Happy Holidays! I am currently in sunny California relaxing with my family. Thus, in the spirit of relaxation (for me!), I recruited my family to do some guest blogging for me. First up will be my brother Jon who happens to be an excellent baker and photographer. You are in for a treat for both your taste and your visual receptors. Yum!

Jon: Wow, thanks for that great introduction…nerd! Just kidding. I am honored and excited to be guest blogging here. I love reading new recipes and stories on the Everything in Moderation blog.

When I get a craving for some particular food, I like to just go for it and satisfy the craving — in moderation, of course! This week, for some reason, I had been fixating on having a molasses chocolate cake. So, last night we tried making one and everyone at our holiday game night party agreed: the result was a delicious success.

This recipe is adapted from Jim Bob’s blue ribbon chocolate molasses cake. It is light and fluffy, and extremely moist. We served it with powdered sugar on top, but several people mentioned that it would have been excellent with whipped cream, or cream cheese frosting, as the original recipe had. We also used coffee instead of hot water, which gave the recipe an extra flavor boost. I guarantee it will be eaten as fast as molasses. Enjoy!

Alison: Fast as molasses? What?! Jon, that doesn’t even make sense. Anyways, here is the recipe. Try it out and let us know what you think!

Fast-as-Molasses Chocolate Cake
Makes twenty squares of cake

2 cups granulated sugar
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup dark molasses
1/2 cup canola oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup hot, strong brewed coffee

1. Whisk together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.
2. Add the eggs, milk, molasses, oil and vanilla and beat for 2 minutes.
3. Add the coffee and stir it into the batter by hand.
4. Pour the batter, which will be very thin, into a greased 9×13-inch baking pan and bake at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
5. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack (or in the pan, like we did).

Alison: Thanks, Jon! Next up will be my mom with a post about a great baking-related Christmas or birthday gift idea.

I recently made a discovery about fudge: the deliciousness to effort ratio is VERY high. Huh?!? I mean that for all of the deliciousness that a good piece of fudge brings, the effort needed to make it is very low.

Some friends of mine hosted a taco night the other night and I wanted to make a quick and easy dessert to share. I rifled through my pantry for inspiration and found a can of sweetened condensed milk with a recipe on it. A fudge recipe. A super easy fudge recipe, at that. The recipe had three ingredients and four steps; I was sold. I decided to spice up the recipe by adding cinnamon to it and calling it “Mexican Chocolate Fudge.” The perfect taco night dessert.

The fudge turned out delicious but we all agreed that it was more of a mix between fudge and truffles. But it worked for us. If you’ve ever made fudge before, you probably know that many fudges are made with more ingredients than what I’ve listed below, such as butter, marshmallows, and sugar. The fudge recipe listed here is much firmer than other fudges, which can be a bit soft or gooey, but this firmness makes the fudge very rich so you just need a small bit to feel satisfied.

Mexican Chocolate Fudge
Makes 64 small pieces of fudge

3 cups (18 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
2 teaspoons Saigon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Line an 8-inch square baking pan with wax paper.

Combine chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk in medium, heavy-duty saucepan. Warm over lowest possible heat, stirring until smooth, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in cinnamon and vanilla extract.

Spread evenly into prepared baking pan. Refrigerate for 2 hours or until firm. Lift from pan; remove wax paper. Cut into 64 pieces.
Note: The pieces of fudge will be small, but if they were any bigger the richness of the fudge would make you sick when you ate it!

I am usually a make-it-from-scratch type of baker who shies away from cake mixes. Call me a cake-snob, but I think it’s worth it to put in the extra time and effort because I love the fresher taste of baked goods made from real, unprocessed ingredients. However, I can’t help but bend this rule when it comes to The Cake-Mix Doctor baking book. This cookbook is always a great fall-back when I need a slightly easier and quicker cake recipe that will still be a delicious crowd-pleaser.

We visited Penn State this past weekend to attend the soggiest tailgate ever, but also to celebrate my good friend Brittany’s birthday! Brittany shares my love for anything with chocolate and peanut butter, so I baked up some rich chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting in honor of her birthday. Both recipes came from The Cake-Mix Doctor book, but I made some slight modifications to make them a (tiny!) bit healthier.

Happy Birthday Brittany!!!

Recipe:

Makes 21 cupcakes

Rich Chocolate Cupcakes:

1 package (18.25 ounces) plain devil’s food cake mix

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup fat free Greek yogurt

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup water

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Peanut Butter Frosting

1 cup creamy reduced-fat peanut butter

8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, room temperature

3 to 4 tablespoons skim milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions:

Rich Chocolate Cupcakes:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line cupcake pans with 21 liners. Set the pans aside.

Place the cake mix, cocoa powder, yogurt, applesauce, water, eggs, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute, stopping once to scrap down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more, scraping down the sides of the bowl again if needed. Pour the batter into the line cupcake pans, filling each liner no more than 3/4 the way full.

Bake cupcakes until they spring back when lightly pressed and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 30 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and place them on wire racks to cool for 5 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pans and place on the wire rack to cook completely, at least 15 minutes.

Peanut Butter Frosting:

Place the peanut butter and butter in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed until fluffy, 30 seconds. Add the confectioners’ sugar, 3 tablespoons milk, and the vanilla. Blend with the mixer on low speed until the sugar is well combined, 1 minute. Increase the speed to medium and beat until the frosting lightens and is fluffy, 1 minute more. Blend in up to 1 tablespoon milk if the frosting seems too stiff.

Nutritional Information (per cupcake):

Calories: 231

Fat: 13.7g

Saturated Fat: 4.9 g

Carbohydrates: 23.4 g

Protein: 6.0 g

*Okay, I’ll admit it: generic cupcakes have been Photoshopped into these two pictures in a lame form of improvisation for not having taken pictures. To the cupcakes’ credit, however, the reason I don’t have pictures is because they got gobbled up by tailgaters before I could snap a photo!

I pieced together two different Martha Stewart recipes to create these delicious cupcakes. The cupcakes turned out perfectly light and sponge-y while the mocha frosting turned out very rich and chocolate-y. They were the perfect ending to a delicious dinner of spinach salad (thanks Amanda!), stuffed shells (thanks Meredith!), and a delicious Cabernet Sauvignon (thanks Michelle!).

Recipe:

(adapted from The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook by Martha Stewart)

Makes 18 cupcakes

Cupcakes:

1 1/4 cake flour, sifted

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, room temperature, cut into pieces

3 large whole eggs plus 3 egg yolks, room temperature

1 cup sugar

Mocha Frosting

8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips

3 tablespoons Dutch-process cocoa powder

1 tablespoon instant espresso powder

3 tablespoons boiling water

1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar

Pinch of salt

Instructions:

Tiramisu cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Sift together cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Heat milk and vanilla extract in a small saucepan over medium heat just until bubbles appear around the edge. Remove from heat. Whisk in butter until melted, and let stand 15 minutes.

With an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk together eggs, yolks, and sugar. Set mixing bowl over a pan of simmering water, and whisk by hand until sugar is dissolved and mixture is warm, about 6 minutes. Remove bowl from heat. With an electric mixer on high speed, whisk until mixture is fluffy, pale yellow, and thick enough to hold a ribbon on the surface for several seconds when whisk is lifted.

Gently but thoroughly fold flour mixture into the egg mixture in three batches; stir 1/2 cup batter into the strained milk mixture to thicken, then fold milk mixture into the remaining batter until just combined. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until centers are completely set and edges are light golden brown, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes.

Mocha Frosting:

Place chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over (bot not touching) simmering water. Stir occasionally until chocolate has melted completely. Set bowl on counter-top and let chocolate cool to room temperature, 30 minutes. Meanwhile, combine cocoa powder, instant espresso, and boiling water in a small bowl and stir until cocoa and espresso powder are dissolved.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter, confectioner’s sugar and salt on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add melted chocolate; beat on low speed until combined, 1 to 2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in the cocoa mixture.

If the frosting seems thin, allow it to harden in the refrigerator for an hour. Frost cupcakes when they are completely cool. Decorate with Mini Merengues, if desired.

Nutritional Information (per cupcake):

Calories: 254

Fat: 15.1g

Saturated Fat: 8.0 g

Carbohydrates: 27.9 g

Protein: 3.2 g