Earth Day Thoughts

Hi everyone! As promised, we have another post for you. Like Oreo Thoughts, in which we asked each of you for a sentence or two that described your feelings / reaction to the Oreo Truffles, Earth Day Thoughts does the same. The only difference is, we're asking you for your thoughts on the Chocolate Dirt Pudding Cupcakes. Here they are below, but first, a word of advice: 

Don't just open a box of cupcakes and have a free-for-all. It'll be gone and devoured by your classmates faster than you can say, "Wait, I should probably save some for.....others." Some people scrambled off with their cupcakes before we could ask them for their Earth Day Thoughts. Nonetheless, we have managed to (miraculously) salvage some photos and reaction quotes. 

Apologies to those who deserve or were promised a cupcake but didn't get one. The mad dash for cupcakes shouldn't be taken lightly. Fortunately, we learn from our mistakes, and we promise this mistake will not be repeated. Everyone shall have their just dessert.

Here is the progression of cupcake devour-ation in less than 3 minutes.

Scene 1: 12 cupcakes.

Scene 2: 5 cupcakes.

Scene 3: 2 cupcakes.

Now for the photo and reaction quotes.

Your Pass the Cocoa chefs,

Caroline & Monica

Chocolate Dirt Pudding Cupcakes

Guess whose birthday is tomorrow? ...It's our very own, one and only, mother Earth. So here's a recipe dedicated to Earth Day!

These chocolate dirt pudding cupcakes are incredibly fun to make, and it tastes absolutely divine and is like a chocolate lover's heaven. Chocolate cupcake filled with chocolate pudding, topped with chocolate frosting and Oreo crumb "dirt" layer. And an adorable gummy worm digging into the cupcake. How could you resist? We'll be bringing these to school on Monday, so be on a look-out!

Hungry for more Oreo-inspired recipes? Check out our

Oreo Truffles

and

Mini Oreo Cheesecakes

.

Love,

Caroline & Monica

Happy Earth Day -- April 23, 2012! (Yay for our first timely post!)

The ingredients. We thought spring Oreos would be appropriate.

Ready to mix the cupcake ingredients.

After mixing the cupcake ingredients.

Ready to go in the oven!

How to make the chocolate dirt pudding cupcakes.

Printer-friendly version of Chocolate Dirt Pudding Cupcakes

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Chocolate Dirt Pudding Cupcakes

A chocolate-y and super yummy way to celebrate mother Earth

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Inspired by:

Gingerbread Bagels

Yields: 24 cupcakes

Time: 2 fun-filled hours

Ingredients

1 Devil's food cake mix*

1 chocolate pudding mix

1 can chocolate frosting

1 bag gummy worms

1 bag Oreos (you'll use approximately 10)

*Note: You may replace the Devil's food cake mix, frosting with any of your favorite cupcake recipes.

Directions 

1. Make the cupcakes.

2. Make the pudding.

3. Cut out the centers of each cupcake and set aside in a separate bowl.

4. Fill centers with pudding.

5. Cover the pudding with a small bit of cupcake crumbs.

6. Frost.

7. Food process the approximately 10 Oreos.

8. Sprinkle the Oreo "dirt" crumbs over the cupcakes.

9. Stick gummy worms into the cupcakes. Voila!

Chocolate Fudge Brownie Cupcakes

Happy April 18! It's me, Monica. Some of you might remember me bringing in cupcakes on the last day of school before spring break (which was a while ago, I know). Recently, I've become infatuated with cupcakes. They're easy, fun, delicious, and portable. What more could you want out of a dessert?

Anyways, this treat was dedicated to our friend Swiezy's birthday. Cheers!

I won't leave you in suspense for much longer, I promise. This was originally meant to be a spring

break post, but accessing the Internet can be a little difficult when you're traveling overseas in China. So please accept my apologies for the belated post.

Just a heads up, this is an overnight recipe, so I wouldn't recommend making this last-minute. The actual baking and preparing part doesn't take long, but the brownie portion must be frozen overnight.

(Are you a fan of Pass the Cocoa and our recipes? Be sure to like us on

Facebook

 and give any suggestions on future recipes you think we should try.)

Also, this recipe is not a light one when it comes to oil. When I saw how much oil the original recipe called for, I was seriously frightened for my health and well-being (and everyone else's). So I cut down the oil as well as the sour cream amount by 1/3. Much better.

Without further ado, I present to you: Chocolate Fudge Brownie Cupcakes.

On the first day, combine all the ingredients and roll them into brownie balls like shown above.

Keep in mind that they don't have to be perfectly sphere shaped.  

This is what the pudding-like cupcake mixture looks like after all the ingredients are combined.

Fill cupcake liners about halfway before pressing the frozen brownie portion in the center of each one.

Before and after-frosting photos of the end result. Not sure why there's a strange blue dot on the before photo.

A shot of heaven. Frosting, cupcake, brownie, and everything.

Chocolate Fudge Brownie Cupcakes

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printer-friendly version

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Adapted from

Kevin&Amanda

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Time: 2-3 hrs within 2 days

Yields: 32 cupcakes

Note: Feel free to cut the recipe in half.

BROWNIE BATTER (DAY 1)

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1/4 cup butter, melted

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1/3 cup fat-free sweetened condensed milk

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1/3 cup milk

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1 box devil’s food cake mix

1. Mix all ingredients in a medium bowl until well combined. 
2. Form batter into small balls; think ping pong ball-size, except a little smaller. They don't have to be perfect; in fact, it might look better if they weren't perfect spheres like mine. 
3. Freeze overnight.

CUPCAKES (DAY 2)

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1 box devil’s food cake mix

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1 (3.9 oz) pkg Jello instant chocolate fudge pudding mix

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2/3 cup sour cream

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2/3 cup vegetable oil

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4 eggs

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1/2 cup milk

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2 cups mini semi-sweet chocolate chips*

*I chose to omit this part of the recipe. However, I included the instructions in step #2.

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees and prepare cupcake liners. 
2. Mix all ingredients except chocolate chips into a large bowl until well-combined (batter should be very thick, almost pudding-like consistency). Fold in chocolate chips.
3. Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full. Press frozen brownie balls into the cupcake batter. 
4. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool before decorating with chocolate ganache or any other frosting of your choice, such as Seven-Minute Frosting or Cream Cheese Frosting. Or you could take the lazy way out, like me, and use canned frosting. 

Enjoy!

Caroline & Monica

Cranberry-Orange Scones

Spring + sunshine + pretty flowers + yummy scones = happyhappyhappy

Okay. Check the ingredients list, and get whatever you need. You WILL want to make these. Hard, sweet glaze on the outside, soft and biscuit-y on the inside, scones make the perfect breakfast/snack food. They're also gratifyingly easy to make, especially after trying to make my own bread for the first time (more about that in an upcoming post.)

Also, we're on Facebook! Check out our new Pass the Cocoa Facebook page, where we post reaction shots of our taste-testers, take recipe requests, post food photos, and more. Visit us here:

http://www.facebook.com/passthecocoa

. And don't forget to like the page!

Got your ingredients? Let's go!

I forgot to take process shots today, so you'll need to use your powers of imagination. Believe me, I'm proud of the fact that I even remembered to snap a photo  before I stuffed it into my mouth.

Mix together your dry ingredients, add the butter, then use your hands to incorporate your butter. This photo was from the biscuit post, but the process is similar. You could use a pastry cutter or a fork to do this, but hands are just so much faster.

Add the wet ingredients (buttermilk and egg beaten together.) DON'T OVER-MIX. As I've said before, you will want to cry if you do.

Shape the dough into a 6-inch circle, and cut it into 8 wedges, like a pizza.

Bake, cool, and brush on the glaze. The glaze is powdered sugar and a little bit of water (you could use juice from an orange instead) and it is NOT optional. The glaze helps seal in moisture and keeps the scones tasting fresh and soft. Liberally apply it. You won't be sorry, trust me.

Click here for the printable recipe.

Cranberry-Orange Scones

Adapted from Martha Stewart

Yields: 8 scones

Ingredients

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

2 ½ teaspoons baking powder

2 tablespoons sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons butter, cold, cubed

1 teaspoon orange zest

1 egg

5 tablespoons buttermilk (you can substitute this for 5 tablespoons whole milk mixed with 1 teaspoon lemon juice)

1/2 cup dried cranberries

For the Glaze:

¾ to 1 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons water (approximately)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Grease a baking sheet.

2. Mix together the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.

3. Add the butter. Use your hands (or a pastry cutter) to mix it into the flour. The mixture should resemble coarse crumbs.

4. Add the cranberries and orange zest.

5. Beat together the egg and buttermilk. Add to the flour mixture. Mix until just combined. DO NOT OVER-MIX.

6. Shape the dough into a 6-inch circle. Cut it into 8 wedges, like you would a pizza.

7. Place on baking sheet and bake 12-14 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool.

8. Make the glaze. Mix water with the powdered sugar. The glaze should be smooth, but not too runny.

9. Brush the bottom and sides of the scones with glaze. Let dry. Then, glaze the tops.

Enjoy them as much as we did!

-Monica and Caroline