And if you didn't already think I was obsessed...
...allow me to introduce: chocolate square cupcakes!
For whatever reason, this year I've been doing a lot of birthday related activities for myself. I don't know if it's because my mother's been reminding me for months that my birthday is coming up, or if this is a special birthday to me because the age I am turning is my childhood favorite number...but from an objective standpoint, I'm not sure why I am anticipating my birthday more this year than in the last two years where I've had my zodiac year as well as significant-fraction-of-a-century birthdays.
But in any case, I've already made birthday cupcakes for a joint birthday lunch at lab, almost two weeks before my actual birthday, and I'm making grandiose plans to make a fancy celebration cake from my recently-acquired copy of Baking: From my home to yours for my upcoming birthday party.
For the birthday cupcakes, I called up my fancy-cake-making little sister and asked her what she'd recommend for a good chocolate cake recipe for cupcakes (we both love to bake but she's a fancy pants and likes to make cupcakes and tall layer cakes and all those little flowers and other decorations I'm waaaay too lazy to make--thus my preference for making rustic non-iced muffins and cookies!). She pointed me to the Barefoot Contessa's Beatty's Chocolate Cake as her go-to chocolate cake for everything, including cupcakes!
This recipe nicely made about 28 cupcakes, although the top edges didn't keep the square form very well because the batter was too thin and moist. Definitely do not overfill cupcake pans or round cake pans (use 9" diameter pans instead of the recipe's 8" diameter, or else you'll get major lava overflow while baking).
And in true debakingpsycho-obsessive form, of course these cupcakes had to be square. (p.s. Round cupcake liners fit very well into my square muffin pans; you just have to press them into the corners of each cup, but they stayed in place very well once bent into shape.)
Paired with either the Creamy Vanilla Icing, or my mother's chocolate cream cheese icing, words cannot express how easy it was to inhale these cupcakes. Super moist, dark and chocolatey, with a lightly sweet icing to bring out the full flavor of the cupcake (the inherent flavor of these cupcakes are pretty "meh" without icing--you really must have an icing on them).
And!--the square shape of these cupcakes allows you get a firmer grip on them as you proceed to shove them into your mouth. No escaping now, Mr. cupcake! Mua hahaha....
Stay tuned for my big birthday cake! I am planning to make a fancy multi-layered cake that has chocolate pastry cream and white chocolate whipped cream fillings...and if you've been reading my blog awhile, you'll know that I just might have to spike the cake with some sort of liqueur...
For whatever reason, this year I've been doing a lot of birthday related activities for myself. I don't know if it's because my mother's been reminding me for months that my birthday is coming up, or if this is a special birthday to me because the age I am turning is my childhood favorite number...but from an objective standpoint, I'm not sure why I am anticipating my birthday more this year than in the last two years where I've had my zodiac year as well as significant-fraction-of-a-century birthdays.
But in any case, I've already made birthday cupcakes for a joint birthday lunch at lab, almost two weeks before my actual birthday, and I'm making grandiose plans to make a fancy celebration cake from my recently-acquired copy of Baking: From my home to yours for my upcoming birthday party.
For the birthday cupcakes, I called up my fancy-cake-making little sister and asked her what she'd recommend for a good chocolate cake recipe for cupcakes (we both love to bake but she's a fancy pants and likes to make cupcakes and tall layer cakes and all those little flowers and other decorations I'm waaaay too lazy to make--thus my preference for making rustic non-iced muffins and cookies!). She pointed me to the Barefoot Contessa's Beatty's Chocolate Cake as her go-to chocolate cake for everything, including cupcakes!
This recipe nicely made about 28 cupcakes, although the top edges didn't keep the square form very well because the batter was too thin and moist. Definitely do not overfill cupcake pans or round cake pans (use 9" diameter pans instead of the recipe's 8" diameter, or else you'll get major lava overflow while baking).
And in true debakingpsycho-obsessive form, of course these cupcakes had to be square. (p.s. Round cupcake liners fit very well into my square muffin pans; you just have to press them into the corners of each cup, but they stayed in place very well once bent into shape.)
Paired with either the Creamy Vanilla Icing, or my mother's chocolate cream cheese icing, words cannot express how easy it was to inhale these cupcakes. Super moist, dark and chocolatey, with a lightly sweet icing to bring out the full flavor of the cupcake (the inherent flavor of these cupcakes are pretty "meh" without icing--you really must have an icing on them).
And!--the square shape of these cupcakes allows you get a firmer grip on them as you proceed to shove them into your mouth. No escaping now, Mr. cupcake! Mua hahaha....
Stay tuned for my big birthday cake! I am planning to make a fancy multi-layered cake that has chocolate pastry cream and white chocolate whipped cream fillings...and if you've been reading my blog awhile, you'll know that I just might have to spike the cake with some sort of liqueur...
i wouldn't call my cakes "fancy"....just nicely decorated =P great, now i want to bake, but i have to go to work. happy with yourself??
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