Kit-Kat Cupcakes

I’m not dead.
I’m not dead, but my eating habits sort of are. You know, I’m having a tough time right now, not eating regularly, because I am a slave of my stupid eating-disordered brain.
I had this diet week in February which was Detox, and somehow it made my body gain weight, although I ate less than what the diet plan told me and from that point on I have gained and lost weight and definitely lost my mind on food. But I still love baking – combining flavours, mixing ingredients together and decorating sweets makes me really really happy. But you must excuse that I cannot bake so often – I kind of lost my appetite – craving food is something uncommon for me these days.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Very British? Hell, no.

Last week I was on a trip to England. Together with a group of people from school, we visited Hastings, Brighton and London. I thought it would be quite interesting for you to see what we ate there, as the British kitchen is known as very special. The truth is, we tried lots of yummy things and I do not want you to miss any of them.

The first day we spent a couple of hours in Hastings, where we ha lunch. After a long night travelling by bus, we were quite hungry and not in the mood to search for food for very long. Luckily, there was a mid-eastern restaurant near the place where we stopped.
I do not eat meat and had therefore few things to choose from, but was pretty happy with this rice and bean soup portion. It was tasty and a pretty big amount of food, I could not eat it all.

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The second day, we were in London. Our little trip to borough market was an awesome idea, they offered fresh falafel wraps there, which were prepared to your taste in front of your eyes. Very good thing.

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But now wait, here comes the most fabulous thing about borough market: desserts. A few meters awaf from the falafel wraps, I found myself in a sweet heaven.

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This stall ofered different cakes, including chewy-gooey brownies.

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Here was a stall with various kinds of fudge and honeycomb in chocolate. I bought some raspberry chocolate fudge. It was veeeeeery sweet but so good.

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This stall offered French pastries. They all looked gorgeous, but I decided on macarons. I must honestly admit, they were a little too dry and sugary to my taste, but the chocolate filling of the brown one tasted like heaven.

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One merchant offered sweets from Turkey. I was impressed by the different kinds of baklava, which increased my urge to bake it myself.

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In Brighton, the town we stayed overnight, we found a Moo Moo’s. This sweet brand sells some really good milkshakes. I one with strawberries. I really liked the thick consistency, caused by loads of white vanilla ice cream. The oreo version you can see above is the right thing for cookies & cream freaks. In Brighton, we also tried fish & chips, traditional British food, they call it. I did not take a picture. I did not eat it all. And I will tell you why: I am a tolerant person and open minded to other cultures. But if you care a little about your heart, be careful with this. Forget about McDonald’s, forget about Burger King. This was a real bomb of fat. Maybe we stopped by at the wrong snack bar or there was a problem with the deep-fryer, no idea.

The last day of our stay, we were in London again and we visited Camden Town. This was our best decision! This part of London is a whole piece of art and there will be a post on my other blog about it. But here you can get to know the food. What’s Camden Town like? Imagine the whole world, assembled at one place. There is Indian, Thai, Italian, Japanese, Mexican, American food. Merchants reach their handy out from every stall, offering foretastes to the people passing by. Every few metres you smell different spices and ingredients. It is simply stunning. Bang bang chicken, anyone?

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You could sit down one a moped seat by a small river and have your meal.

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I had Indian samosas and Thai vegetables. Both things tasted great. I hope I will get to know some good Thai recipes on my trip next week.

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Of course, there were classics and fancy food. Last Christmas I saw journalists of BBC calling fried mars the most disgusting food in the world. I can’t judge that, I did not try it.
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And of course, there was a variety of dessert – for cheap prices.

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Give me loads of money and a few hours, and I will return roud as a ball.

All in all I can say – eating in England is an adventure. If you go on a trip there – be open-mided and try different things, it will be worth the experience.

Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes

Hey guys. A lot has been going on these days, so it was quite tricky for me to document my baking recently… Hope you don’t mind!

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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.

Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes

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.

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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.