Monthful / Mouthful of Birthdays

Chocolate & Buttermilk Birthday Cupcakes

Half Dressed Churros con Chocolate Cupcakes

Double chocolate mouse cake

This weekend was the fourth in a row where the plans revolved around a birthday.  As a lover of repeatedly turning 29, the first two were celebrating mine, followed by Miss IS and Mr. TS both turning 30 (for REAL) over the past few weeks.

Needless to say there has been a steady stream of confection coming out of my kitchen and into my mouth.  On the actual birthday weekend I was able to celebrate at an appropriately themed (HAPPY BIRTHDAY!) GP Koko party complete with 1800 lovely wig wearing attendees singing me and GP (or Sean as you would have it) happy birthday.  It was the best Z-lister experience a girl could ever wish for! 

Clearly my cupcakes were centred on the birthday theme, and sticking with some ol’ fashioned traditions I went with the vanilla buttermilk cupcakes that I've written about before (thank you Madame Stewart) with rich and delicious chocolate sour cream frosting.  Add some colourful sprinkles, candles and cute little marzipan cakes (yep, made those too) and voila! – the perfect way to kick off the birthday celebrations!

I followed up the next afternoon (the actual BIRTHday) with a lovely day being spoiled at a London Fashion Weekend event (vintage makeover – HELLO!) and champagne afternoon tea at the Churchill Lounge at the Hyatt Regency.  Tip: head here for cocktails or champagne only, the cakes left a lot to be desired. I ended up going home and eating one of the leftovers from the night before.  Naughty, I know, but we all know the universal rule that calories do not count on your birthday. 

Keeping the festivities going a little bit longer I hosted a party at my flat the following weekend, which centred on a ‘C’ theme…

C-hampagne

C-anapes

C-ocktails

C-ake

In addition to the assortment of dips, crudités, antipasti, & breads I bought, I made:

Pork dumplings

Vegetarian spring rolls

Courgette and feta fritters

Asian mini fish cakes with pickled ginger (the recipe calls for crab, I used hake)

SPOILER ALERT: I don’t always make EVERYTHING from scratch. Sometimes in order to save a bit of sanity you need to apply some common sense and in my case it came in the form of the pork dumplings and spring rolls.  I can claim I MADE them because they were completely uncooked when I started.  Purchased in a Chinatown supermarket the previous weekend these frozen little gems were both cheap and easy to make.  The spring rolls were fried and the dumplings were pan seared and then steamed to perfection.  Both I did the night before and then just reheated in the oven with my other canapés.  

Now, on to the evening’s desserts…ahem, none of these were outsourced thank you very much.

1. Double chocolate mousse cake with raspberries
2. Churros con chocolate cupcakes
3. Carrot cake sandwich cookies with cream cheese filling
4. Chocolate peanut butter bites

Shall I break it all down for you?

1. Double chocolate mousse cake - updated off of http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Double-Chocolate-Tangerine-Mousse-Cake-1094 (I used my fool-proof chocolate brownie recipe as the base)

Easy as pie to make, it's a hostess's dream as it's simple, can (and should) be made the night before and any leftovers (it's quite rich so a little sliver will do) freeze well.

2. Churros con chocolate cupcakes

These guys were my favourite desert of the night.  I mean what's not to love about cinnamony deliciousness and chocolate?  While there weren't any actual churros in the recipe (I still have a fry baby on my Santa wish-list), it's inspiration could be found in the brown sugar and cinnamon cupcakes (a light and fluffy recipe I've used before), the mexican chocolate pudding surprise when you bit into the middle (hollow out a 1-1.5 inch section from the middle of the cupcake and fill with pudding), and some sprinkled demura sugar on the top of cinnamon and chocolate whipped cream frosting (whip 2 cups cream with 1/3 cup powdered sugar until stiff peaks form and gently fold in some cinnamon and cocoa powder to taste).  Pipe on top before adding the demura.  So much yumminess, so many textures, so little time.

3. Carrot cake sandwich cookies with cream cheese filling  A variation on the classic cake, appropriately sized for individual consumption.

4. Chocolate peanut butter bites

The chocolate and peanut butter bites were a last minute addition (because really, I just wasn't sure I had enough).  Crunchy peanut butter was mixed into melted white chocolate and spread into a rectangular pan.  I chilled it for a little bit and then after melting dark chocolate and a bit of cream (ganache anyone?) I spread that on top of the white chocolate mixture.  Next, I added little mini peanut butter cups on top (this would work just as well with any other sort of topping - M&Ms, marshmallows, peanuts...you get the picture).  After refridgerating it for another 45 minutes or so I cut them up into little bite sized pieces.

It wasn't until I served the desserts that in a blink of an eye I saw that there was only one more of these peanut butter chocolate nuggets left (I was repeatedly told that for a few it was their favourite dessert of the night).  Having not even tried them yet I quickly and greedily snatched the last one up and hid it in my microwave (I was already so full there just wasn't any more room in my belly).  It was my pre-breakfast snack the next morning.  So easy to make and such a winner, I see many reasons I'll be making these much more often.  In fact...might do so right now!