Cream-Filled Chocolate Cupcakes and Lemon Grilled Chicken

Both of the recipes that I used tonight are adapted from one of my favorite food blogs, Laura's Best Recipes.
http://www.laurasbestrecipes.com/

So I suppose that I have started a "thing", baking for Al's co-workers every week. I swear that I can bake things other than cupcakes but I have just found so many good recipes for them lately. This one is cool because it is a filled cupcake and reminds me of a hostess cupcake, but with rich chocolate frosting on top instead of the little white swirl.

Chocolate Mocha Cupcakes

1 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
2/3 cup cocoa
8 tablespoons butter, melted
2/3 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs beaten with 2 additional egg whites
2 teaspoons vanilla
6 tablespoons strong coffee



Heat oven to 350 degrees and line a muffin tin with cupcake liners. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa powder, sugar, and salt together. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the melted butter, buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, and coffee. Blend until there are only a few small lumps left. Scoop into lined cupcake tins and bake for 20 minutes or until the centers spring back when lightly pressed. Cool for three minutes in the pan before removing to wire rack to cool completely.

Cream Filling

2 teaspoons very hot water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 (7 oz) jar marshmallow cream
1/2 cup shortening
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla








Dissolve the salt in the hot water and allow to cool. Whip the marshmallow cream, shortening, powdered sugar, and vanilla until it begins to get fluffy. Add the water and whip well. To fill the cupcakes, use a wide star tip (size 21) attached to a coupler on a piping bag. Cut an X in the top of the cupcake and then push the tip into the X and pipe about 1 tablespoon of filling into the cupcake. If you do not have a piping bag, you can remove a small bit of cake from the top of the cupcake then fill the center and replace the cake piece that you cut out.

Dutch Chocolate Frosting
6 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
4-6 tablespoons milk or half and half

Cream the butter and cocoa powder until smooth. Add the vanilla, powdered sugar, and milk. Mix until smooth. If the frosting is too loose, add more powdered sugar by the 1/4 cup until it reaches the desired consistency. Frost cupcakes as desired.


Spicy Lemon Grilled Chicken

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (or bone in chicken)
Juice 4 lemons (then cut up juiced lemons into slices to add to the marinade)
1/4 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons black pepper
1 teaspoon salt

Combine all ingredients in a ziploc bag and allow to marinate for 4-6 hours. Remove chicken from marinade and grill until juices run clear.

PS...so excited to finally have a Wolfgang Puck grill of my own!! My parents have one and it is 10 million times better than a George Foreman as an indoor grill!!