Good News!

As of Wednesday, I passed the 10 recipe checkpoint! Not only is this a reason to celebrate, but it is a solid sign of my determination to complete this challenge! I'll admit, I really never thought I'd get this far; I expected the daunting task of buying ingredients nearly every week would scare me off. But I'm still here so lets all cross our fingers and hope that I don't come to my senses any time soon. I can already say that there will be a bunch of disappointed people here at school if I were to abandon my cupcake endeavor. Never mind that my roommates won't have any free sweets to snack on anymore, but all of my co-workers would be extremely upset if didn't continue with my Wednesday cupcake drop-off. And besides,I really enjoy all this baking stuff ;)

I'll admit now that I haven't always been a big fan of caramel. Probably influenced by my 7 years of wearing braces, but caramel has always been that one candy that I could do without. I never found it all that tasty, and usually had to spend half an hour trying to pick the stuff out between my braces. Melted caramel, all warm and gooey, is something that I have only recently discovered to be one of those hidden little delicacies out there. While the recipe called for 'soft' caramel, I could not find any at the local grocery store that fit the bill. So, I decided that the ones pictured above would become soft once I added some heat to the these little beauties. 

And while I'm going on about things that I have never had a fondness for, lets take a moment to talk about coffee. Believe it or not, I am one of the few college students out there who dislikes coffee. Coffee ice cream, no problem, but serious hard-core coffee, I think I'll pass. Perhaps one of the reasons why I have thoroughly enjoyed all the baking I have done is because I get to try new ingredients that I would not normally think of using. Coffee granules, more specifically, espresso granules are seriously underrated. And what a flavor they added! While the cupcakes themselves only have brown sugar in them to act as a sweetener, the coffee granules really provided a nice earthy-undertone. However, coffee granules were not the only interesting ingredient that I used. This time around, I experiments with candied ginger! Though I have never tried ginger before, it combined well with the caramel. I slightly wish now that I had taken a photo of it, but oh well :P

I did on the other hand take a photo of the cupcake liners that I used. I thought the dark brownish red color would go well with the lighter brown color of the cupcakes. Naturally my decision proved to be a good one and the overall presentation of the cupcakes looked awesome!

On  a totally different note, I am aware that this post is coming you, my dear readers, a little later then usual. But fear not, for I have a good reason. This past week I have been putting together a trip to a place called Purgatory Chasm in Sutton MA. With my mind focused on making sure that everyone who asked got a place on the bus, I really didn't have the time to sit down and finish this post. So, to make up for my tardiness, I have decided to post some of the pictures that I took yesterday.

 The classic king-of-the-rock photo. The year before the group I was with all took photos standing right on this crack formation. Actually, a lot of the people in the group that I was in this year followed that tradition and copied me. It was really cool. Overall, Purgatory Chasm is one my favorite Outing Club trips, so it was really cool that I got to be one to plan it this semester!

And the here's the group shot! Isn't this cool! I unfortunately am the one taking the photo but who cares, it still looks awesome!

As always, below is the recipe that I used for the cupcakes. So what does that leave me with? Hmmm. 13 recipes down, 487 left to go. Sweet! And technically I baled cupcakes using brownie mix, but I am not really gonna count that; it seems too much like cheating. Anyway, next week is all about chocolate and I really can't wait!

Until next time,

Jill

Little Caramel Cupcakes adapted from 500 Cupcakes by Fergal Connolly.

1/2 cup (1 stick) sweet butter, softened

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

2 lightly beaten eggs

2 tbsp. instant coffee granules (I used instant espresso)

1 tbsp. boiling water

2 2/3 cups self-rising flour

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup soft caramels

Preheat the oven to 350. Place 12 paper baking cups in muffin pan.

In a medium bowl, beat the butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Add the eggs slowly. In a small bow, dissolve the coffee in the water. Beat the coffee into the butter mixture. Add the flour and milk, and beat until well combined.

Spoon the mixture into the cups. Push a couple of the caramels into the center of each cupcakes and place them in the oven.

Bake for 20 minutes or whenever they pass the toothpick test. Cool for 5 and then, enjoy!

*Prepare basic recipe, mixing in 4 tablespoons semisweet chocolate chips into the batter after the milk has been added

*Prepare the basic recipe, mixing 3 tablespoons chopped candied ginger into the batter after the milk has been added

*Prepare the basic recipe, substituting 6 1/2 mini Baby Ruth bars for the caramel.