Chocolate G.A.P.S. Cupcakes and Buttercream Icing

My birthday was a few weeks ago and I made these cupcakes for my family. I was a little worried because I didn't have time to let the cupcakes cool completely before icing them.

That turned out to be a wonderful problem to have as the icing melted a little on the bottom and made the cake super moist!

These taste just like devil's food chocolate cake to me, but you'll have to judge for yourself!

Recipe -

Cupcakes - 

• 2 cup almond flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder (I use raw,organic cacao)
• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Cream honey and butter together in mixer for 1 minute.

3. Add eggs 1 at a time and beat for 30 seconds after each addition.

4. Add dry ingredients. Beat for 30 seconds.

5. Add vanilla extract.  

6. Fill cupcake liners ¾ full and bake for 17 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

7. Set aside until only slightly warm to the touch. About 30 minutes. Then top with buttercream.

Buttercream Icing - 

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup honey
•  2 tsp vanilla extract
• Dash of salt
• 3/4 cup plus 3 Tbsp butter

1. In small sauce pan, bring water to boil for double boiler.

2. Mix eggs, honey, vanilla and salt together in mixing bowl.

3. Turn heat until boiling water to low-med and place mixing bowl on top of pan.

4. Whisk egg/honey mixture constantly for 4 minutes.

5. Remove bowl from heat and pour contents into mixer. Beat on medium-high speed until mixture is light and fluffy. It will almost look like the marshmallow mix and will take about 5 minutes.  

6. Add butter one Tbsp at a time until all is added.

7. Beat on high for an additional minute.

Note: If you want this icing to be more firm you can refrigerate for a few minutes. Too long and it will become too hard to spread.

Troubleshooting: If your icing separates during the butter addition, allow mix to sit on the counter for about 5 minutes and then continue to beat the icing. It may take awhile, but it WILL turn into smooth and gorgeous buttercream!This happens when the butter is still too cold.

I also made this in a round cake pan, lightly greased with butter and spread the icing in a thick layer on top. It was even better than the cupcakes!! So good in fact, that it was gone before I could get a picture!

Any way you slice it, this chocolate creation is to die for. ;-)

Almond Flour Rolls

A few weeks ago I found this company that makes "Paleo" bread. I looked up the ingredients and it seemed pretty simple... so I tried to figure it out on my own. It worked out wonderfully!

Here are the results!

Recipe -

1 1/4 cup almond flour
5 tbsp psyllium husk powder (flax won't work)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sea salt
2 whole eggs
1 cup warm water

1. Pre-heat oven to 300 and line sheet with parchment.

2. Mix dry ingredients together until well combined.

3. Add eggs to form thick mix.

4. Add water and mix until thick again. This step may take a few minutes, but it will thicken!

5. Quickly form into small, flat discs and bake! Don't be tempted to make them too big... they rise a lot!

6. Bake for 90 minutes.

The raw mix texture is very similar to cornbread, but shockingly it rises into these beautiful bread rolls!

I think these would be great for sandwiches/burgers! I have a batch of bacon that I am going to use for BLTs tonight... we'll see how it goes! I will post pictures of the results! :-)

Chocolate Drops and Candy Bars

Hey y'all. I'm glad to be back in the kitchen, I've been sick!

But today I got back in there and whipped up a few things with my new goodies! First was this beautiful batch of homemade chocolate.

Never having made chocolate from scratch before, I was a bit intimidated. This was something that I had always longed to do, but never had the gumption.

It was so easy!

Recipe -
3/4 cup cocoa butter
3/4 cup cocoa (I used cacao)
1/3 cup honey
dash of vanilla
dash of salt

1. Melt cocoa butter completely. Do not leave on the stove after melted, removed it right away.

2. Add cocoa and mix thoroughly.

3. Add honey, vanilla and salt. Mix thoroughly with a whisk until smooth.

4. Pour into molds or greased glass pan and allow to cool completely*.

*The cooling process took several hours for me, even in the fridge. They will set up, but it will take a while!

I had these cute little fun-size candy bar molds which I made use of today. I mixed some dried cherries and walnuts into half of the chocolate and then spooned the mix into the molds. They turned out really well.

 

I think I'll make these with a marshmallow filling, or caramel, or almond butter... or any number of other things...