Cupcake Tuesday-Chocolate Nutella and Salted Caramel

Yeah, it's possible to sneak that much goodness into just one cupcake.  It's mind blowing.

Remember my Chocolate Peanut Butter cupcakes?  Yeah this wins, hands down! (I mean it has Nutella in it, how can it not?) Oh and P.S. these really just these, but way better!

Sorry I've been so MIA recently this weekend.  I ended up last minute in the mountains with the fam and took what ended up being a much needed weekend off from the interwebs.  Sometimes these things just happen and you have to roll with it.  Sometimes things happen and you NEED to make these cupcakes, who knows.

Chocolate Cupcake
makes 24
2 sticks butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
vanilla
salt
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sour cream

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line two cupcake pans.

In a large bowl whip together the room temperature butter with the sugar until they get nice and light and fluffy.  Add the 2 eggs and beat for about another minute.

When the eggs are fully incorporated add in the vanilla, salt and cocoa powder.  Mix well.

Next, measure out your baking soda, baking powder and flour in a medium bowl.  Add about 1/3 of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat until just combined.  Add 1/2 of the sour cream.  Follow that with another 1/3 of the flour, the last of the sour cream and the last of the flour, beating well after each addition.

Scrape the sides of the bowls and mix on last time to make sure it is all combined.

Scoop into the cupcake pans using a 2 oz ice cream scoop, or filling about 2/3 of the way full.  My rule with chocolate cake is that it should look like chocolate ice cream before it bakes

Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool.


Nutella Cream Cheese Frosting
2 blocks cream cheese
1 stick butter
1/4 cup Nutella
3-4 cups powdered sugar

In a medium bowl combine the cream cheese and the butter with a mixer until it gets a little fluffy, this will take about 2 minutes.

Add in the Nutella and briefly mix until combined.

Now slowly add the powdered sugar, about 1/2 cup at a time, keeping the mixer on low to let it mix in. Once you have the right sweetness, scrape the sides and mix on medium for about 20 seconds to make sure everything is smooth.  The secret to this frosting is to whip it really well and make sure it's nice and light and smooth.  Everyone will be astounded.

Once the cupcakes are cooled, pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes.

Salted Caramel Sauce
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 teaspoon light corn syrup
sea salt
1/2 cup room temperature heavy cream

In a medium sauce pan stir together the sugar, water, corn syrup and salt.  Bring to a boil on medium-high heat.  DO NOT STIR.  If you stir the sugar while it is boiling it can knock crystals off the side and ruin your sauce.  

Boil for 7-10 minutes, make sure to keep your eye on this, it can turn from delicious golden brown to nasty burned in a split second.  You're looking for this boiling mixture to turn into a beautiful golden brown, caramel color.

Once this changes to our desired color STOP.  Remove it from the heat and whip out a wooden spoon.  Slowly add your room temperature cream (cold cream will cause the syrup to clump).  Stir constantly until all the cream is added.  Allow to cool for a bit.

Using a spoon or a squeeze bottle (the latter is certainly much easier) drizzle over your frosted cupcakes.

Sprinkle a touch of sea salt on top if desired and enjoy!

Love, 

Keely

Sunday School-Crepe Cake

It's Sunday!  Today is a day to sleep in (or go to church, but that is the beauty of my church meeting on Tuesday nights, I still get to sleep in on Sunday) have brunch, play outside, do some shopping, make a big dinner and have dessert.

It's the dessert part (and I guess if you stretch it the brunch part) that I'm aiming at here.

Sunday's are my favorite days.  I never really realized that until I started going to my Tuesday night church but it's such a great day!  I love to get creative on Sundays, spend time with people on Sundays

Have you ever heard of a crepe cake?  Well I saw some on Pinterest and it seemed easy enough so I decided to just go for it.  You just need crepes, and filling of choice (I used ganache, Nutella and salted caramel).  Here's what it looked like.



Ah, drippy, salted caramel.  I love you, oh so much!



Making crepes is way easier than people claim.  All you need is a pan and some butter and a batter, easy as pie (actually far EASIER than pie).



Simple, wonderful layers.

We're going to start with the ganache, and then the caramel, cause that's really the order things need to be done in.

Chocolate Ganache

3/4 cups chocolate chips

1/2 cup heavy cream

vanilla

Set up a double boiler and add in your chocolate chips and heavy cream.

Cook over medium heat and stir frequently until the chocolate is mostly melted.  When there are just a few chocolate chunks left, remove from the heat and continue to stir until completely smooth.  Add the vanilla.  Set aside and allow to cool.

Salted Caramel Sauce

1 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup water

1 tablespoon light corn syrup

1/2 cup room temperature heavy cream

vanilla

In a medium sauce pan briefly stir together the sugar, salt, water and corn syrup.  Bring to a boil over medium high heat.  Allow to boil for 8-10 minutes or until the liquid turns an amber color.  Keep an eye on this, you do not want it burn!

As soon as it turns a dark amber, remove from the heat.  Slowly add the room temperature cream, stirring constantly.  It will boil up, just keep stirring.

Once the mixture has come together, add a dash of vanilla and allow to cool.

Simple Crepes

adapted from She Knows

2 cup flour

4 eggs

1 cup water

1 cup milk

salt

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/4 cup melted butter

In a large bowl mix together all liquid ingredients (this everything but the flour).  Whisk together until the eggs are well incorporated.

Slowly add the flour and whisk until well incorporated.

(See that was easy).

Spray your non-stick pan and pre-heat it over medium-high heat.

Use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to scoop out the batter into the middle of the pan.  Swirl the pan around to spread out the crepe.  Allow to cook until the edges barely turn brown.

Use your thinnest spatula (or your awesome flipping talents...it's all in the wrist) to flip to the other side and cook for another minute or so.

Slide out of the pan and onto a plate.

This is where the fun starts.

To be totally honest the easiest way to build this is to do it while the crepes are cooking (finish one crepe, layer with ganache while another one is cooking, so on and so forth).  So let's do that.

Take that first crepe and spread some ganache on it.  Now keep cooking crepe number 2.  Slide that on top, spread on ganache (or caramel, or Nutella, you can decide on the ratios).  Nice work, just keep stacking!

Congrats you did it!  Now pour any left over caramel all over the top of that.  Nice work, add some extra sea salt for good measure and hazelnut whipped cream if you're feeling super adventurous.

Wow that looks amazing.  You enjoy that! You earned it!



Love,

Keely