Last Minute Cupcakes with Melty Chocolate

I don't know about your little ones, but when my daughter comes home from school, she is famished!  Living in Italy, we often stop by the local bread shop, pick up a few mini pizzas with sausage, and she is one happy little lady.  But then there are days where all my little pinkalicious princess wants is a cupcake.

The other day, Laela came home from a long day of learning and playing, begging for something that sweet that she could help create.  In a moment, I was bamboozled into making quickie cupcakes that I found in the Nigella Express cookbook.  They are ridiculously easy, and when topped with some chocolate (that you can easily melt over low heat on the stove, or in the microwave for a few seconds), you feel like you're throwing the most fancy of tea parties.

For the cupcakes you'll need:

• 1/2 stick plus 1Tb soft butter
• 1/2 cup plus 1 tsp sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract (or if you live in Italy and only have powdered vanilla, use about a quarter packet of the vanilla powder.  No more, or it will be a vanilla BOMB.)
• 1 TB milk

Instructions:

• Preheat the oven to 400-degrees farenheit
• Line muffin pan with paper liners/grease muffin pan with butter (I just stick a hunk of butter into a paper towel and spread it around each muffin section evenly).
• Cream the butter and sugar either in a bowl by hand or with an electric mixer (it should look creamy and well blended, kind of like icing).
• Add the eggs, one at a time with a little of the flour, mixing as you go.
• Fold in the remaining flour, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla, and milk.
• Spoon the batter into paper liners/greased muffin pan, dividing equally.
• Put in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until cooked and golden on top. (you can test with a fork or toothpick.  If it comes out clean, they're done.)
• Let cool on a clean counter or wire rack.

For the topping:

Nigella recommends using whipped cream:

-Whip 1 cup heavy cream, once fluffy, put a dollop on top of the cupcakes. 

My daughter and husband are chocolate lovers, so I simply melt a half a bar of chocolate (4 or 5oz- doesn't matter if it's light/dark/milk/white) in a small pot on low heat.  I dip each cupcake in the pot, turning a circular motion as I lift from the pot to remove any excess chocolate. Continue with each cupcake.  If you have the willpower, allow the chocolate on the cupcake to cool before serving. (This seldom happens in my house.)

Enjoy!

(note the melted cioccolato allll over my little girl's happy face!)

(**This recipe is from Nigella Express, page 187 by Nigella Lawson)

Quickie Expat Meatloaf and Biscuits

 

  I don't know about you, but I'm a big fan of having kids in the kitchen.  Sure, it creates a bigger mess, and maybe slows things down a bit, but cooking as a family is something that my husband and I make a serious effort to do.  I really believe that it builds confidence while teaching kids about what's in their food (which usually gets them to eat things they might not normally be inclined to try).

 

That said, there are moments when getting a kid to eat a vegetable is like pulling teeth from a snow leopard.  When veggie strikes come up, and this expat mama is craving some "American" style food like meatloaf, it makes it pretty darn easy to sneak in some vegetables. 

 

Now we have visited meatloaf before...there's "sneaky meatloaf" and also a couple of different ways to eat meatloaf when you have leftovers...but this recipe was made on the fly on a day when I had one egg in the house, some spinach, a couple of heels of bread, and some leftover pasta sauce.  I pureed the spinach in with the sauce, toasted and blitzed the bread in the blender, and mashed it all together with the egg in a large bowl.  After that, I baked it for about 40 minutes in a 350-degree oven, and voila, dinner!  The best part?  Kyle and Laela made Laela's favorite biscuits, and voila, we had ourselves a tastylicious American style dinner that took so little effort, Laela and her Daddy wound up playing "biscuit dough" for a half hour.  Fun times.

 

For this easy peasy meatloaf, you'll need:

• 1lb ground beef/meatloaf mix
• 2 heels of bread (toasted and then crumbled in food processor/blender)
• About 1 cup of pasta sauce
• 1 cup spinach (pureed)
• 1 egg
• salt and pepper to taste

 

Wednesday I'll be sharing a super easy cupcake recipe that Laela and I like to make when we're craving cupcakes, and don't feel like making a ton of effort!