Rocky Road Cupcakes

I always love finding excuses to bake goodies, since I'm trying to stay on the healthier side of things, and over this past weekend it was one of my coworker's birthday. She told me she loves anything chocolate, and I thought about doing a big chocolate layered cake, but with my school schedule, I just couldn't find the time to make every layer. However, I settled for making these delicious rocky road cupcakes! 

I have been wanting to try making these cupcakes for quite some time now, so to hear of a birthday, was the perfect opportunity to whip out my muffin tins and baking bowls. 

I ended up using a chocolate fudge cake mix, since time wasn't necessarily on my side. I then whipped up a chocolate mousse, which consists of: 1 cup heavy whipping cream, 2 tablespoons powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon chocolate syrup, and a couple tablespoons of cocoa powder.

If you have a favorite chocolate mousse recipe you like to follow, go ahead and use that instead. I tried following a recipe that had you melt down chocolate and then fold it into the other ingredients, however, it became too watery and lost its texture and firmness. But if you have a technique that works, or if you're just a baking wizard, then stick to melting chocolate... & teach me your ways.

I then scooped out a bit of the insides so I could fill it with the chocolate mousse, and then I smoothed it out on the top to work as the frosting. To decorate my cakes, I drizzled on some fudge and plopped on a couple tiny marshmallows. Decorating is my favorite bit, but for these guys I could be messy instead of uniform or symmetrical. 

I hope you try making these scrumptious cupcakes! If you're a chocolate lover, I'm sure you'll love these! What's your favorite cupcake flavor/combination?

Besides chocolate, I do enjoy a good ole red velvet!

Much Love! Xx

Crockpot Hot Cocoa

It's that time of year again where the weather drops below comfort and you are willing to do anything to keep warm. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the brisk November weather but when it gets down into the 30's and the wind is throwing the fallen leaves across the road, I'd rather stay inside and snuggle under the warm covers. On days like today I like to stay in comfy clothes, grab a hot beverage and check on all of my social media. As usual, I spent my morning on Pinterest and found multiple food recipes that extends well past my culinary skills, and a couple of hot chocolate recipes that looked oh so inviting. I knew I needed to give them a shot, because I am a sucker for hot cocoa. Unfortunately for myself, their recipes wouldn't fit into my tiny crockpot. Plus, it's not like I'm serving 12 people; just me, myself, and I. So I had to do some tweaking to these recipes and create my own... Therefore, here is my tweaked Crockpot Hot Cocoa recipe for all you tiny crockpot owners:

First You'll want to round up your Ingredients:

2 1/2 Cups of Milk
3/4 - 1 Cup of Heavy Cream
1/2 Teaspoon of Vanilla
5oz Can of Evaporated Milk
1 Cup of Chocolate Chips
Your Choice of Garnish

Then put all of your ingredients in your crockpot and turn it on low. Stir occasionally.

Wait 2 hours or until your chocolate chips are melted & well mixed.

Serve in your favorite mug and top with your choice of garnish. I went for mini marshmallows (:

[ The recipe that I created serves 2-3 depending on the size of mug you choose ]

This recipe surprised me; It was so creamy and delicious and I can definitely see myself drinking this around the fire at Christmas time. I found that this homemade way is a lot more convenient because you can leave your crockpot on low and whenever you need a refill, you have your remaining hot cocoa steaming & ready to go. This hot cocoa was so satisfying that I might even get rid of my hot chocolate mix and k-cups.

Hot Chocolate is my go-to beverage on these cold Fall days; What is your go-to hot beverage?

Much Love! Xx

Chocolate Chunk Cookies

The weather outside was a bit chilly today, so I decided to stay in and bake. While flipping through my collection of recipes I came across one of my absolute favorite chocolate chip cookies. You could basically classify it as a double chocolate chunk cookie rather than your standard chocolate chip cookie. More chocolate the better, am I right ladies.. and gents?!

Without further ado, here is how I made them!

Ingredients: 

2 sticks of butter at room temperature

1 large egg

1 1/3 cup sugar

1 1/2 cup flour

2/3 cup cocoa powder

Chocolate chunks

First you'll need to preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Before

After

In a medium size bowl add your butter and sugar. With a wooden spoon, or mixer, whichever you prefer (I like using a wooden spoon), mix the two ingredients together until it becomes smooth. I found that it is best to mix using a folding technique or mashing the butter to the side of the bowl. . . if that makes sense. If you are using a mixer, just set it to a low speed and let it do all of the work. 

Next you'll want to add in a large egg. None of that small egg business.. go big or go home right? Try and have some fun by attempting to crack the egg with one hand! Did you do it?! If you did yay congrats! If not, I apologize for making you do that.. Anyways, mix the egg in with your butter/sugar. It should look like this:

Before

After

Now it's time to add in the dry ingredients. I added in the flour first but I don't think the order matters. I added half a cup at a time so that it is easier to mix - especially if you are mixing this by hand.

Then add in your cocoa powder. 

And finally add in your chocolate of choice. I went for two types of chocolate: white chocolate chips by Ghirardelli and a package of milk chocolate Cadbury squares. I used 3/4 of a bag of the white chocolate chips because the milk chocolate squares were already a lot. If you were just to use the Cadbury squares I recommend that you use two packages, but since I also used the white chocolate chips I prompted for one bar.  It really is all about personal preference when deciding on the amount of chocolate you want in your cookies.

Now for the actual baking part where your house smells of cookie goodness! Spray your pan so that your cookies wont stick to it, or you can use parchment paper. Take a spoonful of dough and roll it into a ball. I like my cookies bigger so I do two spoonfuls making them about the size of golf balls. Again, it is all personal preference. I can usually fit about 6-8 balls of dough on one cookie sheet, but it all depends on the size of your pan and how big you made your balls of dough. Pop them into the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes.

After the 10-12 minutes is done, pull out your cookies and let them cool for a couple of minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.

Once your cookies are completely cooled you can leave them on a cute little tray or put them in a box; if they even last the night.  I decided to place them into these fun little bags I got from target, because I am taking them to my brothers house for him and his friends to enjoy! (how nice of me right?) I like to enjoy my cookies freshly out of the oven paired with a glass of cold milk, or even with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

I hope you enjoyed this easy recipe and the cookies!
What is your favorite type of cookie?