One Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes with Nutella Cloud Frosting

Gah, I love that it takes me roughly three months to write a new blog post. I know, I'm just #thatawesome. Actually it's legit been crazy busy around here. Since my last post this has happened: 

• Josh moved back from his internship stint in Virginia
• Josh graduated from Chiropractic School
• I visited San Francisco
• Holiday Inn hit 100,000 fans on Facebook
• Josh completed his last board exam! #woot
• My cousin's 1st Holy Communion

We've had family & friends in and out of town to celebrate the various goings on so we've been taking time to really hang back and enjoy life. Too often we, get caught up in trying to stick to a strict schedule, or participate in EVERYTHING going on around us. But lately it's been nice to sit back and relax for a little while. 

So these cupcakes were a celebration of all the things that we've accomplished as of late.

Oddly, this was the smallest batch of cupcakes that I've ever baked. The recipe made a grand total of nine. That's right...nine cupcakes. I should have known when I was reading through the recipe that the dimensions were all really small, but of course I didn't. The great thing is that the recipe can be easily multiplied without having to do "higher" math. Or you could just keep the recipe small and simple, as is.

I made these cupcakes to celebrate the Holiday Inn Facebook wall milestone of 100k fans. Which may seem odd, but seeing as I know the gal that manages the page, I think it's quite appropriate!

The great thing about these cupcakes is that they're beyond easy to make, and you can keep your dirty dishes down to a max of two mixing bowls. #score

The cake is super chocolate-y and moist thanks to the addition of brewed espresso in the batter and the frosting is exactly as it sounds. Nutella cloud goodness. You must try some. today.

One Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes

Adapted from: Sweetapolita

3/4 Cup All-Purpose Flour

3/4 Cup White Sugar

1/4 Cup Dark Cocoa Powder

3/4 teaspoon Baking Soda

3/4 teaspoon Baking Powder

3/4 teaspoon Cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 Cup Buttermilk

1/4 Cup Brewed Espresso (hot)

3 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil

1 Egg, room temp

2 teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract

Preheat the oven to 350 and line cupcake pan with cupcake liners.

Sift all dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl (if using a KitchenAid, use the paddle attachment) and stir together.

Add all remaining ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients and mix for 2 minutes on medium speed.

Pour batter into cupcake molds and bake for 15-17 minutes (I found 15 minutes to be the perfect time). Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then let them completely cool on a wire rack for 20-30 minutes.

Nutella Cloud Frosting

1 Cup Unsalted Butter, softened

1 1/2 Cups Powdered Sugar

2 teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract

3/4 Cup Premium Bittersweet Chocolate, melted but cool (I used Scharffen Berger)

1/3 Cup Nutella

1 Tablespoon Milk

Pinch of Salt

Beat the powdered sugar and butter on low speed for 1 minute (if using a KitchenAid, use the paddle attachment).

Add vanilla, and beat on low until combined. Then slowly pour in the melted and cooled chocolate and beat on medium speed until smooth (about two minutes).

Add the Nutella, milk and salt and beat on medium-high for another minute.

Taste the frosting...you know, just to make sure it's cupcake worth :)

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Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

I swear it will never come (let’s all forget what I said last week). Fall is trying to elude us all…at least here in the South. Fall evokes different feelings for everyone. Some linger in the excitement of college football, some watch for changing colors and falling leaves, people like myself anticipate the new bounty that awaits us at the markets every week. The common ground that we all share is the enthusiasm for cooler temperatures! Georgia weather has been taunting its inhabitants for going on two weeks. It’s hot, then it’s cold, it’s hot, then it’s cold. Sheesh! Can I say enough already?

I wasn’t about to let the too high temperature, and by too high I mean 85 (which relative to the 100+ heat we saw this summer isn’t too bad) keep me away from the mountains of North Georgia and the masses of pumpkins that were ripe for the picking.

I love these little seasonal daytrips that we take. There’s nothing like scooting away to what seems like an entirely different state for a few hours to stretch our legs and breathe in the open air. The bonus for me is that I get to be the passenger and gaze at all of the foliage and the old vintage houses that sit along the state road the leads us up into the mountains.

Of course the very first thing one must do upon returning from such a trip is to immediately begin preparing the loot for the first delicacy of the season. Ok – I guess second after arranging the soon-to-be jack-o-lantern’s at the front door for all to be envious.

My first pumpkin adventure of the season was to be pumpkin whoopie pies (actually made from store bought pumpkin bc we were home bound last week) because I could think of no better way to usher in the new season than with a cookie, that’s really a sandwich, that tastes like cake. It all makes perfect sense.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
Martha Stewart

For the cookies
1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)
1 ½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp coarse salt
1 tbs unsalted butter, softened
¼ cup vegetable shortening
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup packed dark-brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

For the filling
4 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup confectioners' sugar
¼ cup canned solid pack pumpkin
Pinch of cinnamon
Pinch of nutmeg

Prepare cookies: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl; set aside.

Place butter, shortening, and sugars into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on high speed until smooth, about 3 minutes. Add egg; mix until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in half the flour mixture, then the milk and vanilla. Mix in remaining flour mixture.

Drop about 2 teaspoons dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing 2 inches apart. Bake until cookies spring back when lightly touched, 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer baking sheets to wire racks and let cool 10 minutes. Remove cookies from baking sheets and transfer to wire racks using a spatula; let cool completely.

Prepare filling: In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip together cream cheese, butter and confectioners' sugar on medium speed until smooth, about 3 minutes. Add pumpkin, cinnamon, and nutmeg; whip until smooth, scraping down the bowl as necessary.

Pipe or spoon about 2 teaspoons filling on the flat sides of half the cookies. Sandwich with remaining cookies, keeping the flat sides down.

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Icebox Cake

Would you like to have a dessert that tastes like a perfectly milk laden oreo? In cake form? Oh, you would? Perfect – c’mon follow me! I’ll show you what bliss tastes like!

I was super excited when I ran across this recipe for the first time, and even more excited when my bestie harbored the same emotions for this super simple, super easy dessert that I did. What was our next step you ask? Why we had an icebox cupcake making party – that’s what!

After creating fantastic cupcakes, I decided to make the whole shah-bang for a dinner party that I was attending. It makes the perfect dessert for a summertime dinner party because its super easy and quick to make and to say it’s a crowd pleaser would be a bit of an understatement.

The entire dessert is encompassed by layering paper thin chocolate wafers with delicately whipped (sometimes flavored) whipped cream. After marinating in the refrigerator for about an hour – the cake will emerge to be what icebox dreams are made of.

Icebox Cake
3 cups of heavy cream
2 tbs. of sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 – 9oz packages of chocolate wafer cookies**

Pre-chill a metal or glass mixing bowl, and electric mixer beaters in the freezer for about 5 minutes. After 5 minutes in the freezer, pull out the bowl and beaters and whip the cream, sugar, and extract on high until soft peaks form.

On a cake plate, or large flat serving platter – arrange cookies side by side in a circle while keeping one cookie in the middle.

Spread ½ cup of whipped cream on top of the cookies and spread all the way to the outer edge of the wafers. Repeat with the remaining cookies and cream until all are used.

**you can find the chocolate wafers at various super markets, but they're usually in the ice cream or candy section. Not the cookie section...which would actually make more sense, but who am I?

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