This weekend is a colleague's birthday, so I decided to bake something special to treat everyone. I didn't do anything special or fancy to this recipe; just decided to follow it directly and the cupcakes came out beautifully. I frosted it with a regular cream cheese frosting which I flavored with raspberry extract.

The dark chocolate cake came out very fluffy and moist. The chocolate taste is not so bitter that you would cringe; in fact, the slight bitterness is a nice contrast to the sweet cream cheese frosting.

I am definitely getting better at frosting, eh?

The biggest problem is that I baked 30 cupcakes and it's gonna be a real burden to get to work tomorrow! Let's hope that it really doesn't rain early in the morning...

Dark Chocolate Cake (adapted to cupcakes, makes about 30)

2 cups boiling water
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, room temperature
2 1/4 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease three 9" round cake pans. I lined muffin tins with cupcake liners. In a medium bowl, pour boiling water over cocoa and whisk until smooth. Let mixture cool. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with the cocoa mixture. Spread batter evenly between the 3 prepared pans. I filled the cupcake liners up to half-way full.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes. I baked the cupcakes for about 20 minutes, until they puffed up all nice and cute! Allow to cool.

Cream Cheese Frosting

I used a basic cream cheese frosting (which just means that I eyeballed everything...)

I mixed the following together until they were the right consistency:

• cream cheese
• confectioner's sugar
• butter
• heavy cream
• red food coloring

This week's SMS recipe is extra special because it was picked by Melissa herself. You can see her post and the recipe at the SMS blog here.

I have to say, I've been quite busy lately, thanks to the start of summer classes. In fact, I have a midterm tomorrow and yet I procrastinated by baking today *hangs head in shame*. What can I say... I am just the queen of last minute cramming.

I have to say though, that this recipe couldn't have come on a better week (perhaps finals week, but that's besides the point). I whipped up the cookie batter in less than 30 minutes and baking was a breeze. I was too lazy to use my real oven (because when it's not doing it's real job baking, it's acting as storage for my pots and pans, which I have to drag out each time I'm baking) so I used the small toaster oven. Which is also why my cookies are not round but square since they spread in all kinds of directions. But it gives them character and a homemade quality, don't you think? :)

I also did not use toasted almonds as suggested, but added white chocolate, which gave it some sweetness since I used unsweetened chocolate instead of semisweet chocolate. Using unsweetened chocolate gave the cookies a heavenly smell of chocolate without the super sweetness of chocolate chips.

Busy, busy weekend! So this week's Sweet Melissa Sunday recipe was the Strawberry Shortcake. You can find the recipe at Pink Stripe's blog here. We'll come back to the shortcake in a bit.

Coincidentally, strawberries were on sale at Stop 'n Shop. So being that I had so many strawberries, I decided to embark on something a little different on my own... I looked around for a fresh strawberry cupcake recipe but didn't come up with anything, and also didn't find anything that used preserves as a layer (instead of mixing preserves straight into the cake batter). So I decided to do a little experiementing.

I made adjustments to the following recipe:

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
• 2 egg whites
• 2/3 cup buttermilk (I didn't have buttermilk, so used regular milk and just added vinegar)
• strawberry preserves

1. Mix dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt)
2. Beat sugar and butter until creamy. Add egg whites, one at a time, beating well after each egg white. Alternately beat in flour mixture and buttermilk in batches.
3. Scoop a small amount of cake batter into cupcake liners, then strawberry preserves as a layer, and then another scoop of the cake batter.
4. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees F.

For the frosting, I used a regular cream cheese frosting, and chopped up itty bitty pieces of fresh strawberries into it. This made for a refreshing frosting that wasn't all cream cheese and sugar. Make sure that if you do this, you chop it small enough so that it can make it through the piping tip and that it doesn't get stuck.

I also didn't have buttermilk and after a little bit of Googling, I was able to find that you could make one cup of buttermilk by using one cup of regular milk plus 1 tbsp of vinegar. Let it sit for 5-10 minutes and voila! You have homemade buttermilk.

I really have to pat myself on the back. This turned out to be one really good cupcake. The cake was a great consistency, light and fluffy. The strawberry preserves on the bottom was a nice little surprise, although I was a little disappointed that while baking, it sank to the bottom. The fresh strawberries in the cream cheese frosting was simply DECLICIOUS and also a neat little surprise, especially for the hubby. I'm glad I experimented with this!

***

For the Sweet Melissa Sunday shortcake, I followed the recipe exactly, except for the lemon zest and I also cut the recipe in half My biscuits came out light and fluffy and really, really good. I love macerated strawberries, so I made extra just to snack on... and my homemade whipped cream was easy to make and smelled (not to mention tasted) delicious. I was tempted to throw in small chunks of strawberries into the whipped cream, but decided against it. Even hubby liked these and he hardly ever eats sweets.

Here they are cooling on the rack, with the little cupcakes right behind. I also followed everyone's suggestions to make 4 instead of 3 when cutting the recipe in half and look how cute they came out. I have made note to test this biscuit recipe in the future for savory flavors (cheddar, chives, etc).

I actually have a little secret: I've never had strawberry shortcake before. So having strawberries on biscuits was something that was a little bit strange to me, since I've always associated biscuits with savory flavors and not with sweet flavors. But strawberries with whipped cream on crunchy yet fluffy biscuits... how could I not like it?

On the right is the finished product. So pretty!

***

So as most of you know from my previous post, we went to DC and had some awesome crabs, which gave hubby something to work on. We bought a pound of female crabs and our very own Old Bay seasoning, and steamed them up at home ourselves.

It was actually very simple to follow. Clean the crabs, spread the seasonings, steam for 30 minutes and enjoy!

We used McCormick Old Bay seasoning, which was found at a Gristedes in the city. Apparently, the Queens supermarkets don't carry them :(

So these past two weekends I've been preoccupied and therefore have not been able to partake in the SMS festivities. Apple Turnovers and Granola Breakfast Cookies can be found at the respective linked blogs.

What have I been doing? Well, we headed down to DC for a fun-filled (and food-filled) 3 day weekend. Crabs and oysters and other fresh seafood... to be quite honest I was getting a little bit sick of seafood towards the end of the trip and extremely happy to be pit-stopping at Pat's for some Philly cheesesteaks.

At Hank's Oyster Bar, we waited a good hour or so for our little table for four. It was a good wait though (and anyways, who wants to eat at a restaurant where there is no wait, right?) We had oysters, sablefish, soft-shell crab and a lobster roll. They also had something special, a Bloody Mary & sake oyster shooter. As you can see, there were only 3 'cause I was the only smart one who thought that the 3 combined was not going to be a good idea. Apparently it tasted pretty gross but was, of course, an experience to be had. The oysters were fresh and only $2 each, which is a lot less than we thought it would be. In fact, everything at Hank's was very cheap. We are so used to these outrageously priced restaurants in NYC that once we step out, we forget that the rest of the world eats at normal prices and portions. I highly recommend Hank's, but be forewarned that you should call ahead to put your name on the waitlist.

Hank's Oyster Bar
1624 Q Street NW
Washington, DC

Next stop, Maine Avenue Fish Market. I searched high and low on Yelp in order to find the perfect "stall" and I came upon Captain White's Seafood City. This place should be renamed Captain White's Seafood HEAVEN. There were fresh crabs, cooked crabs, raw oysters, cooked fish dishes, shrimp... if it lives in the water, they will have it.

We were only interested in the oysters and crabs, so that's the area we went straight to. For a dozen oysters, you paid only $11. That's practically unheard of. We also bought a dozen (which turned out to be 14) large female crabs for $26, and proceeded to the cooking station. We asked for the crabs to be cooked with spice (which is the Old Bay Spice, which is basically synonymous to Maryland-style crabs). There was a long wait; some families bought basket-loads of crabs and other assorted seafood items to be cooked. I really cannot say anymore because just thinking about it makes my mouth water. They are just really, really good. Go. There. NOW.

Captain White's Seafood City
1100 Maine Avenue SW
Washington, DC

On the way home from DC, we stopped at Pat's for some delicious Philly cheesesteaks. Okay, I must confess: I've never even tried Geno's and I already am prejudiced. I just don't like a newcomer coming in and trying to say they're the OG and they're the best. Plus, I don't like how a store needs to use flashy Vegas-like lights to attract attention. If your food is good, it will show. So yes, I'm a Pat's supporter!



This past weekend, I made chocolate chip cupcakes with hazelnut buttercream frosting. Now, unfortunately there are no pictures because I had some issues with the piping and therefore, instead of looking like yummy cupcakes, my frosting looked like piles of doodie :(

HOWEVER, the frosting was really good, so I'd like to share the recipe that I adapted to fit my needs.

Hazelnut Buttercream Frosting
(This recipe was enough for 12 cupcakes)

1 1/2 cups of unsalted butter at room temperature (3 sticks)
2 tablespoons of milk
9 ounces of hazelnut spread (I used Nutella)
1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
3 cups (more if needed for consistency) of confectioners' sugar

In a mixer, beat butter until creamy. Add the milk and in batches, the hazelnut spread. While this is mixing, add in the vanilla extract. Once this has all been mixed, add the confectioners' sugar in 3 batches, adjusting so that the frosting is to the consistency that you like. Pipe as per usual.

Here is my much prolonged update to my first Tahiti post. Hope this is helpful!