TWD: I'm Late, I'm Late for a Very Important Date!

I'm doing something I promised I would not do...I'm posting my entry past the deadline, and I feel terrible.

But I have to say the Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes are doing very well at easing my guilt!  I only had to look at them to feel a BIG grin coming on.  Boy, are they gooood.  

They were so good I didn't want to take them to work!  But they were really too scrumptious to keep to myself.  I ended up sharing...my kindergarten teacher would have been proud.  LOL.

This cupcake is what all chocolate cakes should strive for.  It is moist and sinfully chocolaty without being too sweet.  It's was very quick and easy to make (and yes, with my usual mishaps).  I plan on making couple more batches this weekend.

Thank you to Clara of I Heart Food 4 Thought for choosing this week's recipe!

"Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my closeup."

TWD: Pumpkin Muffins

This time, I was determined to follow the recipe exactly as it was written.  I carefully measured each ingredient and organized them according to the order they went into the bowl.  I knew I nailed it...or so I thought.

Of course, this is me we're talking about.  So, something either had to be missing, in the wrong quantity or the oven temperature was too low or too high, right? Right.

I was feeling quite pleased with myself when I noticed that I seemed to have quite a bit of the batter left and the muffin cups were already pretty full. It turns out I completely overlooked the fact that the recipe did not require a full can of pumpkin puree.  

That's right.  I dumped the entire can of the puree into the batter.  No wonder I had so much batter! LOL!!

I guess I shouldn't have gone straight into kitchen to bake after a very stressful day at work.  I probably should have meditated or done some breathing exercises before jumping into this. But funnily enough, the stress I still felt when I got home melted away as I measured, stirred, laughed at myself and sampled the results of my culinary misadventure.

By the way, the muffins turned out fine.  A little moist perhaps but you'd never know it had more than double the amount of the puree.  Another forgiving recipe.  Dorie...thank you, thank you, thank you.  

And thank you, Kelly of Sounding my Barbaric Gulp for choosing this week's recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie.

I can't wait for next week! Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes!  Woohoo! 

Or perhaps I should say, Om.

Operation Baking GALS: Round 3

This week was Round 3 of Operation Baking GALS.  I was part of Team Baking for Our Troops which was hosted by Lyndsay (who deserves a BIG thank you).  I must have deliberated over what kinds of cookies to make for about 2 weeks.  I finally decide to make...

Ginger Molasses

Peanut Butter

Chocolate Walnut

The Chocolate Walnut is actually Chocolate Chip but ended up being more like Chocolate Dust cookies which didn't sound very appetizing.  Somehow I pulverized the chocolate when chopping the chocolate.  I don't know how that happened.  Things like this happen to me when I bake.  Anyway, when the cookies  came out of the oven, they did not look like chocolate chip anything. Faaaaar from it.  So, I renamed it Chocolate Walnut.  Chocolate Chip or Dust, I hope the cookies make my team's soldier smile.  I hope he gets great enjoyment from them.

The recipes for these cookies can be found in Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home To Yours.