Tuesday's With Dorie--Chocolate-Chocolate Cupcakes (and a great blogger giveaway!)

This week's recipe was for Dorie's Chocolate-Chocolate Cupcakes, from Baking From My Home to Yours, pages 215-217.  This recipe was chosen by Clara from I (Heart) Food 4 Thought.  She has a great blog and I love her fun writing about her adventures in the kitchen.  Great pick with chocolate cupcakes.  I actually made them a few weeks ago for Taylor's birthday.  They are nice looking cupcakes with an adult-ish bittersweet ganache-like topping.  I worried about that as I was making them for kids, but did make six cupcakes exactly as the recipe suggests.  Besides the fact that the cupcakes really weren't chocolatey enough and a bit dry (but not BAD!), they were still good and turned out cute and fun.  The kids gobbled up their six as well as some friends of mine enjoying the less sweet ganache ones. 

The biggest rave about the cupcakes was in fact the ganache.  It was not too sweet, but chocolatey finger-lickin' good.  I liked that it was a bit runny, so the cupcakes could be dipped into the ganache icing.  After doing this with six cupcakes, I just felt like the kids wouldn't like them not being very sweet, so I added some powdered sugar to the glaze and a tablespoon or so of soft butter and whipped it until it was fluffy and creamy.  I liked this better myself and I knew the kids would, too!  You can see the difference in the pictures.  Both halves were sprinkled with colorful birthday candies.

I mean, really, you can't go wrong with a cupcake!  Thank you for the fun, timely pick for this week's recipe, Clara.  Check out all the other baker's blogs here at Tuesday's With Dorie for their versions of these cupcakes and get the recipe for them on Clara's blog at the top of this post.

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And another thing I wanted to let you all know about was a great, fun giveaway from an amazing blogger whose blog inspires me and just makes me happy every time I visit it (daily!).  Tayna from SUNDAY BAKER is celebrating her one year blogaversary this week with all kinds of fun things, including some giveaways, fun discussions, lots of recipes and more.  Please check out her blog and if you want to be entered in her drawing, just leave her a comment.  It's that simple.  Be sure to mention me in the comment so I can get an extra entry in the drawing! ;)  (You never know, if I win the cookbook (Taste of Home's Best Loved Cookies and Bars), you just might get a little something from me in return!)  Check out this blog, you won't be sorry!

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One more thing, Parker lost his second tooth today at school.  He's pretty thrilled about it.  After school, he wanted an apple for a snack, but made me cut it in to little chunks because he can't bite down on an apple anymore and then he wanted me to take his picture with the tooth.  He's funny.

Parker would probably tell me not to put this picture on here if he realized his "Dora the Explorer" band-aid was showing.  He is SO over her, but it's the only band-aid we have right now.  What?  In a house with all boys--they have each liked her for a while whether they admit it or not!  (Parker even wanted and had a Dora cake for his birthday when he turned three--he's seven now.  His favorite color was pink then, too.  Daddy is happy he got over that long ago)  Sweet Tooth Fairy Dreams, Parker! ;)

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Darn, if we were only better at grabbing the video camera, tonight would have been some great footage of Sam.  I put some onesie jammies with the footies in them on him (it's getting a lot colder at night!) and he did NOT like them.  He was pulling at the feet and rolling on the floor in disgust.  It was TOO funny.  For a few minutes, he'd forgotten about them and was okay--with bottle in hand, so we did snap a few pictures, but the way he was acting if we'd have gotten it on film, he could have won America's Funniest Home Videos!  It didn't take him long to realize he was still in the "weird" jammies (none of the boys have ever liked this kind), and he started throwing a fit about it again.  We changed him so he'd be able to sleep.  I unzipped the front and let me try to take them off himself.  That was a sight to see, too!  We parents have a right to "torture" our kids now and then!  ;)

Love the crossed legs!