Chocolate Sour Cream Cupcakes (or Cake) with fudgy frosting...

I have been looking for a recipe for chocolate cake and I found one for chocolate sour cream cake. I found the recipe on Delish. Well last weekend I decided I needed to test this recipe since I was planning to use it for the cupcakes for my sister's wedding shower. This recipe included a recipe for a fudgy frosting...which I have to say is super yummy!

So here are the ingredients...

The muffin pan with the liners...

The baked cupcakes...

The frosted cupcake...

And my taste test...yummy!

The recipe...


Chocolate Sour Cream Cake (or cupcakes)


Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup shortening (I used the Crisco sticks)
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 oz. bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled
1 8 oz carton dairy sour cream
1 cup milk
1 recipe fudgy frosting


Directions:

Let eggs stand at room temperature 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 9 inch round cake pans or line muffin pan with cupcake liners. Set aside.

In small bowl combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In large bowl beat shortening and sugar on medium speed until combined. Beat in eggs and vanilla until combined. Beat in melted chocolate and sour cream. Alternately add flour mixture and milk; beat on low after each addition just until combined. Spread batter in prepared pans/muffin pan.

Bake 25 minutes or until tops spring back when lightly touched. If you are baking cupcakes, I baked them for 18 minutes and that was perfect. Cool on wire rack 10 minutes. Remove from pans; cool.

Prepare fudgy frosting. Place one layer flat side down on plate. Spread top with 1 cup frosting. Stack second layer flat side down. Spread with remaining frosting. Makes 16 servings.

Fudgy Frosting
Ingredients:

1-12 oz package semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup butter
8 oz carton sour cream
4 1/2 cups sifted powder sugar

Directions:

In large pan over low heat melt and stir the chocolate chips and the butter. Cool 10 minutes. Stir in the sour cream. Stir in the powdered sugar; stir until smooth. Makes 4 cups.

I was able to get 24 cupcakes out of the recipe. The cupcakes were light and the frosting was rich but they complimented one another very well. This week has been super crazy so I didn't have time to make the cupcakes for Charlotte's shower from scratch, but I will be making the icing from scratch. I can't wait to share these cupcakes with you...

Until next time...Gig'em!

Valentine goodies...

Kyle and I are not too big on Valentine's Day. We typically go out to dinner for said holiday, but we always go on some OTHER day to avoid the madness that includes 45,000 college students. But for work I try to go all out...or at least bring something...

Every year I search through the pre-made Valentine boxes available at my local Target and my only rule is to get something fun. One year I bought Valentines that turned into the little football game with the triangle shaped football...too fun...the Valentine even became a goalpost. Another year I got Valentines with tattoos...too fun, right? Well, this year, I found little Tinkerbell Valentines that had little flower pot shaped pieces to attach to the Valentine. Each of these pieces contained flower seeds and if you soak it in water and plant, you have beautiful flowers! I also try to make some sort of sweet to go with my store bought Valentines. 

This year I decided to make brownies...but I couldn't just give little squares for Valentine's Day...I had to make them festive!

I decided to make things sort of easy on myself and I baked my brownies from a mix. I made 2 pans of brownies. I made sure to line the pan with foil (that was liberally coated with cooking spray) so I could easily lift the brownies out of the pan to cool and to cut them into little hearts.

After the brownies were cooled, I used a heart cookie cutter and cut out as many little hearts as I could from each pan. I placed them on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper to decorate.

My little helper...

I decorated each brownie with butter cream icing. To make the icing, I creamed the butter, added the powder sugar (a little at a time) and then added a little milk and almond extract. Once the icing was ready, I tinted the icing pink (for Valentine's Day) and scooped it into a piping bag with a star shaped decorating tip. I then piped the icing onto the hearts. I decided to make 2 different patterns to make things interesting.

Once everything was decorated and it had a chance to set up, I placed 3 brownies in a cellophane bag and tied it closed with a ribbon.

Butter Cream Icing

1 1/2 cups butter, softened to room temperature

4 cups powdered sugar

2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract

Beat the butter on medium speed until light and fluffy. Gradually add the powdered sugar until combined and creamy. Add the milk and the vanilla or almond extract. Color if desired.

Until next time...Gig'em!