Chocolate Fudge Bites

It's almost X'mas! So from today till the new year of 2010, calories don't count. Whatever baked goods I stuff my face with, have no calories. Magically. If you're with me on this then you are gonna die for these chocolatey fudgey bite-size goodies!

If you're having a house party over the holidays, I definitely recommend these. It's easy to bake and quick to prepare - and all you have to do is lay them out on a plate at the coffee table. If not, you can have them sit pretty in muffin paper cups and give them away as lil gifts. Instead of cracking your head on what to get and if they will like your gifts, one thing you know for sure is no one rejects chocolate.

Nothing beats fudgey, rich, intense and super yummy chocolate desserts. And if you like to spruce it up a lil, you can substitute vanilla extract used in the recipe with Kahlua to give it some kinda liqueur taste. Not recommended for young children of course.

Let's get baking! Here's what you'll need:

- 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter

- 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

- 3 cups light brown sugar

- 4 large eggs

- 2 tablespoons vanilla extract

- 2 cups flour

- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

- 1/2 teaspoon salt

Chocolate glaze:

- 6 oz bittersweet chocolate

- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter

- 1 tablespoon light corn syrup

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly grease the bottom and sides of a 9 x 13 inch rectangle pan.

2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Set it aside.

3. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter, stirring occasionally. Once it's melted, remove from heat and pour it into a mixing bowl.

4. Whisk in the cocoa powder.

5. Whisk in the light brown sugar until it is well blended.

6. Whisk in the eggs, one at a time. Then add the vanilla extract.

7. With a rubber spatula, fold in the flour mixture until there are no flour streaks.

8. Spread the batter evenly into the pan.

9. Bake for 30 mins and until an inserted toothpick comes out with a few small clumps sticking to it. This means the cake will be fudgey. Let it cool completely while you prep the glaze.

10. Chocolate glaze: Place the chopped bittersweet chocolate, butter and light corn syrup in a bowl and melt it in a microwave. Whisk it until smooth.

11. Once the cake and glaze are cooled, pour the glaze on the center of the cake and spread it evenly to cover the entire cake.

12. Refridgerate the cake for an hour to let the glaze set.

13. Once it's set, cut into 1 inch squares and serve.

After typing out the recipe, I realised I forgot the baking powder and salt (YIKES!) but still the cake turned out perfectly fine and tastes so good, so another good thing about this recipe - it's forgiving. Thankfully.

Blueberry Muffins

Breakfast or brunch has gotta be my fav meal. It's the only meal you can get away with eating something sweet as your main dish! I love pancakes, crepes, muffins, french toasts....yums! I'll take any of those over steak and eggs anyday.

Planning ahead for today's breakfast, I baked blueberry muffins yesterday. I have another recipe for blueberry muffins but those were definitely sweeter and tasted more like cupcakes than breakfast muffins. This recipe however, bakes a very satisfying breakfast. And it is sooooo easy and simple to make. You dump everything into a bowl n mix, easy!

There's lemon zest in this recipe that gives the muffins a lil subtle tangy taste and sour cream in the recipe just makes the muffin moist. Here's what I had for breakfast!

I promise it's a simple and easy recipe. Here's what you'll need:

- 3 1/2 cups flour

- 4 teaspoons baking powder

- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

- 1/2 teaspoon salt

- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter

- 1 1/3 cups white granulated sugar

- 2 eggs

- 1 egg yolk

- 1 cup milk

- 1 cup sour cream

- 2 teaspoons lemon zest

- 1 cup fresh blueberries

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a muffin tray with paper liners.

2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

3. In another bowl, whisk together the butter, sugar, eggs, egg yolk, milk, sour cream and lemon zest.

4. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the flour mixture. Before you finish folding all the flour in, add in the blueberries and continue to fold until there are no flour streaks. (The mixture will be lumpy, this is correct.)

5. Fill the muffin cups with the batter to its rim.

6. Bake for 30 - 35 mins until the tops browns and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

These muffins turned out huge and super yummy looking! It's definitely a great way to kick start the morning!

White Chocolate Cupcakes

Thursdays seem to be the day of the week when I crave for a lil cupcake. In the past 4 weeks I have been baking cupcakes on Thursdays...what can I say, a cupcake as a Thursday afternoon snack is delicious and having it on a Friday morning as breakfast is even better! What better way to kick off Friday!

And since X'mas is around the corner, I decided to stock up on some white chocolate. I dunno why but white chocolate always reminds me of X'mas. In fact, that's probably the only time of the year when I opt for white over dark chocolate. So it is white chocolate cupcakes topped with a lovely light pink strawberry buttercream frosting.

I must say I can't really taste the white chocolate in the cupcake...it tastes kinda like a normal yellow butter cupcake. But still, it's yummy and very sweet with the frosting. If you like a heavier white chocolate flava, you could have a white chocolate buttercream frosting. As you will see in the recipe for the frosting below, instead of using strawberry jam, you mix in 4 oz of melted white chocolate. I wish I did that instead actually. BOO.

Here's what you'll need:

White chocolate cupcake:

- 4 oz white chocolate

- 1 1/2 cups flour

- 1 teaspoon baking powder

- 1/2 teaspoon salt

- 1/3 cup unsalted butter

- 3/4 cup white granulated sugar

- 2 eggs

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

- 1 cup milk

Strawberry buttercream frosting:

- 1/2 cup unsalted butter

- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

- 3 teaspoons strawberry jam

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line muffin tray with paper liners.

2. White chocolate cupcakes: Place the chopped white chocolate in a bowl and melt it in a microwave. Set it aside.

3. Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.

4. In another bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

5. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.

6. Add in the white chocolate and vanilla extract, mix well.

7. Add the flour mixture alternating with the milk, starting and ending with the flour mixture (flour - milk - flour - milk - flour).

8. Scoop the batter into the muffin cups, filling them 2/3 full.

9. Bake for 25 - 28 mins, until the top is golden and an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let them cool completely before frosting.

10. Strawberry buttercream frosting: Cream the butter until smooth.

11. Add in the powdered sugar, 1/2 cup at a time and mix well after each addition.

12. Mix in the vanilla extract and beat on high speed for 4 mins.

13. Beat in the strawberry jam for another 1 min.

14. Frost the cooled cupcakes.

With a couple of cupcakes in me, I'm ready for the weekend. The cold cold cold weekend. It's gonna be icy and raining and snowing...yikes. Thinking about the weekend makes me wanna reach out for another cupcake.

Chocolate Nut Upside-Down Cake

It's my first Christmas away from home. And so, it's the first time I'm getting my own tree, lugging it home, fixing it up and hanging only the ornaments I like. Although I must admit lugging the tree home in the cold winter ain't much fun (actually no, I didn't do any of the lugging, my better half had the lovely honor of doing that!) but hey, now I can say I am having a white Christmas!

So the tree is up, giving the apartment a nice warmth feel. And this means some kinda holiday cake is in place! I ditched some fashion magazines the past couple of weeks for some fine baking magazines and found a yummy-looking cake to bake. It's a chocolate cake topped with assorted nuts that's covered with caramel. And the fun part is, it's an upside-down cake! It's my first upside-down cake, so needless to say, I was quite nervous about it and was expecting for all the nuts to get stuck to the bottom of the cake pan instead of the cake. But, with beginners' luck, the cake turned upside-down-ly well!

Assorted nuts, caramel and chocolate...it's a recipe for yumminess! Here's what you'll need:

Caramel:

- 3/4 cup dark brown sugar

- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter

- 3 tablespoons water

Nuts topping:

- 1 1/4 cups assorted nuts (I chose hazelnuts, almonds and walnuts)

Chocolate cake:

- 1 1/3 cups flour

- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder

- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

- 1/4 teaspoon salt

- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter

- 1 cup white granulated sugar

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

- 3 eggs

- 1/2 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the sides of a 9 inch round cake pan.

2. Caramel: Place the brown sugar, butter and water into a saucepan and cook it over medium heat, stirring often until the butter is melted and the mixture is smooth.

3. Bring the mixture to a boil and pour it into the cake pan.

4. Nuts topping: Place the nuts in a baking tray and toast them in the oven for 10 mins.

5. Then cool the nuts by wrapping them with dish towels.

6. Once the nuts are cooled, chop the nuts and scatter them in the cake pan and gently press them into the caramel.

7. Chocolate cake: Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

8. In another bowl, cream the butter until smooth.

9. Pour in the white sugar gradually and beat until fluffy.

10. Beat in the vanilla extract. Then beat in the eggs, one at a time, beat well after each addition.

11. Then pour in half of the flour/cocoa mixture and beat well. Next, pour in the buttermilk and beat well. Then finish it by adding in the remaining flour/cocoa mixture and mix well.

12. Pour the batter into the cake pan and spread it evenly. Lightly tap the cake pan on the kitchen table to settle the ingredients.

13. Bake for 45 mins until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

14. Run a knife along the inside edge of the cake pan then, set a plate on top of the pan and invert the cake. Let it sit for 5 mins to let the nuts topping settle.

15. Gently remove the pan and let the cake cool.

I'll share more Christmas stories throughout the month of December as I bake more holiday sweets! Here's to more holiday baked goods!