I'll bet you have experienced the packed week yourself now and again. Last Friday Kate and I baked King Cake. You can find all about it in the previous post on this blog.
On Saturday there was a multi-birthday celebration on Zoom with the family. Bourbon was enjoyed by yours truly.
Sweetie's back went out the previous Tuesday, so I was also doing a lot of the things he usually does and that only stopped Thursday.
On Sunday it was Valentine's Day, plus I baked some mini-Bundt cakes that stuck to the pans...see I make mistakes too...so I had to bake cupcakes...
Sunday evening and Monday morning, plus decorate them Monday afternoon in order to deliver twenty-one...21!...iced and decorated from scratch chocolate cupcakes for our scholarship group 109th birthday celebration...which was Wednesday on Zoom. Birthday bags (see top photo) were filled (including a birthday candle and smiley face balloon!) and delivered by others all over the Santa Rosa/Sebastopol/Bodega Bay area for the party. Monday included taking the garbage cans down the hill.
Tuesday included hauling emptied garbage cans up the hill, plus doing the Bingo set-up for the birthday celebration.
Wednesday morning I weeded while the soil was still damp from the rains,
then had the birthday party on Zoom...a BLAST!...then cooked a large turkey breast in the evening to eat Thursday, plus made dinner. Look at the goodies in the birthday bag!
Thursday was the gym, followed by walking the dog, followed by a Zoom Board of Directors meeting for the regional group I belong to. I'm the Zoom guru on most of these Zoom gatherings, which I enjoy since learning new things is fun for me.
So, does that sound like a busy enough week? Left out gym on Tuesday, multiple dog walks without Sweetie, which is a challenge since Sweetie is the Alpha for Pi. Today we walked Pi together and I wrote some thank you notes for birthday gifts, plus worked on cleaning up my email folder.
After all my exhausting recitation, how does the recipe for the chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache icing sound? They were sooo good and still moist on Wednesday even though I baked most of them on Sunday evening. Must be the yogurt. Do try these for yourself. You can divide the recipe if you want to make one dozen instead of two. The recipe is from Southern Living’s The Southern Cake Book.
Chocolate Velvet Cupcakes
Makes 24 cupcakes
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. & prepare enough cupcake pans to hold 24 cupcake papers.
Melt 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate morsels in the microwave at HIGH in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave for about a minute at a time, stirring well after each, until chocolate is melted and smooth. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat 1/2 cup soft butter (I used non-dairy margarine) and 16 oz. of brown sugar until well blended (about 5 minutes). Take three room temperature eggs and add them, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the melted chocolate. Beat until well blended, scraping beater(s) and bowl as needed.
Sift together 2 cups of all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add this mixture to the batter alternately with 8 oz. sour cream (I used plain full fat yogurt), adding a third of the flour first, then half the sour cream, a third of the flour, the rest of the sour cream and the final third of the flour mixture. Scrape beater(s) and bowl as needed. Blend thoroughly , then gradually add 1 cup hot water in a slow, steady stream at low speed, mixing just until blended. Stir in vanilla.
Fill prepared baking cups 3/4 full. Bake in preheated oven for 18 - 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pans to wire racks and cool completely (about 45 minutes) before frosting.
Icing
1/2 cup soy creamer (or whipping cream)
1 teaspoon powdered espresso powder
8 oz. semisweet chocolate, cut into small pieces (I used half ScharffenBerger bittersweet and half chocolate chips)
Scald the soy creamer or whipping cream in a 5-6 cup saucepan over moderate heat until it begins to form small bubbles around the edges. Add the dry espresso powder and whisk to dissolve. Add the chocolate and stir occasionally over heat for 1 minutes. Then remove the pan from the heat and whisk or stir until the chocolate is all melted and the mixture is smooth.
Let the icing stand at room temperature, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes or until the icing barely begins to thicken.
Use offset spatula to ice each cupcake, then sprinkle with decorations. Let dry completely before serving.
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