Chocolate Cupcakes

I like my cupcakes light and fluffy and also not so sweet and have tried countless chocolate cupcake recipes which does not really fit the bill. Cupcakes shouldn't be too sweet as the frosting will do the job. Here's a recipe that I'm really quite happy with. Hope you will to! 

The frosting for this cupcake was a milk chocolate ganache (which was too runny) that I made which really complemented the cupcake well. I may have used too much whipping cream this time round. Will try with less cream next time. 

Chocolate cupcakes (recipe from Cupcake Project)

Yield: 16 cupcakes

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup (2 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup (3.5 ounces) white sugar
• 2 ounces of your favorite chocolate
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 large egg yolks, room temperature
• 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon (4 1/2 fluid ounces) vegetable or canola oil, measured in a liquid measuring cup
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup (2 3/4 ounce) full-fat sour cream
• 1 cup (5 ounces) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup (2 ounces) cocoa powder (natural or dutched will both work with this recipe)
• 1/2 cup (4 fluid ounces) room temperature coffee, measured in a liquid measuring cup

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. In a medium-sized mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, mix butter and sugar until fully combined. The end result should look like wet sand.
3. Melt the chocolate in the microwave or in a double boiler.
4. Once the melted chocolate is cool enough to touch, add it to the butter/sugar mixture and mix until just combined.
5. Mix in eggs and egg yolks one at a time until just combined.
6. Mix in oil, vanilla, and sour cream until just combined.
7. Sift together flour, salt, baking soda, and cocoa powder into a separate medium-sized bowl. Use a fork or a whisk to ensure that the ingredients are mixed well after sifting.
8. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients in three additions, mixing until just combined after each addition.
9. Mix in water until just combined.
10. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full and put in the oven.
11. Check for doneness at 18 minutes - a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake should come out clean. If they are not done, check again every three minutes until they are done.
12. Immediately remove cupcakes from the cupcake tin and place on a cooling rack or on the counter to cool to room temperature. Although they are really good when they are hot, be sure to wait until they are room temperature to give your evaluation.

Milk Chocolate Ganache

200ml cream

6oz milk chocolate

pinch of salt

1 tsp sour cream

1 tsp vanilla extract (i make my own recipe here)

Homemade DIY dishwasher powder & rinse

I have a dishwasher. It came with the condo that I bought.  So I wanted to use the dishwasher but didn't have the soap. I knew that you can't use the normal dishwashing soap on the machine so we went to the nearest shop to get some special dishwashing powder. 

Expensive it was. 😳 but no choice. So we got them anyways. 

When that finished, we went out to buy more, but couldn't find any. Went to a few shops until finally found some but in tablet form. Did they purposely put it in tablet form so that you run out faster? I started thinking why could be in this that made it so expensive? After a search on google I found some home recipes for dishwashing detergent. What? Homemade? This I gotta try. If it's cheaper, better for me and family (no chemicals) and better for the environment... Why not? 

Homemade dishwashing powder (no borax)

1 cup washing powder (bought this from ace Hardware)

1 cup Citric acid (bought this from House of Ingredients) 

1/2 cup coarse salt

Dishwasher rinse

White vinegar 

Wait, what?! Just white vinegar? Yep! Put that in the rinse compartment.