Identitiy Crisis

I very often think this blog should probably be titled "Moonlit Kitchen", since it seems to have way more food related entries than knitting ones. However, being the Gemini that I am, I would have great difficulty blogging about just one thing. Who knows, if it were Moonlit Kitchen, most of the posts would probably be about knitting, or sewing, or reading, or one of my many other loves. On that note, today I will share the products of my Moonlit Kitchen, which does actually have a lovely view of the moon this time of year.

Dual Focaccia Pizza

This is the pizza before going into the oven. I couldn't make up my mind what kind of pizza I wanted, so I went dual. I used a rosemary & onion focaccia. topped one half with asiago artichoke dip, rotisserie chicken, sliced capicolla, boconoccini and parmesan. I topped the other half with chipotle bbq sauce, rotisserie chicken, mushrooms and shredded monterey jack cheese. Both sides were very tasty.

Since making the Mojito cupcakes earlier in the week, I have been dying to make some chocolate cupcakes to go with the leftover mint buttercream. Today was that day. There were both mini cupcakes and regular sized cupcakes, and when smothered in the mint buttercream they were even more delicious. It was like eating a moist fluffy Andes mint. Come to think of it, Andes mints are sort of like a teeny, tiny, mint version of Nanaimo bars.

Mini Chocolate Cupcakes



Chocolate Cake Recipe

1 3/4 cups flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda

2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup boiling water

Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare pans, either grease and flour or line with parchment or cupcake papers. Sift together first five ingredients in large-ish bowl. Mix buttermilk, eggs, oil and vanilla in large measuring cup. Pour into dry mixture, mix well. Add one cup boiling water, stir just 'til combined. Pour into pans and bake.

30-35 minutes for cakes
12 minutes for mini cupcakes
18 minutes for regular cupcakes

This recipe is extremely versatile. Today I used it for cupcakes, 24 minis & 12 regular. In the past, I have used it for both 2, 8 inch round cakes, or one 9 x 13 inch cake.

On the note of mine and my blog's apparent identity crisis. The first two times I tried to type Moonlit Kitchen, I wound up typing Moonlit Knitchen. Maybe my Freudian slip is trying to tell me something.