MONDAY

Sliced Brisket with Onions on Soft Potato Rolls  |  French “Peasant” Beets

Photo from Food52

Tonight’s dinner was pretty simple…simply reheat the brisket & onions and prepare the beets {the recipe is pretty straight forward}.  So I decided to skip the regular dinner post & tackle my first Valentine’s Day project…Devil’s Food Cupcakes with Ombré Frosting!  I am NOT a baker but I wanted to do something special for Valentine’s Day. So let’s begin…

Devil’s Food Cupcakes with Creme Filling {adapted from Karen DeMasco via The Wednesday Chef}

• ¾ cup plus 1½ teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder
  
• ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons warm water
• ¾ cup cake flour
• 2/3 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• ¾ teaspoon baking powder
• ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
• 1¼ cups plus 2 tablespoons firmly-packed dark brown sugar
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 large egg
• ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons buttermilk
• ¾ teaspoon pure vanilla paste

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Line standard muffin tins with paper liners or use stand-alone paper baking cups, as I did here.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the cocoa powder and warm water to form a paste; set aside.
3. In another bowl, sift together the cake flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
4. With an electric mixer, mix the brown sugar with the butter on medium speed until they are well combined with no pieces of butter visible.  Add the cocoa paste, making sure to use a spatula to get all of the cocoa paste into the mixer bowl. Once the mixture is well-combined, add the egg & egg yolk and blend.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.  In three additions each, add the buttermilk and vanilla mixture, alternating with the sifted flour mixture.
5. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups, filling them ½ full and place individual muffin cups on a baking sheet.  Bake, rotating the baking sheet halfway through, until a tester inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out mostly clean, 20-25 minutes.  Remove muffin cups to a wire rack & let cool completely.

Now, my favorite measuring cups!

Let’s continue with the cupcakes, make the cocoa paste…

And continue with the batter…{beginning in the top right-hand corner & moving clockwise}

Then divide batter evenly among the muffin cups {filling each cup ½ way} & bake...

Once the cupcakes have been removed from the oven, let them cool completely before moving ahead.  Meanwhile, make the creme filling…

For the Cream Filling…

• 1 cup heavy creme
• 2 tablespoons confectioner’s sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla paste

1. Combine all of the ingredients in a mixing bowl & beat with a hand-held, electric mixer, set on medium speed, until soft peaks form {about 4 minutes}.  Put the creme into an injector or a pastry bag, fitted with a small piping tip.  Using a paring knife, make a small cut into each cupcake & insert the tip of the injector/pastry bag.  Gently squeeze the creme filling mixture into the cupcake until a small white dot appears on the surface of the cupcake {don’t worry about the appearance of the dot…the frosting will cover the dot}. Repeat with each cupcake.

So it is 20 minutes until midnight here in California, so that means my carriage {read, computer keyboard} is about to turn into a pumpkin.  The ombré frosting for these miniature cupcakes turned out so beautifully!  Come back for a visit tomorrow to see the finished cupcakes…

By the way…the brisket was even BETTER tonight which made the sandwiches out-of-this-world AMAZING!  The beets were also exceptional and so very simple {even without the cheese & bread]…a perfect veggie side dish to our sandwiches.  I hope you try this combination one day…