S'mores Cupcakes

I thought I might enlighten you guys with cupcakes this time. I haven't made anything sweet and sugary in a while, but since it was my brother's birthday, I went and made him these S'mores Cupcakes (best sister ever). Somehow, I've fallen into this role of making my brother a birthday cake every year. First it was red velvet, then honey chocolate cake, but this time I went the easier route and made cupcakes. He engulfed these. Seriously. I turned my back and at least 5 were gone :O

I'm also posting this recipe for my friend who's ill but wants to eat these as soon as she can. Talking about ills and chills...
HOT TUB FOLLICULITIS: What's in your hot tub?
Now I know it's summer and a hot bubbling whirlpool is the last place you want to set foot in, but for other reasons, I would think twice before jumping into a vat of bacteria and bugs. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is found to contaminate hot tubs because it's nice and warm, withstands chlorine and live in this layers of slime inside the water system. Blech. Dr. Claire Panosian Dunavan, an infectious diseases specialist at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, say they're also found in hospitals and can cause ignited fevers, pustules, itchy and irritating skin rashes. Luckily, it goes away after a week, but do you really want to walk around red, itchy and angry?

S'mores Cupcakes
Makes baker's dozen

Ingredients
1.5 cups honey graham cracker crumbs (about 10-12 whole crackers)
0.5 cup all purpose flour
2.5 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
6 tbsp butter + 1/4 cup yogurt (or use whole stick)
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup milk

Few tbsps Nutella Spread
Mini marshmallows

1. Preheat oven to 350F and line or grease cupcake pan.
2. Crush graham crackers using a food blender (pulse) or put it in a bag and crush it manually with your hands or a rolling pin like I did. Measure 1.5 cups of that. There will be some left you can use for decoration. Add the flour, baking powder and salt to the crumbs.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk softened butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in the eggs one by one and then add in the vanilla too. If you're going to use the yogurt add here too.
4. Add the graham cracker/ flour mix to the wet mix, alternating with the milk. Mix that up gently and divide the batter.
5. Bake for 20-22 mins. 
6. Let them cool, spread some nutella and top with left over crumbs and mini marshmallows. You can put it under the broiler/oven for less than a minute to get the toasted marshmallow effect. Or use a kitchen torch if you're handy like that.

Happy Birthday lil bro~

Nutella Swirl Cupcakes

I introduced nutella to bubs some time this year. I know. Who hasn't grown up with nutella sandwiches for breakfast?? Poor deprived man-child child. Anyway, we're in Richmond, VA for a quick tour. It's so damn hot right now even I'm sweating, and I don't sweat.

We're off to more BBQ wee! Excited!!

Factoid: Erythropoietin - Your Exercise Motivation Hormone
How much effort does it take to get you off your fat bum and exercise? Don't you just have those days where you want to just veg? I'm guilty. But I might just throw that onto how much erythropoietin (Epo) I have. Epo is a hormone present in small quantities that stimulate red blood cell production so you can supply those limp muscles with more oxygen while you power jog through the park.

Healthy people treated with EPO reported to feel improved mood, physical conditional as well as increased ventilation (yay oxygen). That helps you change how fatigued you feel and enhance exercise capacity. Other nerds from Switzerland this year injected extremely high doses of Epo into mice and even made genetically modified mice to produce Epo in their brains!  Both groups of mice showed more motivation to exercise than the control group.

Maybe they'll find a pill or injection for humans in the future? In the mean time, get off your lazy arse and hit the tread mill :)

Nutella Swirl Cupcakes
Makes a baker's dozen

No need for icing!

Ingredients
1.5 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup white or brown sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup (or just use all sugar)
2 egg
1/2 cup yogurt (or use another 4tbsp butter)
1 tsp vanilla
Nutella

Preheat oven to 350F
In a large bowl, cream your butter and sugar together. Once the butter is nicely incorporated, add in the maple syrup, egg, yogurt and vanilla.

In another bowl, sift all your dry ingredients together. Add dry to the wet mix and fold until just incorporated.

Divide it into muffin cups and fill up to 1/2 way. Drop 2-3 tsp of nutella on top of the batter in the muffin cups. Swirl it around with a toothpick.

Bake it for 18-20mins