I Bake!

   On a certain wonderful day, (a.k.a my birthday) I received a a delicious cupcake cookbook from a dear friend of mine. It is filled with gourmet recipes and yesterday/today I decided to try my luck.

I decided to make mint cupcakes. With chocolate cake, chocolate filling, mint frosting, and chocolate mints on top, all made from scratch (except the mints), we couldn't go wrong.

The chocolate cake should have been easy to an "experienced" baker like me, but it certainly wasn't. The recipes seemed more professional. It was an interesting challenge.

Well, the batter turned out better than I would have expected. It was delicious, but instead of making twenty-four cupcakes, it made 25 cupcakes with enough batter for an extra large "loaf" of "bread."

Then we made the filling. We heated cream up, then poured it over chocolate chips. Once the chocolate melted, the filling looked like chocolate milk.

(It took forever for the mixture to cool, thus thicken)

By the time we finished the filling and filling the cupcakes (and the loaf with the access filling), it felt like nine o'clock. (it was actually seven) So we had to stop for that day.

The next day we continued. There was only the frosting left to be made, and it was to be green and minty.

Almost all was well, (I accidentally doubled the mint extract) and I am proud to say, that the frosting turned out semi-perfectally.

I frosted them, and and Ella sprinkled crushed mint cookies on top. There was remaining frosting and crushed mint cookies.

But of course, what delicious dessert would be complete without homemade hot cocoa? (See previous post for details)

 Yum! A perfect treat for a cold night!