Happy fourth of July week. Because the holiday falls on a Wednesday it does nothing more than break up my week in an odd way. It’s always nicer for it to be on a Monday or Friday. Built in 3 day weekend.
Cupcakes are fun for a holiday and these could be dressed up with red, white and blue wrappers or sprinkles to make them festive. Clearly I made these a few weeks back, as my yard appears green and lush. Right now it is mostly brown and crispy due to a large lack of rain.
June wasn’t the best month for me so I guess it’s good that we have fallen into hot July now. Although we could seriously use A LOT of rain, I have been enjoying the recent hot weather. I am not afraid of hot weather. A bikini, lounge chair, bottle of water and I am good to go for a few hours.
Florida is not even a little dry right now. They have been under the constant reign (and rain) of Debby. She has dumped inches and inches of water on them. A friend of mine along the west coast of Florida is currently having her ceiling redone after it absorbed so much humidity it began to sag in on her. It was comically close to caving in all together. I doubt she thinks it’s comical but it sure looked funny when the only thing holding it up was her halogen floor lamp!
Not to abruptly change the subject, but I bought a bag of flavored coffee. I know. . alert the media! Dunkin Donuts Strawberry Shortcake Coffee to be specific. I am drinking it right now.
I was so excited to try this coffee. Odd because I generally am not a flavored coffee girl. I prefer my coffee a dark roast and brewed strong. (With some cream and sweetener, of course.) But I had read a lot of good things about this coffee. It came out last spring at Target actually and I have been eyeballing it for a year! I’ve debated buying it several times but I wasn’t drinking a lot of caffeine and it doesn’t come in decaf. Plus I thought it was a frivolous waste of money.
I needed a gift for coffee drinking friend and this seemed the perfect excuse to throw caution to the wind and buy some. One for her, one for me. Today is the second pot of it I have brewed and I am not super impressed. The first pot I made last week was very bitter and actually ended up tasting better when I poured the left overs into a travel cup over ice with milk and sugar. The cold seemed to hide the bitter.
Today’s pot seems better. Either it’s growing on me, I was desperate for caffeine or I added too much half and half. In any event, I probably won’t be buying it again. Bummer. But also not a bummer cause if it had been super delicious it would have created an expensive habit!
So, there you have it, my 2 cents (or 25 cents) on Strawberry Shortcake Coffee. Not that you asked.
As far as these cupcakes go. . . my 2 cents is that they are delicious and light and low fat. That means you can eat more of them and not feel guilty! 🙂 Happy 4th of July!
Chocolate Angel Food Cake
1 1/2 cups egg whites (I used egg whites from a carton. But if you want to crack eggs, you’ll need 10-12 eggs to get 1 1/2 cups egg whites.)
1 1/2 cups sugar, divided
1 tsp cream of tartar
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
In the bowl of a stand mixer combine 3/4 cup sugar and the egg whites. Beat on high until soft peaks begin to form.
Stop mixer and add cream of tartar and vanilla. Beat on high until stiff peaks form.
In a separate bowl sift together flour and cocoa powder and 3/4 cup sugar. Add the egg whites and gently fold in by hand. Be careful not to deflate your egg whites.
Pour into a tube pan to make a traditional angel food cake or do what I did and put the batter in lined cupcake tins. This makes 2 dozen cupcakes. Fill the liners 3/4 full.
Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes for cupcakes. Any longer and they will start to dry out and shrink! I went a bit too long and they shrunk. They were still tasty but next time I will start with just 20 min and go from there. (You’ll need to up the time a bit if you make one big cake.)
Cool completely before glazing.
Chocolate Glaze
1 cup chocolate chips
3 Tbsps corn syrup
1 Tbsp butter
2-3 Tbsps hot water to thin
Carefully heat chocolate, corn syrup and butter in a microwave safe dish on a low setting in your microwave for a few seconds at a time. Chocolate burns easily in the microwave so be careful!
If it looks too thick once it’s melted you can beat in a few Tbsps of water to make a nice smooth consistency.
Dip the tops of the cupcakes in the chocolate glaze and allow the glaze to cool. It will set up once it’s cool.
While the chocolate is still wet on top of the cupcakes you can add sprinkles or edible glitter like I did!
Sugar Coated Sarah 