Guinness Chocolate Thing

almost reminds me of fall

You won't believe how relieved I was when my Guinness Chocolate Cake came out of the oven looking like this.  Well, obviously not sliced like this.  

There is a long story about this.

First, I had been making cream cheese frosting the past two weeks and when I realised that this recipe called for that, I decided to change it up a bit.

It was more cocoa and brown sugar for me.  I even threw in some bitter chocolate.   I thought that if I made the flavours stronger, I wouldn't need any more icing.

For the first batch, I placed some batter into souffle cups.

Oh my holy horror :(  they looked pathetic.

When I tasted it though, it was moist and chewy--think sticky date pudding.  Ohhhhh yes!

I then knew that I had to bake it a shallow pan, like brownies.

And I was right :)

livin' on the edge

The corner naturally belonged to me.  I ate it hot.  And immediately called my sister in law to give it a go.

She said she especially loved that there was a tinge of bitterness and that it was so chewy.

We joked a bit more about how bitterness makes you enjoy the sweetness more.  And then she ate another square.  And then I ate another two.

"I'll have another"

I think I need to make more soon.  However, I did promise my brother I'd bake something savory for him next.

dark times ahead

I was so excited to come home tonight--only because I finally secured a bulb for my lamp.

You can't imagine just how tough it is for me having to use the full on bright lights whenever the sun has set.

Anyways, I open the box and there is was, a broken bulb :(

Why?

nuts

I pretty much focused on the colours this time.  Obviously, the white choco chip-with-peanut intention was there but I was more excited about getting the half and half effect.

rose IS red

 Naturally, the first color will be rose  and so I put some few couple of drops into the batter.  It looked red, really.

I was not sure what the other colour would be.

I had green, blue and yellow.

Yellow was out of the equation as the batter was somewhat darker than that, and I didn't want it to look just brown.

violet resulted from blue

I had other plans with the green, so blue it was.  I did expected it to be lighter and darker at the same time, and I'll explain what I mean.

I thought it was light in the bowl,  but when the cupcakes came out, they looked quite dark.

I think I need to read some about colouring food.  Maybe (likely) there are some rules that will yield optimal results.

Here is the the photo of the batter just before the cups were placed into the oven. 

pepsi logo

 I thing my method worked, I was quite happy with the great divide.  You'd notice though that the blue almost looks black.

deep inside I'm blue

 I was too caught up with the half-and-half cupcake that I really was not able to take photos of the horizontal set--I did however, tasted that batch first.

coloured cupcakes

Overall, I am very pleased with the cupcakes, I do have lessons learnt.

•  Put more batter of the top colour, so that the bottom color doesn't show through
• Put less (and the same) amount of batter on each container so they don't overflow / crack
• Get plain cups so they don't clash

sweet notes

drawing board

After purchasing my white choco chips, I had been thinking about what to do with it.

First, I thought I needed to make it less sweet and so I bought some chopped peanuts.  As a bonus, the slight saltiness would works nicely for me.

Then I remembered the photo my friend, Michael sent me.  The cupcake with horizontal stripes.  As I planned to make small cupcakes I don't think I can manage more that two stripes.  Maybe I'd call it Two-Face.

Obviously, I thought I ought to try horizontal stripes as well.

And so I started writing those ideas down, so I won't forget.  Not that it is likely.

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As I'm typing this, I thought maybe I should make plain pink ones with white choco chips on top because it perfectly matches the cupcake cups that I have!

light and darkness

The house I grew up in is quite dim.  There are a lot of light sources, must most are warm lights.  Think lamps and spotlights.

It is bright during the day with lots of natural light, but the nights are very different.

I sometimes think that maybe I was more studious as a student if I had a halogen in my room instead of four puny yellow spotlights at each corner.

I remember a friend referring to our home as san mig, a pub in Manila where it was dark and most cushions are deep green--my Mom had a green phase.

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Perhaps, because of this childhood conditioning, I find myself just opening a lamp whenever I get home.  I hardly use the lights in my room--only when I'm sewing.  Or cleaning shoes.

Lately though, I had been constantly finding myself lying in the dark.  Maybe I am feeling melancholy without know it.  Maybe, it's because the bulb of my my night lamp died on me. 
 

It's the latter.

Yesterday, I tried going to a supermarket to get a replacement bulb, but with so much to pick from, I really didn't know which one to get. 

I thought to bring the actual bulb and seek assistance from the sales person, but it isn't really convenient, is it?

So, I took some photos and with it, I hope to secure the right one.

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I took some photos using my mobile and seriously, looking at these kinda made me gloomy.

cup(cake) me some slack

I've been playing and re-playing in my head, how the next cupcake batch would be.

I have a few ideas, but really, I'd know when I'm there. There being still a few days away. Saturday. Potentially.

I did some shopping today, I'm hoping that these ingredients / tools enhance the future cupcakes.

Sana everyday was Saturday.