Mocha Cupcakes - Elizabeth

I think I'm going to be into making mini cupcakes for awhile here... Hope no one minds. ;)

These mocha cupcakes are pretty good. We had run out of coffee earlier in the day [& were snowed in], so I used some Starbucks Via [instant coffee] we had laying around. It didn't give the cupcakes as strong a coffee flavor as I would have liked - I would supplement with adding ground coffee to the batter next time. I frosted these with the ever-delicious cream cheese frosting from this post.

Also, the batter is pretty thin, but don't worry, it cooks up well.

Mocha Cupcakes
Makes 48 mini cupcakes

Ingredients
2.5 oz. semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
½ c cake flour
½ c flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sour cream
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cups hot coffee
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar

Directions
Melt chocolate in microwave or double boiler. Set aside to cool. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour and salt together. In another bowl, whisk together the sour cream, cocoa powder and baking soda to form a paste, then slowly whisk in the hot coffee until the mixture is smooth.

In a third bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time and beat well. Add the vanilla extract. Add the melted chocolate and beat to incorporate.

With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture alternately with the liquid mixture (beginning and ending with the flour mixture), beating just until all ingredients are incorporated.

Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake liners. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cupcakes cool in the pans for about 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Mini Cupcakes 3 ways - Elizabeth

For a long time,  I've been very unimpressed with cupcakes. One could even call me anti-cupcake. Mostly I have a problem with the cake to frosting ratio & the fact that you usually get a mouthful of one or the other. Not to mention the trend of overly-decorated fondant cupcakes.

However, mini cupcakes are a great solution to these problems. Their tiny size fixes the frosting/cake ratio problem & cream cheese frosting blocks out any other negative associations.

Yesterday I made nearly 100 of these little guys, although the recipes would probably make about 25 each with a mini muffin pan. Without the pan they had to be very small, otherwise the batter would run over the sides of the paper cups.

I made:
Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Frosting
Lemon with Cream Cheese Frosting
Snickerdoodle with Cinnamon Frosting

The cream cheese frosting was definitely the best - the cinnamon frosting was mostly butter & sugar & it didn't hold together very well. However, it was still delicious.

There's a lot of recipes, so they're under a cut [after all the pictures]. Enjoy!!

Steak and Horseradish Crostini - Matt

Hello Internet! I'm Matt and I'll be making occasional contributions to this blog. Since everyone else did introductions, I guess I should too. I don't have much of a cooking strategy or philosophy. In fact, I'm usually pretty lazy about it. Every so often, a potluck or some other event will motivate me to actually make something interesting. In this particular case, it was the Skene's New Year's Eve party and winning free steak at work.

This recipe is a modified version of one on Oprah's website. That's probably the hardest sentence I've ever had to write.

Ingredients:

• 2 largish steaks
• 8 ounces of cream cheese - I used chive and onion
• 2-3 scallions, diced
  
• 1 loaf of French bread
• 2 tablespoons of horseradish (more or less to taste, I like the extra heat)
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder

This makes about 25-30 pieces, depending on how big your steaks are.

Directions:

Start preheating your grill and season the steak to taste. I used a simple salt and pepper rub, but something with cumin and chili powder would probably be awesome too. Grill it until medium, or more if you're some sort of heathen that likes overcooked meat. Let it rest for about 5 minutes, then slice it thin.

While that's cooking, combine the cream cheese, horseradish, scallions, and garlic powder in a medium mixing bowl. Make sure to save some of your diced scallion for a garnish later.

Slice the bread to about a quarter inch thickness and toast. If your oven has a working broiler, this is the perfect time to use it since you really only want to toast the top. Mine doesn't so I had to do a few at a time in the toaster oven.

Once the bread cools, spread on a thick layer of the cream cheese mixture and top it with a slice of steak. If you're feeling fancy, garnish with some cream cheese and a scallion. I found it was easiest to dab it on with my finger rather than trying to use a spoon.

If all went well, it should look like this (or better)!