Moss Cupcakes You Say?? I Do!!!

Ok, I know this is a sort of ridiculous thing to be posting, but I don't really care.  The idea popped into my head and it just wouldn't go away... Cupcakes. Made to look like moss balls.  "You know, those moss balls you see sold at home decor places."  I said, explaining the idea to Jason.  "What?  Like, the kind you put in your closet?" he replied.  He was driving in his car and on a headset, so there was a good deal of static on the line.  Still, I was pretty sure he said "closet" and I was really confused.  "No, what?  Why would you put cupcakes in the closet?" I said, shaking my head (to no one).  "I was going to ask the same thing!" was the reply.  "And since when are moth balls GREEN?".  "OH!  No, not MOTH balls, MOSS balls..."  I said, almost rolling my eyes and then realizing "moth balls" might actually have made more sense.  "Um, oh... well... I'm sure it'll turn out great, sweetie... Moss balls...". 

I could picture him nodding his head on the other side of the phone.  Convincing himself, mentally, that he was not dating a crazy person.  Jason really is so supportive.  Even when my suggestions scare and confound him... and everyone else around me.  But it's okay if people are worried, because in my head this stuff makes a weird kind of sense. Sometimes my little brain says "You know what would be fun?  Making some cake balls that look like sheep."  And off the couch I go, zombie-like, to the kitchen to see if I have any Pocky around I can use for legs.

Most of the time people come around to my way of thinking once they see the results.  That, or they're too frightened to say otherwise.  "I LOVE the cheese snowmen, really!" they say, grabbing the tray I bring to their party... smiling a little too widely as they make a mental note not to invite me to their next one.  That's what I imagine.  But I'm hoping they will amuse someone.  Moss may not be the most exciting substance to want on a dessert.  It's not cute.  Or even logical.  But I had a surprising amount of fun making them, and I think they're perfect for Spring, really.  REALLY.  They're pretty tasty, too, when you combine the chocolate bases with the minty green tops and then coat them with more minty chocolate cake crumbs.  

By the way, this recipe asks you to buy mint oil to flavor it.  There's no reason why you should have to listen to that, though.  I think these would work perfectly well if you chopped up a handful of chocolate mints to put in the cupcake base and called it a day.  I wouldn't be a good Chicagoan if I didn't ask that those chocolate mints be the classic Frango Mints from the old Marshall Fields stores (now Macy's, boo) if you can help it.  But really anything minty would work.  Use your imagination!  I do... even when it tells me to make odd things like this...

Recipe: Chocolate Mint Moss Cupcakes

Makes 16 cupcakes

For the cupcakes... (adapted from Joy of Baking)

1/2 cup cocoa powder (Dutch-processed preferred)

1 cup boiling hot water

1 1/3 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons mint oil

For the frosting...

2/3 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 1/3 cups confectioners sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon mint oil

Green gel food coloring

For the "moss"...

Might I suggest the Martha Stewart Red Velvet Cake recipe, and substitute green food coloring for the red.  Allow it to cool and then crumble half of it finely to use for coating your cupcakes.  It's good stuff and you can just eat the leftover cake you didn't "crumb" (there will be some).

What to do with it all...

For the cupcake base, start by preheating your oven to 375 degrees F and lining 16 regular-sized (4 ounces) cupcake cups with paper.  I use the standard thin white papers that turn transparent when you bake in them to show off the choclate base against the green tops.

In a small butter stir together the cocoa powder and the boiling water until smooth.  Set aside, allowing to cool to room temp.

In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

With a hand mixer, cream the butter, sugar and mint oil until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until smooth. Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and beat only until incorporated. Add the room-temp cocoa mixture and stir until smooth.

Fill each muffin cup 2/3 full with the batter and bake for 16-20 or until the batter rises and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the deepest part.  Remove from oven and allow to cool.

For the frosting, start by creaming together your butter and sugar until fluffy (about 2-3 minutes) with a hand mixer on medium-low speed.  Beat in vanilla and mint oil, then increase mixer speed to medium-high and beat until frosting is glossy.

Using a spatula or similar, coat your cupcakes with frosting, then roll in your previously made green velvet crumbs.  Done!

Cook your hobby: Scrabble cookies!

Recently there was  a cooking challenge over at the Chickenless Kitchen: Cook your hobby!  By that, she she meant that everyone should in some way cook something that represented in some way one of their other non-cooking hobbies.  I thought it was a great idea, and immediately thought of several options: cooking (wait, no, that didn't count)... reading!  Yes, that works!  Ah, but what then?  Make a bunch of book cupcakes?  Nope.  I needed something more interesting... How about mice racing?  Hmm... would be great if I actually did something like that, but since I just made it up I'm pretty sure I'd get called out pretty quickly.  Yeah, I could say photography, painting, travel and all the other hobbies easily found on survey checklists... but that's no fun, right... ? 

You know what IS fun?  Scrabble!  I decided to do Scrabble Cookies because I really do love Scrabble and Jason and I often talk friends into playing horrible mutant versions of the game for our amusement.  It's always good times.  Also, the idea of making rectangular cookies with letters on them seemed simple enough...

So I went to consult my trusty Joy of Cooking and found a nice recipe for a fourteen-in-one master cut out cookie recipe and adapted it to make: Wood Grain Orange Chocolate Cookies!  The wood grain was important to me as real scrabble tiles are wood and I've always loved that about them.  After finding a good way to achieve that, it's simply a matter of either piping on chocolate ganache for letters or using an edible marker (I tried the latter version on my "actual size" cookies since they were a bit small to manuever a piping bag around).  On a side note: I had tried another method for the letters involving mini alphabet cookie cutters that I sent away for specially, but it was a total, hilarious disaster.  I wish I'd taken a picture of the sad, slumpy & disfigured letters it produced.  Ah well, in the end it turned out good!

If you enjoy these cookies half as much as I enjoy Scrabble, my work here is done...


Recipe: Scrabble Cookies

For the Wood Grain Chocolate Orange Cookies (adapted from Joy of Cooking's Marble Cookies)...
2 1/2 cups AP flour
1/2 pound unsalted butter cut into 14 pieces, at room temperature (that's 2 sticks)
1 cup superfine sugar (you can also pulse granulated sugar in a food processor for 1 minute)
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 large egg yolk
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 ounces melted semisweet baking chocolate
The zest of 1 orange

For the Letters...
For larger (2 inch high) cookies: 1 cup chocolate ganache, cooled slightly and added to a piping bag with a number 3 round pastry tip (you'll need a bar of semisweet baking chocolate and a pint of heavy cream for this - see "ganache" link for method)
OR
For "actual size" (2.5 cm high) cookies: Edible black marker

What to do with it all...

1. On medium speed, mix butter, sugar and salt unti fluffy
2. Add egg yolk, whole egg, zest and vanilla and mix until well blended
3. Reduce speed to low and add flour slowly until well combined
4. Divide dough half, wrap and refigerate unti firm - at least 1 hour and up to 2 days
5. Preheat oven to 375 degree F and prepare 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper or Silpat
6. On a well-floured surface, roll out your first round to a 14 inch thick then drizzle over half your melted chocolate
7. Knead the dough loosely to incorporate the chocolate just so you see streaks in the dough
8. Re-flour your surface and roll dough out to 1/8 inch thick
9. Cut cookies to desired size using a ruler and a sharp knife: 2 inches by 1 1/4 inches for large cookies, 2.5 cm by 2 cm for "actual size" cookies"
10. Repeat process with second dough half
11. Place cookies on baking sheets, and place sheets into oven (one on lower rack, one on upper)
12. Bake for 5 - 7 minutes, rotating sheets half way thru baking (watch closely for browning)
13. Cook and decorate either with melted ganache, or edible marker (recommended for smaller cookies)

Makes approx 2 dozen large Scrabble cookies, or a whole boards' worth of the "actual size"!

On another note, I'd like to thank Nancy of wonderful Spicie Foodie and Kathy of the brilliant Colors of Indian Cooking for the Honest Scrap Award!  In accepting this award, I am supposed to list 10 honest things about myself, so here goes!

1.  My kitchen is a whopping 100 square feet (about 7 x 14), galley style, with practically no workable surface areas.  I sometimes pretend I am MacGuyver to invent ways to cook (I know lots of people have much smaller kitchens and I should not complain!)
2.  I've never met a piece of chocolate I didn't like
3.  I will choose a pickle over a cupcake on any day of the week
4.  I didn't not learn to swim until I was 20 due to a fear of water
5.  I secretly believe myself to be a queen of the thrift stores (with pride) for my ability to find amazing things in them
6.  As a child I was so sensitive to sugar that I once ran off and dislocated my own shoulder in a hyperactive flurry after inhaling a pudding cup that a friend of my parents' unwittingly gave me
7.  I have a dream to someday own goats
8.  My big toes point upwards a bit and give off the appearance of being snobbish
9.  Everyone in Chicago seems to love living by the lake, which I did once, and hated it passionately come Winter
10.  Though I am a born and bred Chicago girl, I prefer New York style pizza to Chicago deep dish... which is, of course, sacrilege...

Thanks again everyone!