Noel's Birthday Part 2

So since I had the whole day off work, I went a little nuts with the cooking. But I now have casserole pans full of pasta and sauted onions and mushrooms, a plate full of cake, and a platter full of chocolate ganache topped cupcakes. Mmmm....I can't wait for the barbeque tonight! The burgers should be fantastic and since Vanessa's making mac and cheese and potatoes to accompany them, it should be a perfect meal all around. Then we'll finish it off with some cupcakes and home-made ice cream sandwiches, and maybe a round of Settlers of Catan. Happy birthday Noel!

Three days later: we're still eating leftovers! The burgers were delicious, Vanessa's mac and cheese was a golden, messy, goopy hit, and the cupcakes and cake and ice cream sandwiches disappeared awfully quickly! No Settlers of Catan, but I did kick Aaron's butt at Jeopardy on the 64, (gotta love the graphics!) and then we had a big round of Apples to Apples.

Then Saturday the cheesy, sweet pasta casserole vanished equally quickly (possibly due in part to the fact that Nathan's kind of a piggy--I think he ate half a pan by himself!) and the sweet butter cupcakes with the shiny chocolate ganache looked super cute with stripey candles in each one. I preferred the yogurt berry cake though, it wasn't as pretty, but its tangy, sweet flavor and delicate moist crumb were superb! I snacked while I totally won Qwerkle (yay! I lost miserably last time!) and then lost at Blokus, but it was all good, since I had delicious cake to keep me happy. So here are the rest of the recipes from the birthday insanity: then I think I need to go walk off a little more cake!

Ice Cream Sandwiches

First of all--make chocolate chip cookies.

Then, place a little scoop of slightly melted vanilla ice cream between two similarly sized cookies. Press the cookies together till the ice cream squelches toward the edges. Place the cookies in ziptop baggies or airtight containers, and get them back in the freezer stat, they'll melt fast! Keep them in the freezer until you're ready to serve them.

Butter Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache

(Adapted from Orangette's blog. She in turn adapted it from Flo Braker)

1 3/4 cups sifted cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon orange extract
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 large eggs
1/2 cup milk

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 one oz. square unsweetened baking chocolate (optional--it gives the ganache a darker flavor, but you'd be fine with just chocolate chips)

1/2 cup heavy cream

Bring all ingredients to room temperature. Preheat oven to 350°. Get out cupcake liners for 20-24 medium sized cupcakes. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter in a large bowl at medium speed until it is smooth and creamy. Maintaining the same speed, add the sugar in a steady stream. When all the sugar is added, stop the machine and scrape the mixture clinging to the sides of the bowl into the center of the bowl. (I don't have a stand mixer, so I used a hand mixer, and just kept scraping the bowl with a spatula with my other hand, and it worked fine.) Continue to cream at the same speed for 3 minutes, or until the mixture is light in color and fluffy in appearance. Add the extracts in the final moments of beating the butter and sugar. (The original recipe called for 1/2 tsp lemon, 1/2 tsp almond, and 1 tsp vanilla--I just used what I had on hand).

Mixing on medium speed, add the eggs, one at a time, incorporating each one thoroughly into the mixture before adding the next. When the mixture appears fluffy, reduce the mixer speed to low. Add the flour mixture in three additions alternately with the milk in two additions. Scrape the sides of the bowl occasionally, and mix until smooth after each addition. Using an ice cream scoop, fill each cupcake liner about 1/3 of the way. (Don't overfill, otherwise the tops of the cupcakes will puff out while baking, and then the ganache won't spread evenly.)

Bake for about 20 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center of one of the cupcakes comes out free of wet batter. Place the pan on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. Carefully remove cupcakes from pans, and leave them on racks until they are fully cooled.

Meanwhile--in a small bowl over a pot of boiling water stir together the chocolate chips and the chocolate square until they're mostly melted. Then turn heat off, and stir in heavy cream, mixing thoroughly till there are no chunks of chocolate left. Carefully spoon the ganache over the cupcakes, spreading it to the edges of the paper liners. Cool in fridge so that ganache hardens a little, then serve at room temperature.

Makes 20-24 cupcakes, with 160 calories each (including the ganache).