German Apple Cake

I modified the original recipe according to my tastes. The taste testers (work peeps) agree that this was good. I double the recipe for work so had to bake for approximately 55-60 mins. Please refer to the bottom of the page for the original recipe

Ingredients:
2 Eggs
2 cups flour

1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1tsp cinnamon +1 tsp apple pie spice (or 2 tsp ground cinnamon)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk
4 cups apples (peeled and thinly sliced) - I do about 2-3

How to make: 

1. Preheat Oven to 350 F. Grease and flour the pan you are going to use. 
2. In a bowl, add flour + salt+ baking pwd + cinnamon and mix well to combine
3. Beat oil + sugar + eggs until smooth. Add vanilla + buttermilk and beat until combined
4. Add the flour to this mixture in 3 additions and use mix well using a spatula. The batter will be very thick and hard to stir. Build those muscles! 
5. Fold in the apples and build more arm muscles
6. Bake for 40 mins (I found this was enough) but go to 45 or until the stick inserted in the center comes out clean 

Original recipe:

http://m.allrecipes.com/recipe/7915/german-apple-cake-i

Chocolate Cupcake with Hazelnut frosting and Chocolate flowers!

Oh yeah! sometimes you find some good things on Pinterest. These flowers were one of them. I thought these would be the star of the show but the frosting was fabulous!

So here's what I did:

For the cupcake:

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup Starbucks dark hot chocolate powder (or cocoa powder)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup hot water + instant coffee or 1 cup strong brewed coffee from early in the day

To make: 

Preheat oven to 350 F   

Heat water in micro for 2 mins and add instant coffee. Then add the 1/3 cup of cocoa or hot chocolate.

Mix all wet ingredients together + add the dry ingredients and beat until there are no lumps. Fill the cupcake liners 2/3 full and bake for about 30 mins. Makes about 24 cupcakes depending on how much you add in each!!!

Note: Bake 20 mins is making 2 9" cakes :)

For Hazelnut Frosting:

Ingredients: 

Half a jar of Jiff Hazelnut spread (you can also use nutella)

2 sticks butter (softened) - I like unsalted

1 tblsp vanilla 

Powdered sugar (eyeball it! Or taste as you go or judge by thickness.. maybe about 1 lb)

6-8 tblsp milk, heavy cream or half and half or milk (whatever you have at hand)

How to make: Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffly (it turns pale and kinda harder to stir), add half a jar of Jiff spread and vanilla (I found that Jiff has more hazelnut flavour than Nutella) and beat some more. Add milk 2 tblsp at a time until you reach the desired consistency. Transfer to piping bag with any wide tip you want.

For the Chocolate Flowers: 

Follow recipe here: http://sweetrevelations.wordpress.com/2011/11/20/dark-chocolate-roses/ 

My take on the flowers: Some Taste Testers (= work peeps) liked this while some thought it was too rich while others thought the consistency was fudgy! For me, I could still taste the Cornstarch and did not like it. For next time, hopefully I can find a way to mask that.