Black & Gold Dark Chocolate Caramel Cupcakes

If you want to indulge in something incredibly rich and decadent, I can think of no better way than this cupcake. The moist chocolaty cake is paired with a caramel spiked dark chocolate buttercream, a chocolate on chocolate combination that can’t be beat. Using the Special Dark cocoa powder gives the cupcakes themselves an almost coal-black appearance, a richness of flavor, and a decadence that regular cocoa just can’t compete with.

I attempted to infuse the cakes themselves with caramel. Hoping for a gooey caramel center suspended in the cake, I plopped some caramel candies into the batter before baking. Makes sense, right?

Well, it didn’t quite turn out as I planned.

Instead of a gooey center, the caramel sunk and spread out on the bottom, and then solidified, making for a solid caramel ‘crust’ on the bottom of the cupcake. You couldn’t eat it with the rest of the cupcake, so it was basically like eating a cupcake followed by a caramel candy. I only added the surprise caramels to half of the cupcakes, so you never knew whether your first bite would sink in smoothly in the moist cake, or would it be stopped suddenly by a chewey block of caramel? It’s like cupcake roulette.

Next time? The caramel-filled concept was a good one, but it needs work. I think maybe using a liquid caramel topping instead would work – a dollop on top of the uncooked batter before going in the oven. Or, go the filled route. Bake the cupcakes sans-caramel, and then pump them full of gooey goodness after they’re good and baked.

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Black & Gold Dark Chocolate Caramel Cupcakes

Makes 12 cupcakes.

Ingredients:

1 cup coconut milk
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup special dark cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Frosting:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, room temperature
1/3 cup special dark cocoa powder
2 cups confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons milk or soymilk
2 tablespoons caramel topping

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin pan with paper liners.

Whisk together the coconut milk, sugar, oil, and vanilla extract and beat till foamy. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add to wet ingredients and beat until no lumps remain (or very few remain).

Pour into liners, filling each with 1/4 cup of batter. Optionally add a dollop of caramel sauce to each cup. Bake 18-22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

For frosting, cream butter until smooth and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Add cocoa powder and beat until incorporated. Add 1 tablespoon soymilk and mix to combine. Add confectioners' sugar 1/2 cup at a time and mix until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes total. Add caramel topping and mix well. If frosting is too thick, add more soymilk and beat until fluffy. If frosting is too soft, add more sugar and again, beat until fluffy. You want the frosting to keep it's shape when piped on to the cupcake, but still fluffy enough that it stays light and soft when eaten. Top with a drizzle of caramel sauce if desired.

Baked Shrimp with Feta

I think we sometimes get too caught up on the stove. Sauteing I mean. Just about everything we eat is cooked in a pan on the stove. Which is why this baked shrimp dish was so refreshing. Yes, there are some parts of it done on the stove, but the magic happens in the oven.

Taylor especially loves this method of cooking because while dinner is finishing up “hands-free” in the oven, he can scrub like a pro and have the entire kitchen spotless before it comes out. Yes, he’s that good. I always joke that my presence in the kitchen messes him up, literally. When he cooks by himself? The kitchen is always sparkling clean by the time (or before) dinner is served. When we cook together? Well, there’s always a few more dishes to be done and they don’t quite get done as efficiently. Oops. I don’t know how he does it – he can have two pots on the stove, something in the oven, and be doing the prep dishes while he manages not to burn anything. I’ve got selective focus. Make me do dishes while I cook and you’ll end up with something overdone and chewy or burnt to a crisp. Mmmm.

We served this dish on a bed of our new favorite starchy side dish – israeli cous cous. My favorite is to cook it with a bit of olive oil, cumin, and cinnamon. Practically candy. Little round balls of pasta-like candy. Orzo would work just fine too.

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Baked Shrimp with Feta

Makes 4 servings. Recipe from Cooking Light.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 pounds large shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons bottled clam juice
1 tablespoon white wine
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained
1/2 cup (2 ounces) crumbled feta cheese
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450°. Combine lemon juice and shrimp in a large bowl; toss well.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. dd oil to pan, swirling to coat. Add onion to pan; sauté 1 minute. Add garlic; sauté 1 minute. Add clam juice, wine, oregano, pepper, and tomatoes; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes. Stir in shrimp mixture.

Place mixture in an 11 x 7–inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle cheese evenly over mixture. Bake for 12 minutes or until shrimp are done and cheese melts. Sprinkle with parsley; serve immediately.

Goat Cheese Crostini with Blood Orange and Black Pepper Marmalade

I managed to score a bag of blood oranges at Trader Joe’s a few weeks back, something I absolutely love but haven’t been able to find since we left the produce-laden hills of California. Hooray for Trader Joe’s! After my find, I immediately scoured the internet for the perfect way to use these ruby red gems. And you know my affinity for goat cheese, so when I stumbled upon this recipe, well, how could I not make it?

The marmalade is surprisingly tart. I wouldn’t eat a spoonful of it on it’s own. But paired with the creamy goat cheese and toasty bread, well, it’s perfect. Can’t say much more about it than that.

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Goat Cheese Crostini with Blood Orange and Black Pepper Marmalade

Makes 6 servings. Recipe from Epicurious.

Ingredients:

8 ounces soft fresh goat cheese, room temperature
4 blood oranges, divided
1/4 cup honey
1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
Fresh lemon juice (optional)
18 1/2-inch-thick slices French or raisin baguette, toasted

Directions:

Place goat cheese in small bowl. Finely grate 1 teaspoon peel from 1 blood orange; stir peel into cheese.

Using vegetable peeler, remove peel (orange part only) in strips from remaining 3 oranges. Cut peel into 1/8- to 1/4-inch pieces and place in medium saucepan.

Using small sharp knife, cut white pith from all 4 oranges. Working over another small bowl to catch juices, cut between orange membranes to release segments. Squeeze any remaining juice from membranes into bowl. Discard membranes. Coarsely chop orange segments and add to saucepan along with any juices. Add juices from bowl to saucepan. Stir in honey and 1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper.

Bring to boil over medium-high heat and cook uncovered until thick and reduced to 1/2 cup, stirring frequently, about 10 minutes. Cool. Season with more ground black pepper to taste and with fresh lemon juice, if desired.

DO AHEAD: Cheese and marmalade can be made 1 day ahead; cover separately and chill. Bring to room temperature before assembling crostini. Top toasted baguette slices with goat cheese, then marmalade. Place crostini on platter and serve.

Mongolian Beef

This recipe is supposedly a “copy-cat” recipe of PF Chang’s Mongolian Beef. Neither of us can remember what exactly that tastes like, so I can’t say if it actually is or not, but it was pretty darn delicious. By no means healthy, but delicious nonetheless.

We used about half the oil the recipe calls for to cook the beef, but it was still a bit oily, though I guess that is to be expected with Chinese take out food. Mmm grease. The sauce itself is practically candy, and I’m sure the dish would be just as delicious if the beef were quickly pan-seared instead of submerged in cooking oil (sounds appetizing, doesn’t it?).

We added some yellow onion, which Taylor insists is always in a good plate of Mongolian beef. And he would know. It’s his go-to meal whenever we go out to dinner at a Chinese restaurant. You think he’d be more adventurous, but nope. Mongolian beef it is.

All we were missing were those crispy rice noodles that I love so much (and that are a blast to fry up yourself). Next time, since, you know, we still have two fajita packs left in the freezer.

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Mongolian Beef

Makes 2 servings. Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon ginger, minced
1 tablespoon garlic, chopped
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
vegetable oil, for frying (about 1 cup)
1 lb flank steak
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
2 large green onions

Directions:

Make the sauce by heating 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil in a medium saucepan over med/low heat. Add ginger and garlic to the pan and quickly add the soy sauce and water before the garlic scorches. Dissolve the brown sugar in the sauce, then raise the heat to about medium and boil the sauce for 2-3 minutes or until the sauce thickens. Remove it from the heat.

Slice the flank steak against the grain into 1/4" thick bite-size slices. Tilt the blade of your knife at about a forty five degree angle to the top of the steak so that you get wider cuts. Dip the steak pieces into the cornstarch to apply a very thin dusting to both sides of each piece of beef. Let the beef sit for about 10 minutes so that the cornstarch sticks.

Heat up one cup of oil in a wok or large skillet until it's nice and hot, but not smoking. Add the beef to the oil and saute for two minutes, or until the beef just begins to darken on the edges. You don't need a thorough cooking here since the beef is going to go back on the heat later. Stir the meat around a little so that it cooks evenly. After a couple minutes, use a large slotted spoon to take the meat out and onto paper towels, then pour the oil out of the wok or skillet.

Put the pan back over the heat, dump the meat back into it. Add the onion and saute for one minute. Add the sauce, cook for one minute while stirring, then add all the green onions. Cook for one more minute, then remove the beef and onions with tongs or a slotted spoon to a serving plate, leaving the excess sauce behind in the pan.