Chocolate Cupcakes with Mint Choc Chip Icing

Cupcakes, cupcakes, cupcakes. I’ve been doing far too many cookies lately, or else various non-cake related things. It is high time that I got my first cupcake recipe up here. There is little story to tell this time around. It was a Wednesday, I was trying to think on what to bake, and my workmate let slip that it was his Birthday. I’m not entirely sure why, but I’ve been getting the urge to do something minty of late, which is very not me. It’s not that I don’t like mint with sweet things (the odd after eight isn’t too bad), but I just don’t love it. I prefer my mint with my savoury foods, like lamb, or mint sauce with a pork pie. But as I said, I just got one of those urges to make something minty. So I started having a look around for some good looking mint frosting recipes. The best I came across was this one here on Sally’s Baking Addiction, which included the lovely addition of chocolate chips to give that added Mint Choc’ Chip ice cream nostalgia. Coupling mint with chocolate just has to be done, which lead me to tracking down the moistest cupcakes possible. The best recipe I found was here. The combination of the two was phenomenal, it had to be said.

mintchochip

Chocolate Cupcakes with Mint Choc Chip Icing
 
Ingredients
  • For the cakes:
  • 130g all-purpose flour
  • 200g granulated sugar
  • 65g cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 120 ml milk
  • 60 ml vegetable oil
  • 1 egg
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla
  • 120 boiling water
  • For the Frosting:
  • 225g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
  • 385-500g powdered (confectioners') sugar
  • 2 Tablespoons double cream
  • ¼ teaspoon peppermint extract (or more if you want)
  • 2 drops green food colouring (I used a tad more than this)
  • 100-200g mini chocolate chips
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 150°C and line your cake tray with cases.
  2. Mix together the flour, sugar, cocao powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Whisk until it’s well mixed.
  3. Add the “wet” ingredients, apart from the boiling water, and mix on a medium speed until well combined.
  4. Reduce the speed and very carefully add the boiling water. Slowly up the speed until it’s on high and allow to mix for around 1 minute. This will get a good amount of air into the mix.
  5. Distribute the batter evenly into the cases. Fill to around ¾ of the case. Depending on the size of the case you’ll get between 12 and 18 cakes, but always fill to about ¾.
  6. Bake for 12-25 minutes. The cakes will be done when a tooth pick inserted into the center comes out clean.
  7. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly in the tray before transferring to a rack.
  8. While they are cooling, prepare the frosting.
  9. Take the softened butter and beat it until smooth and creamy, using a medium speed.
  10. Add 385g of icing sugar, saving the rest just in case. Also add the cream, peppermint and food colouring. Be sparing with both the peppermint and colouring. You can always add more, remember.
  11. Beat on a high speed for around 3 minutes. Scraping down the sides from time to time. Add more icing sugar if it is too thin, or more cream if it’s too thick. If you want to make it greener or mintier, add more of either but again do it in stages.
  12. Stir in the chocolate chips.
  13. Apply to the cupcakes, ensuring that they are cool first. This frosting looks great pretty rough so don’t worry overly about presentation.

chocmix
IMG_1259 IMG_1262 IMG_1271

Jam Thumb Cookies

Jam. You just can’t beat it. The sun came out in Leeds yesterday, which of course prompted everyone to go crazy. On a wonder into town with my friend Gareth, I came across the craft fair in the Corn Exchange. Amongst the general stands selling jewellery (and one selling all the different possible types of fudge, red bull, really?) I came across a stand selling homemade Jam. I had quite a lengthy chat with the owner, about the different types of jams that she made and ended up walking away with a selection, the cogs already whirring in my head as to what I could do with them. I settled for a jar of raspberry, jar of  ginger and a jar of scotch whisky marmalade.  I decided on thumb cookies. Tiny, nut-covered, jam filled pieces of joy.

Jam Selection

 

Jam Thumb Cookies
 
Ingredients
  • 115 grams unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 50 grams granulated white sugar
  • 1 large egg, separated
  • ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 130 grams all-purpose flour
  • Dash of salt.
  • 80-100 grams hazelnuts, almonds, pecans or walnuts, toasted and finely chopped
  • 60 - 120 ml raspberry jam
Instructions
  1. Heat your oven up to 180°C (160°C fan).
  2. Spread the nuts over a baking tray (I chose pecan), then place in the oven for around 10 minutes to toast. Once these are done, allow them to cool for half an hour then either chop them finely by hand or put them in a food processor and blitz until fine.
  3. Keep the oven on and line a baking tray with grease proof paper.
  4. Cream together the butter and the sugar. Then beat in the egg yolk and the vanilla extract. Beat until combined. (Ensure you save the egg white).
  5. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and salt (if you used salted butter, don’t worry too much about including the salt).
  6. Mix the flour mixture into the butter mix, starting on a slow speed and gradually increasing it. For a long time it just looks like bread-crumbs. Stick at it and eventually it combines into a pastry like dough. Mix until it has just formed.
  7. If it’s too soft, put it in the fridge for between 30-60 minutes.
  8. Divide up into individual balls, each around 2.5cm across. You’ll get around 20 from the batch.
  9. In a small bowl, whisk the egg white until it’s froffy.
  10. Spread the chopped nuts out on a flat surface (I used a plate). Individually dip the balls into the egg white, then gently roll them over the chopped nuts to coat.
  11. Place on the baking tray and using your thumb (or handle of a wooden spoon) press a hollow into the top of them gently.
  12. Fill the hole with jam.
  13. Place on the middle shelf of the oven and bake for 12-15 minutes, until browned.
  14. Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

Jam thumbprint cookies

Jam Thumbprint Cookies

Oreo Truffles

Oreos. Truffles. What more could you want? Before I’d really started baking I went to a friend’s flat party. One of her friends had bought a selection of homemade treats with her and amongst them, were Oreo Truffles. They were simply incredible. A week later I tried my hand at them myself. They are possibly one of the simplest things possible to make and incredibly tasty. I’ve done them on numerous occasions and even put them inside cupcakes.

Truffle-y Goodness
Truffle-y Goodness
Oreo Truffles
 
Ingredients
  • 2 x Packets of Oreos
  • 250g Cream Cheese
  • Chocolate for Melting (either White, plain or milk, whatever you want)
  • Butter
Instructions
  1. This is a no-bake recipe and the only time consuming part is chilling the truffles.
  2. Start by breaking down the oreos, either put them in a bag and attack with a hammer (you couldn’t ask for better stress relief), or else put them in a blender or processor. Either way, break them down until they are fine crumbs.
  3. Mix in the cream cheese.
  4. Form in to balls and place in the fridge for several hours until they have firmed up.
  5. Melt the chocolate (using the butter for shortening) and coat the truffles in the chocolate. This gets very messy.
  6. Place back in the fridge to set the chocolate and get the truffles back to the right consistency.
  7. Enjoy.

 Truffle Preperation

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Now, I am well aware that my first post was also Reese’s cookies. But I made these yesterday, and while they are fresh in my mind I just have to write about them. They are simply incredible. My friend Daryl showed me the recipe, which she found on Kitchen Magpie. Couple that with there being two of my colleague’s work birthdays today, one of which is an American woman who adores peanut butter, it was kind of a no-brainer. I’ve made “cookies” that contained peanut butter cups before, but they were sort of… squidged? Yeah, that’s the word, into the top of the cookies, which were slightly more cake-like. These actually contain the cup inside the centre of the cookie. It’s the perfect amount of indulgence. I always get such funny looks from the cashier whenever I turn up at the till with a basket full of nothing but Reese’s cups. These went down an absolute treat at work with one of my colleagues asking me to bake them, and only them, once a week for the rest of my time with the company.

DSC_0220

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
 
Ingredients
  • 290-300g All-purpose Flour
  • Dash salt
  • 1 tsp Baking Powder
  • 115g Unsalted Butter
  • 150g White Granulated Sugar
  • 165g Packed Brown Sugar
  • 1½ tsp Vanilla extract
  • 2 Eggs
  • 150g Chocolate Chips (I used milk chocolate)
  • 12-15 Reese’s peanut butter cups
Instructions
  1. First of all, preheat your oven to 180°C (or 160°C fan).
  2. Cream together the butter and sugars until fluffy.
  3. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Followed by Vanilla.
  4. Separately mix together the flour, salt and baking powder before mixing it in slowly on a low speed. (At this point I noticed that my cookie dough was a tad too sticky so I added a bit more flour until it firmed up a little.)
  5. Fold in the chocolate chips.
  6. Now comes the fun bit.
 

Take a good sized dollop of the dough in your hand, don’t make it too large as this is just the base of the cookie. Squidge (yup, there’s that word again) the peanut butter cup into the top of the dough, flattening it slightly.

 

Squidge
Squidge

Take a similarly sized piece of the dough and cover the top of the cup, pushing it down around the edges of the cup.

Encased cup

Spread them out on a baking tray, covered with a baking sheet. Space them slightly, but don’t worry too much as they don’t spread a large amount. Press them down slightly.

Baking tray

Bake for 12 minutes, remove from the oven. Allow to cool slightly before transferring to a cooling rack.

DSC_0227

Fresh Cookies
They are incredible while still fresh and slightly gooey.

Reese’s Pieces Chip Cookies

Peanut Butter Cookies

Now, here, is where my love affair with peanut butter starts to rear it’s beautiful peanutty head. I have a bit of a soft spot for Reese’s Pieces and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Much of my baking has included them, and not just because of my own soft spot. I love baking for friends, and around 90% of them love peanut butter and American candy. This means that if I’m baking for a crowd, it’s a fairly good go-to thing. At the time, Reese’s Pieces were on offer at Sainsburys. Half price. I just couldn’t not stock up. My excuse of course was “well I can bake with them”. (Please excuse the lack of imagery with some of my earlier posts, I wasn’t in the habit of taking so many pictures back then).

Peanut Butter Cookies
Peanut butter infused glory.

Thus began my hunt for a Reese’s Pieces chip cookie recipe. I didn’t have to look far. Hershey’s obliged.

 

Reese's Pieces Chip Cookies
 
Ingredients
  • 115g butter or margarine , softened
  • 100g granulated sugar
  • 110g packed light brown sugar
  • 170g Peanut Butter (I’m pretty penniless so for me it was own brand)
  • 1 egg
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 130g all-purpose flour
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • A couple of bags of Reese’s Pieces
  • Dark Chocolate chips (optional)
Instructions
  1. First things first. Pre-heat your oven to 180ºC and line a baking tray with a baking sheet.
  2. Cream the sugars and the butter together until fluffy. Cream in the peanut butter. I used a wooden spoon and some elbow grease for this, but a food mixer would be absolutely fine.
  3. Add in the egg and mix until fluffy.
  4. Meanwhile (if using a mixer), sift the flour into a bowl with the baking soda and salt.
  5. With the mixer on low, gradually add the flour mix into the mixture. If mixing by hand, add in instalments. Do this until the mixture is well combined.
  6. Finally, add in the Reese’s Pieces (and the chocolate if you’re using it. I like to do this just so it adds an extra dimension to the cookies, stops it being out and out peanut butter).
  7. Using teaspoons, drop on to the baking sheets. I sometimes vary the size here, so I have a few larger cookies, instead of loads of little ones.
  8. For firmer cookies, bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges have browned slightly. If you’d prefer them to be a touch chewier, bake for around 9.
  9. Remove from the oven, allow to cool for a few minutes until they are solid enough to transfer to a cooling rack.