Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting

This post is long over due, as someone’s birthday (not mine) was a little over a month and a half ago. This someone shall remain nameless, but if you follow my blog, you probably know who I am talking about; he hates his birthday. Whatever. He did however request a mini cake, which I was really excited about because it gave me an excuse to buy 6” cake pans!

He also specifically requested chocolate cake from the Ghirardelli Cookbook, which I was really excited about. The first cake we baked together was a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting; this boy has a major crush on chocolate cake.

While I adore the small size of this cake, I am going to tell you honestly that I am not a fan of the actual cake recipe; therefore, I am not going to share it here today. Maybe it was too rich for me, maybe I over baked it or maybe the small pan size caused the cake to be too dry.

Sweet and Salty Junkyard Brownies

Who’s ready for some more chocolate? I am so good during the day while I am at work (most of the time), but I get home and I just need something sweet. Yesterday, my second reminder to “get my butt in shape” popped up on my iPhone; I set them for myself in January. Yet, I traded in my workout shoes for one of these Sweet and Salty Junkyard Brownies.

A couple of months ago while browsing through my favorite Wholefoods ever, I spotted some ridiculously amazing looking brownies topped with all sorts of salty snacks. I could see the caramel oozing out the sides and knew I was going to have to make them at home.

These are really quite simple. I used a boxed mix of brownies and added some Hersey’s baking melts for added chocolate, because nothing goes better with chocolate than more chocolate. I smothered my brownie in caramel sauce and then topped it with pretzels, crushed cashews and caramel popcorn.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Cupcakes

The cupcakes your man makes

 I called this series, Baking with Boys. From the beginning of our relationship, I knew my boyfriend liked chocolate cake, but he always talked about the chocolate cream cheese cupcakes (black bottom cupcakes) his mother used to make.

The first birthday we shared together, I was super stressed about making the best black bottom cake I could, because he didn’t have the recipe. I guess I did okay since I am still around. Finally after several months he found the recipe from his mom. I was expecting something really fancy and complicated. Turns out they’re super easy to make. He has been requesting that I make them ever since. I guess he got sick of waiting.

 While I was busy shooting my Cadbury Cookie Brittle, he insisted on making black bottom cupcakes at 9 o’clock at night. He wanted to do it all himself, to which I of course said go right ahead, just clean up afterwards! I love watching him bake, because it makes me laugh every time.

He uses as few dishes as possible. This results in him melting butter in the glass measuring cup and using the same cup to measure ALL of his dry ingredients plus oil, milk and whatever else is required. I am going to tell the rest of this story in photos taken on my iphone. Read on, I promise it’s worth it.  Also, I should tell you that he edits my posts, and may or may not agree with my recount of the story.

He’s pretty serious about his measuring. As you should be.

This is the face of concentration. He has two rules. His first rule is that he “doesn’t do eggs”, which means I have to be called in to crack the eggs.

Triple Chocolate Brownie Cupcakes

Chocolate Cupcakes with Brownie Batter Frosting

Okay, so yesterday I told you about the Cupcake Camp Conejo Valley. Today I am talking cupcakes. I baked and frosted more than I have ever before. My list of ingredient included 22 eggs, 18 sticks of butter, 3 lbs of powdered sugar, 6 boxes of cake mix and 4 boxes of brownie mix! I baked 13 dozen cupcakes and made 16 pounds of frosting. It was awesome! The cupcake I am sharing today is a Triple Chocolate Brownie Cupcake.

Samoa Cupcake Shooters

Cupcakes never go to waste in my house, well as much as I can help it, but I can’t eat them all myself! Earlier this week, I made the Thin Mint Mini Cakes and I had leftover cake. So I made some Samoa Cupcake Shooters to continue on with Girl Scout Cookie week!

Now, when I was a Girl Scout, we called these Caramel Delights. No one here knows what I am talking about when I say Caramel Delights, so for this post, I am going with Samoas!

These are pretty easy to make and they taste AH-mazing. Between the chocolate, caramel and coconut, your mouth will be watering for more. Here is what you need:

2-3 C Chocolate cake crumbs

6 Samoa cookies

1/2 C Chocolate ganache or melting chocolate

1/2 C Caramel sauce (I used Smuckers)

1/2 C Toasted Coconut

1 batch Coconut Swiss Meringue Buttercream

*This will make enough for six cupcake shooters.