Mexican Chocolate Sugar Skull Cupcakes

I like skulls.

That's probably the best way to preface this (really long, picture heavy) post.  Regular skulls.  Sugar skulls.  On my ears.  On my mugs.  On my scarves.  On my swim suits. On my clutches. On my shirts.  On my Giants gear.  I dig them, okay?  Mix them with flowers or studs and OMG-must-buy.  So I decided that I wanted them on my cupcakes too.

Sugar skulls are particularly big right now and with Dia De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) just a few weeks away I felt compelled to celebrate a little early.  Google failed me when searching for pre-made sugar skulls to use as garnish.  But etsy didn't!

I bought plain skull molds and lotsssss of candy melts. Colored melts that I'd use to make the skulls into Day of the Dead skulls.  I love their heart shaped eye sockets!  The teeth were the only parts that I didnt' hand pipe.  The rest I had to do by hand. But nothing a steady hand, patience and some ziplock bags couldn't handle!

Once I knew I was making them, I racked my brain for what flavor to make the cupcakes.  I was going to do Mexican hot chocolate but my dear friend Katie brought me back something from her trip from New Mexico that was so delicious and awesome that  I instantly knew I had to use that instead.

She brought me back this Mexican chocolate from Kakawa Chocolate House.  A darker grade of chocolate at 60% cocoa, (who actually likes milk chocolate anyways?) with hints of cinnamon, almonds, cane juice and Mexican vanilla. The blend has something of a kick to it.  Not your ordinary chocolate here, so no way was I going to melt this stuff into a batter when I am still looking for the perfect chocolate cupcake recipe.

That'd be a waste.   I was making this into ganache.  I wanted to taste that kick that cinnamon and spices gives to the chocolate. I wanted to make holes in my cupcakes and shove so much chocolately goodness in the middle that it spilled over the sides.

It had to be done.

And to compliment the light spicyness of the chocolate I added cinnamon to  this chocolate recipe. And then since I was so heavy into the Mexican theme anyways, I busted out my trusty Mexican caramel -- cajeta.

Cinnamon Chocolate Cupcakes
Bake at 350* for 19 minutes, makes 20.

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I use Ghirardelli) 
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

2 eggs
3/4 cup hot water
3/4 cup heavy cream
3 tbsp canola or other vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
1. In bowl of stand mixer, combine dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking soda and powder, salt and cinnamon) and sift together.  (Use a sifter.)
2. Turn on mixer on medium and add in wet ingredients (eggs, hot water, cream, oil and vanilla) one by one.
3. Mix until fully incorporated.
4. Bake cupcakes, cool on rack and then core middles to fill with the ganache below.


Ganache
4 oz "Modern Mexican" chocolate (Kakawa Chocolate House)
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions:
1. Warm cream on stove top or in microwave until hot but before boiling.
2. Pour over chocolate and whisk until smooth.
3. Once cool enough to handle, put into a ziplock bag with the end cut off and pipe into centers of cupcakes.


Cajeta Frosting
1 stick cream cheese
1 stick butter
1/2 cup cajeta
3 cups powdered sugar

Directions:
1. Cream butter and cream cheese together until smooth.
2. Add in cajeta and beat until fully incorporated
3. Add powdered sugar slowly until desired consistency is reached.
4. Pipe onto cupcakes.


The result was Cinnamon Mexican Chocolate Cupcakes with Cajeta Frosting.  Some had more of that divine Mexican chocolate garnished on top.

But the majority had my bright sugar skulls.

I loved how the skulls came out.  Although I do admit I wish the molds had been smaller since they covered all the cupcake/frosting, the bigger skulls worked well because they gave me more room to "draw" on them.  I think they all have some personality to them right?

I must admit that I have my favorites though. Mainly the two below.

Whats't not to love about mustaches right?  PURPLE MUSTACHES people!

Sadly, I am still waiting to find my PERFECT chocolate cupcake recipe.  I used Sprinke Bake's recipe this time because I am currently in love with her and think everything she touches is magic.  But it was a little crumblier than I hoped it would be.  So the search continues.  Anyone have any recommendations?

In any case, they cupcakes were still good and the addition of the cinnamon to the batter was an excellent choice.  When you eat them all together it turns into a mess of course, but the mess was so rich and delicious that it more than makes up for having chocolate crumbs and sticky frosting all over your face and hands.

But wait boys and girls.  There's more.  If that wasn't enough I decided that I had to take it one step further.  I mean, yes Mexican Chocolate cupcakes rock.  Yes, Day of the Dead Sugar Skulls on top of said cupcakes are even more awesome.  What else could I do?

San Francisco Giants Sugar Skulls.

With mustaches AND a beard!

 Loosely based off this awesome Oaklandish shirt I got earlier in the season.  A bad ass season that's brought us into the Post Season now!

I guess you can say that I'm a fan right?  First cookies and now cupcakes?  What will I do next? When we win the World Series (right before Dia de Los Muertos), i'll let you know.  Viva Gigantes! Happy Early Halloween!  Happy Day of the Dead!  (Orange) October is awesome.

xoxo,
Anna

Salted Caramel Chocolate Chunk Brownies

Sometimes, like this weekend, I've got things to do.  Like trying to sneak in a 90 minute work out, running errands, showering, getting dressed cuz I need to be ready 20 minutes ago, cleaning up my room and shoving some kind of nutrient down my throat all while baking something amazing that will make a hot boy with abs fall in love with me.

Bet you're a little impressed with me at this point right?  Well  you can be (especially if you're this mysterious aforementioned boy with abs), but this time I actually had some help when I made these salted caramel chocolate chunk brownies (from heaven).  That help was from The Women's Bean Project in Colorado.

Let's explain.  To be specific, the women there helped me out by putting together the brownie mix that I used.  Yup, I used a mix. So these are half from scratch.  And it's okay for three reasons.  1).  I am not good at making brownies.  I have burnt more than one flat, lack luster batch. I am awful at it, so someone taking over the difficult task of telling me how to put it together is quite welcomed.  Especially when they TASTE good.  2). I looked at the ingredients first.  Flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, vanilla.... all legit stuff i'd be using anyways!  Nothing weird or artificial.  3)  I get to tell you about this great non profit-org that you probably have never heard of before.

The Women's Bean Project is a social enterprise that offers a transitional job in gourmet food manufacturing to women.  The women hired at the Bean Project have histories of poverty and unemployment.  The program is designed to provide immediate income, arrange support services to overcome barriers to employment, and teach the job readiness skills needed to get and keep a job.  The Women's Bean Project does not employ women to sell its products.  They sell its products in order to employ women.  

My friend Samantha (who I met while vacationing in Europe last year) works there and contacted me earlier this month to ask if she could send me a few of their mixes for me to try out.  The aim was to find a few new and interesting ways to spruce up the mixes.  So I googled the organization and their products and was more than stoked to try something out.  Their gourmet products include cookie and brownie mixes.  Right up my alley!  Hopefully you will see 1-2 more post about them in the coming weeks.  Because as Sam promised, a big box arrived at my house a few days later  from the Women's Bean Project.  Every mix was hand packaged by someone.  So thanks Gloria, whoever you are, for putting together "Cindy's Sinfully Chocolate Brownie Mix" for me.

The recipe below can be used with any boxed brownie mix but hopefully if you know that you'll be busy this holiday season, (and I mean who wont be?) and want to stock up on brownie mix you'll skip the Duncan Hines ready mix and consider helping The Women's Bean Project instead.  You can find more information about them here, and purchase their affordable products here.

To continue with my September caramel theme, I decided to slather a whole bunch of it on top of the brownies.  With some coarse salt because salted caramel is the only thing better than regular caramel.  But it needed a layer of chocolate chunks too so that came first.


Salted Caramel Chocolate Chunk Brownies 

1 bag of Cindy's Sinfully Chocolate Brownie Mix
1 4 oz bar of good chocolate, chopped coarsely  (I used Ghirardelli cuz im a SF chocolate snob)
8 oz unwrapped caramels
1/4 cup heavy cream
coarse salt for sprinkling

Directions:
1. Mix brownie batter, per recipe instructions.
2. Line an 8x8 inch pan in aluminum foil and butter/spray.  This will aid you in easier clean up, removal and ultimately consumption.  Fill pan with brownie batter.
3.  Place pan in oven and bake for 8-10 minutes, just enough for the batter to start to set but not for it to bake completely.
4.  Remove pan from oven and spread chocolate chunks over the top of batter.  Return to oven to finish baking; approximately 10-15 minutes. When done remove from oven and set aside to cool.
5. While brownies are baking, place unwrapped caramels in a saucepan with heavy milk and stir until melted.
4. Once caramel sauce is ready, drizzle over the tops of the brownies.  You can either do this with a spoon or use a bottle.
5.  Sprinkle brownies with coarse salt.
6. Once cool, remove foil and brownies from tray and discard foil.  Cut brownies into small pieces.

The result?

Just this.  Fudgey, crunchy, sweet and savory.

The brownies are super fudgey and moist, just as promised.  The added crunch you get when you let them cool and the top chocolate chunk layer has solidified itself again. (Not that there is ANYTHING wrong with eating a warm brownie, of course.)  The caramel is the sweet, and those pretty salt flakes is what makes the savory.

This week's eating well was a total wash, MyFitnessPal is super mad at me, and I am going to have to eat spinach with dust dressing for the next 30 days to stop being so squishy for my upcoming cruise.  Though I will admit, it was super worth it.

Go make these, nao. Serve them up on platter for you and your friends.

They'll be glad you did. You'll be glad you did.  Heck, i'll be glad for you too because I hope you're the sharing type.  I might kinda be out already...

Oh and pro tip;  put some vanilla bean ice cream on top of these if you're feeling daring. Ah-mazing.

xoxo,
Anna

Caramel Apple Fritters

September must be caramel month here at my feelings taste like cupcakes, cuz last week I  had those caramel pumpkin snickerdoodles, and just look at the caramel on that plate this week!  Nom.  Can't take full credit for these those, I had a lovely little baking partner this weekend.  My dear Rachelle, who I baked that soft chocolate cake with a few months ago, and I got together Saturday morning to churn out some quick donuts for a late dessert after brekkie.  Rachelle dates are the best.  They always involve food.

We adapted the recipe from here, but made one crucial change.  Instead of making a simple glaze (milk + powdered sugar) to coat it in, we drizzled it with caramel.  Yeah, just because caramels and apples are lovely and delicious.

Apple Fritters
Makes about 24 fritters, around 1.5 inches in diameter.
Fry at 375*  on each side as needed.

1 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
dash of salt
2 tsp cinnamon (feel free to add more, we wished we had!)
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp butter, melted
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1 – 1 1/2 cups of finely chopped apples

vegetable oil for frying
powdered sugar for dusting

Directions

1. Mix dry ingredients together.

2. In mixer, slowly add in vanilla, butter, egg,milk and beat until incorporated. 

3. Fold in apple pieces. 

4. Heat oil.  Should be around 375*. Test with a small piece of dough before starting to fry.  Place 2-3 scoops of batter at a time into oil and cook on each side until golden brown and cooked all the way through.  (Once we got the hang of it, it took about 3 minutes to get them cooked all the way.  

5. Place on paper towels to absorb oil

6. Sprinkle with powdered sugar while still hot

Easy Caramel Sauce
About 8 oz of unwrapped caramels
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions:
1. Place caramels in a sauce pan over low heat and add cream

2. Whisk slowly until caramels are completely melted and sauce is smooth.
3. Drizzle over fritters and serve

So how do they look like when they're done and sprinkled with powdered sugar and drizzled with caramel?

Like this:

And when you bite into them, revealing those chopped up apples inside, they look a little like this:

Consume these ASAP because the warm insides and gooey caramel have a short shelf life.  Make sure that you have plenty of taste testers near by to help you do the job though.

Cuz the temptation to shove them all in your mouth is high.  They do smell, and look,  like caramel cinnamon apple deliciousness after all.

So put them on a plate, invite some friends over and have a fritter brekkie party.

It took a few to get the hang of frying them, I try not to use oil in anything I cook (granted, i can't cook) and neither does Rachelle but in the end they came out pretty awesome.  Now we feel confident that we will be adequately prepared for our next baking adventure:  churros.  I told you Rachelle dates are awesome.

But before we do that, we're hitting up Oakland's Eat Real Festival.  So no baking this weekend since I will already be eating 4x my body weight anyways. (I'm actually going for 2/3 days, haha.)  Check it out if you're in town.  It's 100% more awesome than any other foodie thing you've ever been to.

xoxo,

Anna

Caramel Filled Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

Oh,  these Snickerdoodles look so normal don't they?  Stacked up in rows, showing off their cinnamony sugar goodness.  But are you looking close enough?  There's a little something that's..  off about them.

These kinda things to be exact.

Pinner of all things (that's me) found this recipe for pumpkin snickerdoodles and I kind of threw up my hands in defeat.  Yeah, Hi Fall.  Pumpkin, cinnamon, spices, gingerbread, eggnog... we'll play. And we're bringing some caramel into the picture too.

Caramel Filled Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
Bake at 350* for 12 minutes. Makes around 40 using a medium sized cookie scoop.

For Cookies:
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar1/2 cup light brown sugar3/4 cup pumpkin puree1 large egg2 teaspoons vanilla extract3 3/4 cups flour1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder1/2 teaspoon salt1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

For filling:
40 individually wrapped caramel candies

For Coating: 
1/4 cups granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
Small dash of allspice

Directions:
1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg and set aside.
2. In an electric mixer, beat sugars and butter together until fluffy.
3. Stir in pumpkin puree. 
4. Add in egg and vanilla.
5. On low, stir in the dry ingredients into the wet until fully incorporated.
6. Cover cookie dough and put in fridge to chill.

Here's where things get real boys and girls.  Once the dough has been chilled enough to be firm but still malleable, take it out of the fridge and form equal sized balls.  A medium cookie scoop worked well for me. Then gather your filling and topping.

Next you'll want to either tear apart with your hands, or a knife like I did, the top half of the cookie.  Then place an entire caramel in the center then fully recover with the dough, rolling into a ball again.

Roll the dough in the topping completely, flattening slightly before placing on cookie sheet.

Bake in oven, and if you've done a good job at covering up all the sides you shouldn't have any spillage.  In case you haven't, that't okay too.

It gives for a sneak peak of what's to come.

And what's to come is a delicious cinnamony carmael bite of goodness.

I try not to eat too much of my baking, but I always have at least one.  I might have had more that one of these.  Or more than two.  Who's counting anyways? If Summer's over that means I'm allowed to pack on an extra 5 lbs of insulation right?  Winter's coming!

They taste very lightly of pumpkin.  Next time I'll try to amp that up.  But the caramel, especially if warm tastes oh so good with the cinnamon.  I also made a batch without stuffing.  Truth be told, those did not disappear as fast as these did.  I also did some with cream cheese.  I think I like stuffing cookies with things.  Best thing about these is popping them in the microwave for 30 seconds a day or two later.  Instant caramel goodness in your mouth.  

I'll be back real soon.  I have so many baked yummy things lined up, it's ridiculous. You're probably going to want to move into the guest bedroom now in preparation.

xoxo,
Anna