So JohnMBrowning inspired me.
I have never had or made Black Bottom Cupcakes, so I though I'd give it a whirl.
Used a slightly different recipe (milk instead of water, mini choc chips in the cream cheese).

Definitely going to make again.
I will probably add some freeze-dried raspberry powder instead of choc chips to the cream cheese, should be even better. Maybe also try peanut butter.

First batch ready for the oven:



Finished deliciousness cooling:



For some reason, this song was going through my head the whole time I was baking...

Good food and good music!!

Damn, Jay. Those look good. REALLY good.

Like cake.

Pure food porn.

Nicely done!
Tasty - aren't they? They were always my favorite growing up --- mom always knew what she was doing feeding a family of seven. I'm sure her recipe had a 'secret' or two in it --- she actually found her recipe 'card' --- you know, back when cooks would write down recipes on index cards and keep them in a box -- if I ever wanted to make them from scratch.

The key to a truly great Black Bottom Cupcake is to get the cream cheese to sink slightly into the batter so there is just a tiny little bit of white showing at the top.... Then you never know where the big blob of cheese is...

ETA --- Pro tip --- if you are making these --- Devil's Food cake works so much better than chocolate.....

I made a batch of brownies last night ---- Mom and sis sent up a care package of xmas cookies the other day --- have to have something else to try and make them last at least until xmas..... Not just plain brownies --- sour cream in the batter - 3 eggs to make them 'cake like' - broken pretzels in it just to use up a bag of old pretzels. It should last me a week or more...

Quesadilla with American cheese

JB my mom's still has a container full of those cards and Jay that was one of my childhood yummies damn I gotta ask my mom where her recipe is




seafood scampie tonight. shrimps scallops and crab, fuck the price of king crab legs

Turned a sirloin tip roast in a perfect pot roast. Gravy. Parsnips. Peanut Squash (BBQ!). Collard greens.

Finally finished off the turkey casserole last night..... decided to pull the ham bone out of the freezer yesterday and boil it down --- big ol pot of ham'n'beans cooking in the slow cooker today --- looks like 'winter' coming up, so a good 'stick to the ribs' ham'n'beans seemed most appropriate. Had it cooking all morning into the afternoon - turned it off to let it cool and taste --- needs more sweetness, so in went more teriyaki sauce.... hate to make it too sweet, but gotta make it taste good. Good mix of 1# black beans 1# red beans and a good 1#+ of ham off the bone...... Gonna be good.

I made a couple stollen using panettone dough. Almond filled. Huge.

Mom hasn't made any stollen for 3-4 years now.... that was another one of her holiday standards. She would always put candied fruit in with the nuts.... God how I miss it.... its just not the holidays without it.

I posted the pic in the bread thread.

I have my own panettone recipe - in my head - it's a 2 day process. Look up a good recipe, I have not made a traditional one or really 2 (I use large food can, #10(?)) in a couple years and I was about to, then changed my mind because I wanted an almond filling.

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffcm&q=panettone&ia=recipes

Almond paste, almond extract, date syrup, chopped almonds rolled into loaf long logs. (very tasty if you are an almond nut). Lay the log inside the loaf.

Make the dough in 4 stages. Starter, sponge, first volume mix and rise, loaf and final rise, then bake.

The yeast dough is super super rich and you best have a really active culture. Bread flour only, 2.5 sticks of butter, 7 eggs total, cream, egg nog, vanilla, sugar, honey, etc The fruit I don't use the fake stuff and not too much. The candied skin of one tangerine then soaked in vanilla, chopped dried apricots soaked in almond extract and currants soaked in brandy. I use these juices in the liquid as well as plenty of vanilla extract, some almond extract, a drop of anise extra and a drop of sherry extract. This gives the holiday bread just a tiny Italiano twist with out overpowering with any one flavor.

Just a synopsis. The smell was amazing within a 1/4 mile of the house. The texture which is unlike any cake or bread is not the same as baked upright like a panettone (one let down for me) but is still excellent and the almond paste log is not centered if that makes any different.

400°F for 10 min, 375°F for 10. Then 350°F for 30-45 minutes.

OK, this here is Red-Ass cupcakes.

Red Velvet cake with the cream cheese filling from the Black Bottom (see what I did there? ) cupcakes of the other week.
I'm not a fan of mounds of frosting on my cupcakes, (cakes are a different story) so I thought a nice moist cake coupled with the creamy goodness of the cream cheese would be a nice combination.

And, damn, it is.
This time I got the filling mostly hidden inside the cupcake, so it's done like a boss.

Holiday bread