my room, afraid that any piece of Latin grammar might jump out of my school bag and confront me with its difficulties makes it even worse.
So… this feeling inspired the design of these cupcakes and tiny cake. I used my oreo muffin recipe for this, because my brother loves it. I put some of the dough into my mini cake pan (11,5 cm = 4,5´´), about the amoungt I use for 3 cupckes. I used half of the ingredients and got out 1 mini cake and 9 muffins in the end.
When the cakes were cooled, I beat about 250 ml (1 cup) heavy cream and added green food coloring. I think this minty green looks ugly enough :P. Then I placed a good amount of the stuff on top of the cupcakes/cake. Covered them messy. Then put some chocolate eyes on top and added crushed oreos or red colour icing. Sweet, isn’t it? And super easy to make. More scary ideas shall follow. :)
Alright, this is the recipe some of you might have been waiting for. As a German/Bulgarian kid, I had never even heard the word ´curd´ four months ago. But now that I tried making it my self using such a great recipe from Java Cupcake, I love it. On her Blog, Betsy shows one possibility for using this curd in cake. It is the filling of two dozen of wonderful chocolat-y muffins, topped with a cream cheese butter cream. The combination is sooo good. :D I made the cupcakes with two friends of mine… and the suitable necklace with a raspberry charm out of polymer clay ;).
Beauty!
You will need some time for making these babies, so please make sure you have no time pressure and you have prepared the Raspberry Curd already.
Raspberry Curd Filled Dark Chocolate Cupcakes
makes about 24 cupcakes
120 ml (1/2) cup strong brewed coffee
120 ml (1/2) cup heavy cream
250 g (2 sticks) unsalted butter
60 g (1/2 cup) cocoa powder of best quality, highest percentage of cocoa you can find
1 tsp vanilla extract
240 g (2 cups) flour
450 g (2 cups) sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
200 g (2/3) cup sour cream
Cream Cheese Frosting
250 g (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
4 tbsp cream cheese, room temperature
60 g (1/2 cup) powdered sugar
80ml (1/3 cup) heavy cream
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup raspberry curd
To prepare the dough, melt the butter in a medium saucepan over low heat. Add the cocoa powder and whisk until smooth. Stir in the heavy cream, coffee and vanilla extract. Let the mixture start to simmer just a little. Remove from heat an let cool.
Preheat the oven to 175°C (350°F). Line muffin pan(s) with paper moulds.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. Set aside until needed. Cream the eggs and sour cream in a seperate medium-sized bowl. SLOWLY add the chocolate mixture to the other wet ingredients. Make sure you are not in a hurry, you must really start with a little amount of liquid and go on adding the rest step by step. Always stir in between, stop pourig the warm liquid inside while doing this.
And now the funny part: Combine the dry and wet ingredients by adding one third of the wet ones to the dry ones, stir, do not overbeat. Repeat the steps with the other two thirds.
Nothing of this yummy dough should be wasted, lol.
Fill the cupcake molds up to 3/4 woth dough and bake for about 17 to 19 minutes. Let cool in the mold for about 5 minutes before taking them out.
To make the frosting, cream together butter and cream cheese. Bring the heavy cream with the vanilla extract to a simmer. Don’t forget whisking. Add powdered sugar and heavy cream to the cream cheese mixture on high speed until light and fluffy. Let the cream chill in the fridge for about 10 minutes.
Cut out a whole in the middle of each cupcake (volume of about one teaspoon) and fill in one teaspoon of raspberry curd. Top with the cut out dough.
Pipe the frosting on top of the cupcakes and decorate with a piece of dark chocolate. Chill for about an hour and serve.
Recipe adapted from Java Cupcake
