We had my family over last night for my mom’s birthday. She loves chocolate so I made some Devil’s Food cupcakes from a recipe in Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc at Home cookbook. I obviously can’t share the recipe here, but it is a fabulous cookbook. I had never heard of Thomas Keller until Hubby started talking about him, and Michelin Star ratings on restaurants and some restaurant in San Fransisco that costs like 200 dollars a person for dinner. A few years ago these things would have had no meaning for me, but I am starting to think we might make the trek out to the west coast sometime to try the restaurant. Of course our budget has to recover from our recent trip first. Maybe it can be his birthday present next year. Maybe I’ll get an award for being the best wife ever.
I digress. I commented on how awesome Thomas Keller is and Hubby pointed out that all of the dessert recipes are probably by his pastry chef at his restaurant. Whatever, it’s his name on the cookbook so he gets the credit. Here are the cupcakes.
We knew they were going to be pretty awesome. We had tried them last month for Hubby’s mom’s birthday. That time Hubby had made a boiled buttercream which I had never made before (I was sick in bed with a fever so I was not involved in that process). So this time I was super excited to try my hand at a new frosting. Then we realized we didn’t have enough butter for that recipe and the recipe for dinner. So I used the butter that was available and made a version of the buttercream icing my mom always made. I like that about the easy version. I don’t think I measured anything but I had made it so many times that it turned out fine.
While I was waiting for the cupcakes to cool I melted some chocolate candy coating and put it in a squeeze bottle.
This was left over from my attempts at cake pops. True story: a little over a year ago my sister gave me Bakerella’s Cake Pop book. I had never heard of these things! I loved it! I started reading her blog and she mentioned another blogger, Marian from Sweetopia. Sweetopia had the most gorgeous decorated cookies and the more I read about them the more I thought I could do that. The rest is history.
Sorry I keep getting distracted today. I made some designs on wax paper and let the candy dry. Not terribly original designs I might add.
However, when they went onto the cupcakes they seemed pretty cute. I would have been embarrassed about how easy these cupcakes were except they were SO DELICIOUS!!!
Happy Birthday Mom!
cookiecuttyer 