Mocha Brownie Cupcakes

Okay, so here goes. These cupcakes. They are my creation. My first fully successful attempt at making up a recipe. I've very happy with this, obviously.Truthfully, adding the Jif spread directly to the cupcakes gives them an almost brownie like texture. Yum. I'm okay with a denser cake; if you're not, these may not be for you. I, however, love them, in all their brownie cupcake fusion goodness. So I'll shut up and give you the recipe now!

Ingredients:
6 Tbsp. butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
4 Tbsp. Jif mocha cappuccino spread (or any hazelnutty spread, I don't know of other brands with mocha flavor, though)
1 1/4 cup flour
1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 cup cocoa powder
pinch of salt
1 Tbsp milk/cream

Frosting/glaze:
Admittedly, I'm not a girl who likes a ton of frosting on her cakes. Especially not when it's already a deliciously chewy and rich brownie cupcake. It's a small amount of frosting, so if you like a lot, double it and lessen or omit the milk for piping.
4 oz cream cheese. softened
2 Tbsp butter, softened
2 Tbsp Jif spread
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. milk

Directions: Preheat oven to 350. Whisk together dry ingredients in a separate bowl and set aside. Cream butter until light in color, add in sugar and beat until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add mocha spread and mix well. About a third at a time, add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, beating well after each addition. The batter will be very thick. Stir in the milk at the end, or just before the last addition of dry ingredients. Fill cupcake liners 2/3rds of the way full, and  bake for 15-16 minutes. The "toothpick" test still works, even though they're brownie-like. I had to use the full 16 minutes for mine to come out clean.

For the Frosting: Put all ingredients in a large bowl and mix well until smooth and the consistency you like.

Hope you guys all like these as much as I do! Some friends of mine are coming over later today to take them off my hands. ;)
Happy Baking!

Daddy's Sour Cream Chocolate Cake

My father LOVES his sour cream chocolate cake. So for his birthday this year, I figured I'd try to make a recipe that lived up to his standards of this lovely dessert. After tweaking it a bit, I think I've got a good one. It's a pretty simple recipe to follow, so try it out!

• 1 1/2 - 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1 cup sour cream (or yogurt)
• 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 3/4 tsp. salt

Mix dry ingredients together in a separate bowl. Mix sugar with wet ingredients in a stand mixer or in a food processor. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, blend/beat until incorporated. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Will make 24 cupcakes or 2 9 inch round cakes.

Simple Frosting, a.k.a, "What's in the fridge?"

     My "Oh, it's Valentine's Day and I'm supposed to be helping my friend with her new boyfriend and making cupcakes" feeling has set in, and so I went to the fridge to make my frosting ahead of time (because one thirty a.m. the day of is ahead of time). I discovered 4 ounces of cream cheese... not enough for a full frosting by itself. I needed a stick of butter. I find... half a stick of butter. Well, damn. 
     So I got to the shortening. I add my vanilla and my powdered sugar and my gosh, it's so heavy and thick my hand mixer is straining from the effort. Lookie there, I have whipping cream! Pour some of that in and tada! I have a decent frosting that doesn't taste like anything in particular (no sense of buttercream or cream cheese or whipped cream frosting in itself), but rather a blend of all three. I like it. Here is my (tentative, add/subtract for your own consistency) recipe for "What's in the fridge?" simple frosting.Make it your own! (Or use mine. I like mine, y'know)

• 4oz. cream cheese
• 1/4 (4Tbsp) cup butter
• 1/4 cup shortening
• 1 1/2 - 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 - 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 1-2 tsp vanilla extract (or whatever other extract you'd like)

      Blend butter, cream cheese, and shortening together until smooth and fluffly. Add one cup powdered sugar. Use 1/4 cup cream and your desired extract. Add more powdered sugar and heavy cream to desired consistency and blend on high until smooth and fluffy. (I believe this will frost 24 cupcakes...hope so!)