Tasty Tuesdays: Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes

Good morning everyone!  I have a fun recipe to share with you today. On Friday D & I whipped up some cupcakes to take to his parents' place for the weekend. We were going to make these, but we didn't want to wait for the dough to rise aka we're impatient, so we went with these Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes from EatingWell (click for recipe). We also had a bunch of cherries that were past their prime, so this was a great way to use them up before we left.

Side Note: Don't you just hate wasting food? I had to throw out a $2 avocado last week and figured I may as well just throw in a toonie. We're trying to be more mindful of how much goes to waste just because we don't feel like eating it or we forget about it. As a bonus, I get to try new recipes!

Okay, back to this recipe.

We made a few substitutions to the original.
- Subbed unsweetened applesauce for the oil.
- Subbed all-purpose whole wheat & all purpose white for the cake flours.

- Subbed soy milk with 2 tsp for the buttermilk & added about an extra 1/3 cup.

And.... they still turned out great. The cherry flavour is really subtle, but then you'll get a bite of a juicy piece of cherry. And, thanks to our handy applesauce substitution, they're not that bad for you. Have a peek at how delicious they look:

So, I'm planning on making a big batch of these the next time cherries are on sale. And not sharing....

Kidding.

Love & cupcakes,

Janelle

Tasty "Thursdays": Peanut Butter Cups

Tasty Tuesdays is Thursday for today.... Two weeks ago I made these little delights for D as an Easter treat. I'm not a huge peanut butter cup fan myself even though I love chocolate and peanut butter separately, but because D is crazy about them I really wanted to give them a go. I used this recipe from All Recipes, but I did regular sized cups instead of mini ones, so I did end up having to use more chocolate than indicated. I've modified the recipe on this page for the larger cups, FYI.

Ingredients

• 2 pkgs milk chocolate chips
• 2 tablespoons shortening
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 2/3 cup graham cracker crumbs (I used storebought fine breadcrumbs and it was fine!)

Do it up

In 1-quart saucepan combine chocolate chips and shortening. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until melted and smooth (3 to 5 minutes).
*I used a double boiler as you can see in the photo. If you don't know what a double boiler is, it's when you put 1-2 inches in a pot, bring it to a boil, then reduce it. Then you put a metal bowl on top of the pot and melt your chocolate in it. It keeps the chocolate from cooling and hardening because you keep the water boiling at low heat. It makes working with chocolate so much easier & I highly recommend it!

With small paint brush or mini-spatula, coat inside top cup evenly with about 1 teaspoon melted chocolate to about 1/8-inch thickness, bringing coating to middle of cup. Repeat until all cups are coated; refrigerate or freeze cups. 

In 2-quart saucepan combine butter or margarine and peanut butter. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until melted (4 to 6 minutes). Stir in confectioners' sugar and graham cracker crumbs. Press about 1-1-1/2 tablespoon filling into each chocolate cup.
Spoon about 1 teaspoon melted chocolate on top of filling; spread to cover. Freeze until firm (about 2 hours) carefully peel off paper cups. Store refrigerated. 

 

The smooth top ones were made with Chip its brand chips.

This recipe is definitely worth trying. It takes a little while to line the cups but once you get used to it, you can breeze right through. Not to mention, they taste delicious and the texture of the PB filling is perfect. Let me know if you give these a shot!

Thanks for reading,
xo Janelle