In which the cupcakes steal the show.

So tonight for dinner, I made Musty Crusty chicken, and Wild Rice risotto. The risotto was a little weird because despite my most nurturing efforts, wild rice has a harder bran coating, or whatever, and therefore doesn't absorb stock the way that arborio does. So.... I had to improvise, and pour in a few ladles of stock, cover the pan, and let it bubble for a few, then come back to it and repeat. It took a darn long time. And yet, it was pretty good. It just doesn't get soft the way I want it to. Ever.

But the real star of tonight's show was this delicious recipe for Chocolate cupcakes with a Salted Caramel frosting.
I of course messed around, and made a different chocolate cake recipe, because I didn't have the amount of butter necessary for her cake recipe. And I didn't make the same frosting recipe (not the caramel. I followed the caramel recipe exaclty) because I didn't want to use 2 sticks of butter AND a package of cream cheese to frost cupcakes that just Jesse and I were going to be eating. That seems a bit rich.
So I took a page from Half-Assed Kitchen's book and made babycakes (mini cupcakes), because I call Jesse Babycakes.
These took ages. I always am wary of making cupcakes, because they always take for darn ever. You have to bake them, and because I only have 1 mini pan, you have to do the shuffling act and bake the batter in waves. And then you have to let them cool. And then you have to make the icing. And then once the icing sets up, you have to ice the cuppycakes.
It's so much work. And, I'll admit this freely, I always want the cupcakes a lot more when I start baking them than by the time I finish. But, regardless, Jesse wanted these cupcakes and I wanted to try and make caramel, and eat cupcakes, so cupcakes were made.

They're good. The frosting is pretty good, but I think that I need to keep more of the caramel sauce for the frosting next time. Basically.... it's good and there's room for improvement.

Also.... beware. Salted Caramel sauce is going to be playing into my daily life. Everywhere. Any chance I get. Ice cream. Brownies. Toast. Get excited!!

Until tomorrow.....