Brownie Cupcakes

I needed to find a recipe to use up this buttermilk:

This is what I ended up making:

 We don't drink buttermilk, but I sometimes buy it for a recipe.  I have already forgotten what I bought the buttermilk for, but I really hate to waste food, so I looked through my recipe file to find something I could bake today to use it up.   I decided on cupcakes--these are rich and chocolately -- sort of between a brownie and a cupcake.


Recipe:

3/4 cup water
1 cup Hershey's cocoa
3 sticks of butter, cut up (I know it sounds like a lot, but it makes a lot of cupcakes and you use no butter for frosting)
3 cups flour
3 1/4 cups brown sugar (light or dark--does not matter--I used light)
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
a pinch of salt
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
2 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line your muffin tins with paper liners. I used 27 large liners and 14 small.

1.  Put the 3/4 cup water, butter and Hershey's cocoa in a glass bowl, cover with plastic wrap and put in microwave for one minute. 

Stir. Microwave about one minute more, or just until the butter is melted.

2.  Slowly pour the mixture into a mixer bowl and beat slowly until combined. 

Then add the brown sugar, a 1/4 cup at a time and beat on low until just combined.

3.  In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Pour this slowly into the cocoa mixture and mix on low until just combined.

4. In another bowl, mix the eggs, buttermilk and vanilla. Mix this into the flour cocoa mixture -- again do it slowly and don't over mix.  Just get it all combined.

5.  Fill your paper-lined muffin tins about 3/4 full. 


6. I put my small cupcakes on the top shelf of the oven and baked them for about 16 minutes. 

The full size cupcakes baked for 26 minutes.

7. I did not think these needed any frosting.  I just sprinkled powdered sugar over the tops before serving.




I froze half of them as I always feel that when I cook or bake, I should enjoy the fruits of my labor for at least three meals.

Yesterday I made Pepperoni Pasta for dinner

and, of course, I froze half of that for another night.

I did a lot of cooking and sewing this weekend. What else is a girl to do when it's 8 below zero? Thank goodness it is not a work day and I did not have to go outside! 

Instead of scrubbing the floors(as I should have done), I spent most of the day sewing. I fininshed the second nutcracker block today and some tree blocks that go with the snowman blocks I finished last week.  Here are all the Christmas blocks for next year that I've completed in January:

I actually made 4 more tree blocks than what you see here. I decided that I needed to make them today before I used up all the blue background fabric for something else (that is why I did not get the floors done).  It felt good to get them all finished and now I will pack them away until I decide what to do with them.

Now I need to go check on my chicken that is roasting in the oven.  It's no wonder DH felt like buying me flowers yesterday--he's been eating like a KING for the past few weeks. 

You Can't Have a Halloween Party Without Goulish Libations

This would be my creepy concoction of choice--bloody rimmed appeltini.


I found this at Celebrations.com. They have a lot of other drinks there, too.

Who knew they made black vodka?

Imagine all the great Halloween drinks that could be made with this!

I really like some of the creative garnishes out there on the net...this eyeball is pretty realistic..maybe too realistic for me.

YUCK! But "yuck" is exactly what you want for a Halloween party. If you want directions go over to the hostess blog. She has all kinds of great ideas.

If I Was Having a Halloween Party

this would make a wonderful dessert:


When you slice the cake each piece looks like a giant piece of candy corn!

It even uses that checkerboard cake pan I bought and have never used!

The recipe is from the Wilton site.

You just use any white cake mix you like.

Decorating instructions:
Place Divider Ring in one 9 x 2 in. pan from set. Tint 1 cup of white batter orange and 1 1/3 cup yellow; reserve 1/3 cup white.

Fill inside small center ring with white batter, inside medium ring with orange batter and inside large outer ring with yellow batter.

Carefully remove Divider Ring before baking. Bake and cool 1-layer cake.

Divide cake top: mark 2 inner circles, one 1 in. and one 2 1/2 in. from edge of cake.

Cover sides and top to 1 in. mark with yellow tip 16 stars, cover area to 2 1/2 in. mark with orange tip 16 stars, fill in center with white tip 16 stars.

Attach icing decorations to cake sides. Position candies around cake.



Have you ever seen anything cuter than these strawberry ghosts for appetizers? They are from Taste of Home.
They look pretty easy to make, too.
Strawberry Ghosts

30 fresh strawberries
8 ounces white baking chocolate, chopped
1 teaspoon shortening
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
Wash strawberries and gently pat with paper towels until completely dry. In a microwave-safe bowl, melt white chocolate and shortening at 50% power; stir until smooth. Stir in extract.
Dip strawberries in chocolate mixture; place on a waxed paper-lined baking sheet, allowing excess chocolate to form the ghosts' tails. Immediately press chocolate chips into coating for eyes. Freeze for 5 minutes.
In a microwave-safe bowl, melt remaining chocolate chips; stir until smooth. Dip a toothpick into melted chocolate and draw a mouth on each face. Yield: 2-1/2 dozen.