Dark Chocolate Muffins with Cream Cheese Frosting

I made these muffins for my mother´s B-day and we all loved them. They were moist and very chocolatey. The frosting was really good to and it paired perfectly with the muffin.


The cake recipe came from FoodMayhem and the frosting from eHow:

Cake: (makes about 12 normal sized muffins)

1/2 cup cutch-process cocoa powder
1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin tins with paper cups. Dissolve cocoa in water. Let stand until cool.
In a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla.
In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add into creamed mixture alternating with sour cream. Beat in cocoa mixture.
Spoon into prepared muffin tins. Bake for 15 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes in the tin, then remove to wire rack to finish cooling.

* I wasn´t in the mood to take out my mixer so I did all the mixing by hand and they came out just fine.
* I bought some silicone muffin cups a while ago. They are wonderful because you don´t need muffin tins (you just put them in the oven on a baking sheet so they don´t tip over) or greasing. They also peel off perfectly and are very easy to clean.

Frosting: (I made half of this recipe for the 12 muffins)

1 8oz. package of cream cheese (cold - it helps with the consistency)
5 tablespoons softened butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups sifted powdered sugar (add more or less depending on desired sweetness and consistency)

Beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla until combined.
Gradually add powdered sugar and beat until desired consistency is reached.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

I´ve always loved the banana - chocolate combination and I love it even more in the form of anything baked, especially muffins. The good thing about these is that you can decide to make them "light" by changing the sugar for Splenda and the regular yoghourt or sour cream for their low-fat versions. I´ve made them both ways and they came out delicious both times. They are really easy to make and they turn out really moist.
















I borrowed the recipe from recipezaar:

• 3/4 cup mashed ripe banana (about 1-1/2 medium bananas)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup low-fat plain yogurt or low-fat sour cream
• 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375°F. Spray a 12-cup muffin pan with cooking spray. In a large bowl and using an electric mixer, beat together bananas, sugar, oil, egg, and vanilla until well mixed. In another bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, and baking soda; stir flour mixture into banana mixture. Divide among prepared muffin cups. Fold in chocolate chips. Bake in centre of oven for 15 minutes or until a tester inserted in centre of muffins comes out clean.

Light chocolate chip cookies?

Last week all I was thinking about is making some chocolate chip cookies, light chocolate chip cookies. When I finally found the time to make them I surfed the internet and found a nice recipe from Cooking Light.
The cookies turned out quite well: crunchy outside and chewy center.
My only mistake was that mine weren't as light as they should have been. I made half of the recipe and I made it just into nine cookies, so they were too big to be light. Well, what can I say they were delicious, and when I eat chocolate chip cookies I prefer them bigger.

Here's the recipe:

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (about 10 ounces)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large egg whites
• 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine flour, baking soda, and salt, stirring with a whisk.

Combine sugars and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended. Add vanilla and egg whites; beat one minute. Add flour mixture and chips, beat until blended.

Drop dough by level tablespoons 2 inches apart onto baking sheets coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on pans 2 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely on wire racks.

If you make them the correct size the yield is about 4 dozen.