Wt-fudge happened to those cupcakes?

AHHHHHHH!  GASSSSPPPPP!  SCREEEAAAAAMMMM!

 

Sorry, I had to get some of that, eeeekness factor out of me.  Monday went by as quick as the speed of light, which I was hoping would be the same for the rest of the week, but unfortunately that just couldn't be the case.  Today was one of the worst days at work, and I'm in far, far too foul of a mood to even get into it, because the /cough nineteen followers I do have, I'm afraid I will make them run for the hills.  The fact that after having two straight weeks of long weekends I'm feeling a little anxious of having a five day week (pathetic?  I know)... that and the fact that Thursday issssss my 22nd birthday, wooooo!

Now, let's set something straight here.  Every single year, starting on June 6th (as it's my cousins birthday, one month and one day before mine) I start my birthday countdown.  Then June 17th, 27th, 30th, 1st of July and continuous until the day comes.  I make a habit of mentioning it any chance I get, THREE MORE DAYS 'TIL MY BIRTHDAY... the thing is, I absolutely hate my birthday.  I love the countdown (as it gives me something to look forward to) but the day of my birthday, it's something I dread every year.  I know that sounds so negative and quite Debbie Downer of me, but for the most part, each year it's a huge let down.  I've made plans to go out for my birthday this year... but we shall see if that happens.

Over the weekend, I decided I would make myself some cupcakes because, /cough, last year I did not get any cake.  I was insanely disappointed since cake is my biggest food obsession (tied with ice cream of course).  Some people like chocolate, or chocolate cake, me it's cake and ice cream, vanilla please.  So, I wanted to make myself a batch of cupcakes (which then turned into two batches since oops I only had a big can of pumpkin in my house)... the more the merrier is how I thought about it.  I figured I'd freeze the batch and unthaw them on Wednesday night so that I could bring in some treats to celebrate my day and again have something to look forward to.  HA HA HA! ...yeah, no.

I found this recipe for peanut butter chocolate pumpkin cupcakes (yes... I even did chocolate since it had pumpkin in it and I wanted to use up my can that I've been hoarding since December).  Well... I chose a non-vegan recipe, and since the can of pumpkin was so big I decided to double the recipe... hahaha, well lesson learnt, don't ever replace more than two eggs in a recipe with flax... or maybe don't ever replace gluten-free ingredients with ingredients that contain gluten, something goes wrong, very, very wrong.  Well, I think it was a combination of both to be honest.  The "cupcakes" turned out to be very dense muffins, no moistness really (other than from the almond butter and or peanut butter I slathered on the interior).

I have to admit... and I say this in a non-cocky douchebaggey way... there are very, very few recipes I screw up.  I mean really, I cannot remember the last time I made something that was so bad I had to throw it out (I may not always make food that others enjoy... different palettes) but, they always please my flavour palette.  These cupcakes however, I looked at them and knew something was off.  The cocoa, holy moly, farrrrr too much chocolate for me, far, far too much.  I mean so much cocoa, that I don't even know if the chocolate-crazed Katie would of approved of these.  Despite how over-chocolatey they were though, the addition of peanut butter/almond butter made them edible.  After really disliking the first one, I gave them a second chance.  I sort of enjoyed the second cupcake.  The third one, I actually really enjoyed.  I then even gave in and had a forth.  Yes, I love cake, no matter how much they suck, do not meet my expectations, are heavy, ugly, non-frosted, I cannot throw out a cupcake/cake/pancake.  Even before, if I made them with eggs and they didn't bake all the way through, were gummy, and I was too lazy to put them back into the oven, I wouldn't even eat around the gumminess, no I took one for the team (haha as if I needed much convincing) and would gobble them down.

These cupcakes are hideous, they are basically jet black, the peanut butter looks like pumpkin (I don't know what my oven did to them), they feel as though they're made of bricks, they are un-frosted, however, after gobbling down quite a few at this point I'm actually beginning to enjoy them, I even look forward to my lunch dessert so I can gobble down those five pound feeling "cupcakes".

I'm not going to post the recipe, because, unfortunately I don't think anyone other than myself would enjoy these puppies.  What I will show you however is what I've been enjoying for breakfasts.  And no, this time it's not smoothies.  I'm feeling a little deterred at the moment by my smoothies, and truthfully, a couple of weeks ago I made these killer delicious bagels that I never posted, had only eaten a few, and have been craving so I figured hey, hey, hey time to eat!

My breakfast yesterday, despite how small and limited it may look, was so insanely filling that if I had to wait to eat lunch at 1:00 pm instead of 12:00 pm I could of probably done so.  It was a simple breakfast, but one of the best in a long time, partially due to the fact of how simple it was to throw together and the result was just so gratifying it was perfect.

I had one banana + almond butter + cacao nibs + coconut + sunflower seeds + raisins with a White Chocolate Raspberry Bagel (recipe below) lightly microwaved (yes... ever since I was younger my brother and I would go to Great Canadian Bagel, ask for a plain bagel microwaved with tonnnnnnnnnns of butter... although my bagel tastes' definitely have veered far, far away from plain bagels, and butter is not something I really choose to put on my bagel anymore I still choose microwaved bagels over toasted bagels).

This morning for breakfast (I truthfully don't know which one I enjoyed more) I kept it just as simple, yet just as delicious!

One orange, cut.
A couple of blueberries tossed in for colour (I don't like uncolourful brown food, yuck processed)
One White Chocolate Raspberry Bagel (recipe below) microwaved for 45 seconds, then tossed into the oven on broil for three minutes with almond butter + 3/4 large banana, sliced
The remaining banana
Garnished with dark chocolate flakes, sugar, and cinnamon!

White Chocolate Raspberry Bagels

Recipe adapted from here

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups warm water (112-115 degrees F)
• 2 tbsp dry yeast
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp salt 
• 4 1/4 cups bread flour
• 8 cups of water, for boiling
• White chocolate raspberry: 1/4 cup white chocolate chunks - 1/2 cup frozen raspberries

Directions:

In a small bowl, mix yeast, sugar and warm water together and let stand 3 minutes.

Mix your flour with the salt in a large bowl; then add the yeast mixture. Stir until combined and slowly mix in the rest of the flour.

Knead dough on a floured surface for 5 minutes, adding additional flour if necessary. Dough should be fairly smooth and somewhat firm. Place dough in a greased bowl, cover and let rise until double.

Punch dough down (add in your white chocolate + raspberries -- knead just enough to swirl ingredients through the dough). Divide and shape into 12 balls. (For larger bagels, make only 8 balls.) Allow to rest for 5 minutes.

Bring 8 cups of water to boil. Make a hole in each ball of dough and pull open about 2 inches, making a bagel shape. Place the shaped dough onto a cookie sheet and cover for 10 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Drop 2 or 3 bagels at a time into the boiling water for about 45 seconds, turning each once.  Drain cooked bagels on a wire rack.  Place bagels on greased baking sheets.

Bake for 35 minutes, turning once half-way through baking.  Bagels will be lightly browned and shiny.

How do you enjoy your bagels?  

Have you ever tried microwaving your bagel before?