Celebrating National Chocolate Cupcake Day 2011 with Dark Chocolate

If you didn't know, today is National Chocolate Cupcake Day and quite naturally I had to celebrate this unofficial food holiday that's nevertheless recognised this time of you. Combining my adapted dark chocolate cake recipe (based off of the recipe found on the back of Hershey's dark cocoa powder containers) and this one offered by online specialty foods magazine The Nibble, I woke up this morning prepared to bake some cupcakes in acknowledgment of this 19th century treat. The one issue I faced was the fact that I don't have any cupcake pans in my apartment and so I baked two cupcakes in ramekins and poured the rest of the batter into a baking dish; by definition, a cupcake is typically a cake made as a single serving and so at least the ramekin versions fit the celebration. On the menu: Dark Chocolate Chunk Cupcakes with Dark Chocolate Orange and Almond Cream Filling and Dark Chocolate Buttercream Frosting.

A Response to Wednesday's (and Thursday's) Warm Weather: Homemade Chicken Salad

As I sat in my office Wednesday afternoon, keeping cool from the warm weather, I began to think about barbecuing. It was certainly a good day for it, and it had certainly been a while since the threat of rain did not hamper our spirits. Yet, the thought of grilling outdoors eventually became unappealing. My response, then, was to think about typical picnic fare side dishes. And then it dawned on me: one of my favourites is chicken salad, the most memorable of which I can place at The Cove (Leland, MI). It has been a while since I had it, but the simple combination of dried cherries, juicy chicken, and fresh cantaloupe is one that transports me to the water and speaks volumes of what summer eating is all about. With all of this in mind, I clocked out and headed to the grocery store, purchased my ingredients (including stuff for today’s cooking), and returned to the apartment apparently salivating for flavours to be expected. However, as has been the case for most of these posts at this point, I have never made chicken salad nor have ever read about it. Armed with what I could remember of the best chicken salads I have had in the past and guided by suggestions by my colleagues, I turned on “Top Chef Masters” and continued my weekly tradition (it seems) of cooking with the chefs.