Of course the devil was dancing in the mind with a festive theme at MASTER BAKERS’ for March being announced…Easter candy. ! The concept of Master Bakers is Nikki‘s brainchild.
I grabbed a handful of Hersheys’ solid chocolate eggs & jelly beans & hid them…just in case they did the disappearing act by the time my baking was underway.
It breaks my heart to see the end of winter flowers here as the sun gets hotter & hotter . It was over 37 degrees C here today! PHEW!! Every year I pick the last remaining blossoms & press them for cards & craft work etc. This year I tried something different; in addition to pressing flowers…I crystallised a few! They turned out beautiful & crisp & I believe they can be stored for a year in a dry place. How lovely is that! No mean task crystallising them, but fun nevertheless! Actually what you have to do is to paint the flowers with egg white beaten with a tiny bit of water, sprinkle Castor sugar all over them, & then leave them in a dry warm place to dry. Put them to dry on a tray lined with butter paper or parchment. I left them in the car which was in the drive…the almost here summer heat took care of the moisture good & proper. I had beautifully crystallised flowers by evening!
The flower we commonly know of as Pansy is an ancestor of the tricolor violet (or Johnny-jump-up) and is a relatively new flower. Throughout history pansies have been linked with love. Puck, the fairy spirit from A Midsummer Night’s Dream used their juice to make “man or woman madly dote upon the next live creature that it sees.”
Devil’s Food Cupcakes as adapted from Stephanie’s blog…
Ingredients:
Butter – 1/2 cup
Cocoa – 1/2 cup
Dark chocolate – 50 gms (2 oz)
Eggs – 2
Sugar – 3/4 cup
Vanilla extract or strong coffee – 1 tsp
Flour – 3/4 cup
Baking powder – 3/4 tsp
Baking soda – 1/2 tsp
Salt – 1/2 tsp
Sour cream – 1/2 cup; or plain yogurt, or buttermilk
Buttercream / Ganache for icing
Candy / crystallised flowers etc
-
In a double boiler melt the chocolate, butter, and cocoa together. I did it in the microwave)
-
When everything’s melted, stir until smooth, then remove the bowl and let it cool until the chocolate mixture is just barely warm.
-
Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 and line a 12-cup muffin pan with those cute little paper liners.
-
Sift the dry ingredients.
-
Beat the eggs + sugar+ and vanilla together in a big bowl,
-
When the chocolate’s cooled off, scrape it all out with the rubber spatula into the eggs and beat together.
-
Add about half the flour mix, stir, add sour cream, stir, then add rest of the flour and mix gently again.
-
Scoop your lovely, gloopy dark-choc batter evenly into the muffin cups.
-
Bake 20 minutes, or just until a cake tester comes out clean from the center of the cupcakes. Don’t overbake! Let cool on a rack, & ice only when they’re completely cool.
-
I used a buttercream icing for a few & drizzled a ganache on the rest. Then topped them with candy or crystallised flowers.
