The Best Brownies I've Ever Made

A few months ago I was really craving brownies, and wanted to find a recipe that I would fall in love with. Now, I haven't always had the best of luck making brownies, in fact I have always overcooked them because I didn't exactly know when I should take them out of the oven, I didn't want them to be undercooked so I would just leave them in the oven until it was just too late. So, after many years of failed attempts to find the perfect recipe I came upon a recipe that sounded like I could possibly nail, and I did. I've never been so proud to have passed that hurdle, and now I know I will be making some more any time I crave them because they were actually not very hard to make as long as you read all the instructions. 
These brownies are not only moist and soft, but are topped with a chocolate ganache that just adds the perfect amount of chocolatey yumminess to this recipe. Just thinking about them makes my mouth water. If you're ready to learn how to make these then just keep on reading.

Ingredients:
3/4 c All Purpose Flour
3/4 c Unsweetened Natural Cocoa Powder
1 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Instant Espresso Powder
3/4 c Unsalted Butter, melted
3/4 c Granulated Sugar
3/4 c Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
1/4 c Milk
Ganache:
1/2 c Heavy Cream
1 1/2 c Semisweet Chocolate Chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease 9x13 inch pan with baking spray and lay some parchment. Set aside.
Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, and espresso in a bowl and set aside.
In a separate bowl, whisk together granulated sugar, brown sugar, and eggs.
Then, add the eggs milk and vanilla extract.
Add dry ingredients and mix until fully incorporated.
Pour batter into the pan and bake for 20 minutes.
Once it has baked let it cool completely.

For ganache:
Heat up heavy cream in microwave or saucepan and pour into chocolate chips. Set aside.
After a couple minutes, whisk to melt chocolate completely.
Pour ganache over the brownies and let the ganache set. I put it in the refrigerator to produce a denser brownie.
After it has set it is ready to cut and eat.

I hope you enjoy these brownies as much as I enjoyed them, and have enjoyed sharing the recipe with you.

Valentine's Day Cupcakes

It has been a while since I've wrote a post on this blog, and I am very glad that I decided to start posting on here again. I had stopped because I got a little discouraged and also I was attending culinary school, working, and being part of a dance company. As you can see life happened, and I just didn't have the time to make posts. I'm happy to announce that I am done with culinary school, and I have learned so much. I am now ready to show you all what I have learned, and show you my creations as well as help you create them. 

Last year for Valentine's Day I decided I wanted to make a little bit of money so I decided to make a flyer, and sell some cupcakes to my friends and family. I thought since it would be Valentine's day, and everyone seems to like my cupcakes I could sell them for less than most cupcakes out there, and get many orders. Well, I may have bit more than I could chew at that time because it was a lot of work and I didn't sell as much as I thought I would. Also, I had so many cupcakes leftover that I had to give some away. Now, you may ask why did I make so many? Why didn't I take orders ahead of time? Well, I did. The problem was that I decided that for each package I would make 6 different flavor cupcakes with 6 different frostings so that each cupcake was different. I only got 5 orders therefore, I had so many cupcakes and not enough orders. It was a good learning experience because I learned that if I want to make that much work for myself I need to be able to get more orders. I still had a lot of fun making them so it was not all for nothing. 

Now that you have read all of my life story, if you want to see the cupcakes that I made and maybe give you an idea for some cupcakes you can make for your sweetie this Valentine's Day then here is a little description of each one and a photo to go along with it.

 Top: Chocolate Chip Cupcake with Chocolate Whipped Topping and Topped with Chocolate Chips, Pink Velvet Cupcake with Whipped Topping and Topped with Pink Pearl Sprinkles, Vanilla Cupcake with Pink Vanilla Buttercream Frosting and Topped with White Pearl Sprinkles
Bottom: Chocolate Cupcake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting and Topped with Red Heart Sprinkles, Red Velvet Cupcake with Cream Cheese Frosting and Topped with Red and White Sprinkles, Cookies and Cream Cupcake with Cookies and Cream Whipped Topping and Topped with an Oreo Cookie

 I put them in a cupcake container with 6 cavities

I wrapped the box with a cute red and white ribbon bow

These are my orders for Valentine's Day and the two red boxes are cookies which will be my next post.

I really hope you liked this post, and continue to read my baking journey.