Fumbling awkwardly with an orange, my hands fail me.
It’s been a long day. I’m stressed, I’m a little overwhelmed and I’m doing my best to at least properly nourish myself despite my mood. Although absent of daylight and free from harsh overhead florescent bulbs, my room is far from dark. Quite the contrary; a foot of snow three stories below my window reflects every straining glimmer surrounding the parking lot. Added to the hallway lights shyly creeping around my open door, I’d consider this place pleasantly ambient.
It takes me a minute, but as I savagely scrape and pleadingly peel at the skin of the orange, I find myself calming down. I’d somehow convinced myself that a slow, careful and gentle touch was unimportant, favoring a rough technique that clearly wasn’t working. To see myself so visibly frustrated was sobering, and I stopped before I let immaturity get the best of me.
Depositing the last of the bright orange peel into the trash, I sat softly on my bed. Comfortable and warm, relieved to finally be out of the wind, I decided quickly that I had no reason to be such a bum. Smiling over the events of the day and admiring the conflicting shadows playing on the floor, I saw how obviously the good things overshadowed the small annoyances that I thought made my day so bad. I was totally over being dramatic.
Sometimes all you need is time. And an orange. And a cupcake.
Or, you know, just the cupcake.
I hate to get worked up, and I really hate complaining. I’m hesitant even to post this, but I’m going ahead with it because it’s helped me organize my thoughts. I have so many reasons to be happy, and I refuse to dwell on insignificant annoyances – most of which I honestly can’t remember. Something which will, of course, help me calm down, but that will mostly serve as another reason not to let stupid things get to me in the first place.
Thank you so much for reading my blog. I really can’t tell you how much it means to me or how happy it makes me to be able to inspire someone. You’re awesome!
Take it easy, guys!
Printable Recipe
One Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes via Martha Stewart
I bought the liners at Bake it Pretty. They’ve got everything you could ever want for cupcakes – it’s great!
3/4 c (65 g) unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 c (188 g) flour
1 1/2 c (298 g) sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
3/4 c (177 ml) warm water
3/4 c (177 ml) buttermilk
3 Tbls safflower oil (I used canola)
1 tsp vanilla
Preheat oven to 350F (175C). Line 2 cupcake tins with liners and set aside.
Sift together cocoa powder, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Add eggs, warm water, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla, and mix until smooth, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl to ensure batter is well mixed.
Divide batter evenly among muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full. Bake until tops spring back when touched, about 20 minutes, rotating pan once if needed. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely.
Makes about 2 dozen.
Simple Chocolate Ganache via Martha Stewart
I know I switch between metric and imperial a lot. I’m sorry.
6 oz (170 g) Good quality chocolate, shaved or chopped into small pieces
2/3 c (156 ml) cream
1 tsp corn syrup
Place the chocolate in a medium bowl and set aside.
Heat the cream and corn syrup on the stove until simmering, then pour over the chocolate. Let stand 5 minutes and stir gently to combine.
Assembly
Spoon warm ganache over cooled cupcakes and top with a sprinkling of chopped pistachios and royal icing roses, if desired.
These look delicious! Your baking is REALLY incredible. The pistachios and ganache look really good together!<br /><br />:)
I LOVE Martha's One Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes! They are by far my favorite chocolate cupcakes 🙂 Wonderful presentation, as per usual 😉
OOOOh!!!!! how sweety!!! both sugar and beauty ;)<br /><br />*kiss*
Cheer up, girl! :)<br />Gorgeous cupcakes, as usual.
I made Martha's cupcake, they're delicious aern't they! (http://ourchocolateshavings.blogspot.com/2009/12/dark-chocolate-cupcakes-with-milk.html). I love the roses you put on top! and I agree, sometimes all you need to brighten a day is a cupcake.
you´re so talent!!!!
Perfection!!!
This are beautiful pictures and cup cakes look delicous.<br />Claudia
they look so pretty! and your photos make the recipe even more flattering! loved the rose you put on your cupcake!:)<br /><br />btw, I’d love to invite you to send these in for my Valentine day giveaway on my blog:) details at:<br /><br />http://www.funandfoodcafe.com/2010/02/valentine-super-bowl-recipe-carnival.html
Hello,<br /><br /><br />We bumped into your blog and we really liked it – great recipes YUM YUM.<br />We would like to add it to the Petitchef.com.<br /> <br />We would be delighted if you could add your blog to Petitchef so that our users can, as us,<br />enjoy your recipes.<br /> <br />Petitchef is a french based Cooking recipes Portal. Several hundred Blogs are already members<br />and benefit
These cupcakes look perfect. YUM!
Hi!! These cupcakes are beautiful! Are these regular cupcake liners or did you use muffin liners? Also, how did you make the fondant roses?
It may be corny, but softly singing "Count Your Blessings" to myself is a big help when I'm in the dumps.<br /><br />"When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed<br />When you are discouraged thinking all is lost<br />Count your many blessings name them one by one<br />And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done."<br /><br />Your cupcakes are crazy gorgeous
thaaaaank you for introducing me to bakeitpretty! i have been striving to make my cupcakes as beautiful as yours!! now i have a fighting chance!! =) <br /><br />ps i love your blog.
Wow – looks absolutely delicious! And I love the royal icing roses, they look adorable.
Don't you hate those "down in the dump" days? But, hey, those cupcakes look gorgeous!!
Your photos are really really wonderful:)
Just baked these YUM! Thank you so much for converting to metric, helps us aussies! In recipes similar to this I have had trouble with exploding cupcakes but with this recipe only 1 and the flavour is beautiful.
oh my! I love cupcakes and I really love the chocolate cupcakes, I can eat like twenty in some minutes, I will follow your recipe intructions and make it in the afternoon, thank you!
delicioso!
I'm making a half batch of these right now!<br />I omitted the water and doubled the buttermilk because I have a carton that really needs to be used up so we'll see how that goes :p
I made these cupcakes this morning – they are so easy to make and super delish! And the icing is sweet and thick! Gorgeous!! Thank you!
I chose to try your recipe here and I must say I'm not sure how some of the people here think these taste delicious. I did every step correct and when taste testing the batter I couldn't stop licking the spoon. It tasted almost similar to the sweetness of brownie batter. I thought these were going to be perfect, but once I baked them it was almost like all the sugar and flavor disappeared