cupcakes, chocolate
Posted: July 16, 2012 Filed under: cake, cupcakes, musings | Tags: chocolate, cupcakes, just do something, life, musings, nutella, sprinkles 1 Comment »
I didn’t really know what to title this post because although there is a recipe for chocolate cupcakes at the end, it’s not really about the cupcakes. The cupcakes are a vehicle for me to talk about stuff.
I feel like lately life has been happening to me, rather than that I am actually living life. It might have to do with the fact that I’m living in a state of limbo and my life has been turned upside down this year. I don’t know what I want to do with my life or where I’m going and so I’m filling in time by working and baking and going to parties and weddings.
Some would say that this really is living. You’ve got your everyday (work stuff) your hobbies (baking) and your excitement (weddings and parties). By the way, it was my sister who got married, in case you were wondering.
But I posit that real life is an examined life, and although I have had brief periods where I’ve thought about stuff, everything’s been going so fast that it gets lost in the whirling eddies of my mind.
And it’s only going to get faster as I get older. As each year goes past, it becomes less and less of my total percentage of life lived, moving faster and faster through my consciousness. I cannot slow life down, nor can I stop thinking about how time is simply a human construct, developed for us to be able to understand how things are able to happen.
Enjoy this thought bubble of mine for the time being, hopefully I will be posting more frequently than I have over the past few months. DFTBA.
Chocolate Cupcakes
Adapted from Sweetapolita
You can make this with a mixer, although I didn’t. You can sift all the dry ingredients, although I didn’t. You don’t have to use sprinkles on top but they are highly recommended.
90 g plain flour
150 g white sugar
30 g cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp cornflour
1/4 tsp salt
70 ml buttermilk
60 ml hot coffee. This can be brewed, like with ground coffee and a french press, or simply two teaspoons of instant coffee and hot water. I went with the second option.
45 ml vegetable oil
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 180°Celsius. Line two cupcake trays with patty pan liners.
Sift all dry ingredients into a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and add all other ingredients.
Start by slowly whisking wet ingredients together in well, gradually incorporating dry ingredients. Although this ends up as quite a runny batter, you may want to use a wooden spoon for part of the mixing process.
Fill each patty pan about 2/3 full of the batter (3 tbsp full approximately) and bake for about 18 minutes. You want to be able to slide a sharp knife into the middle of the middle cupcake and come out almost clean.
Frost with chocolate nutella frosting and brace yourself.
Chocolate Nutella Frosting
225 g softened butter
190 g icing sugar
125 g dark chocolate
100 g Nutella
about 1 tbsp milk
pinch salt
Beat butter and icing sugar together in a medium bowl with a pinch of salt.
Melt the chocolate until about 85% melted and then stir until it’s fully melted.
Stir in the melted chocolate and the Nutella, then add the milk until it’s to your desired consistency.
Pipe onto chocolate cupcakes before you start to taste it, because once you go down that slippery slope there’s no going back.
There are actually parts of the world where life is not a busy whirl of things to do and people to see and statii to update. When we went to Queensland and spent time with the Indigenous people there, we got a taste of the tranquilty of simply living and working and being in fellowship together. That exists! Don’t give out hope. Our society, our culture, is geared toward burnout – but the Kingdom of God holds so much more for us