Easy Chocolate Muffins, Baking With Kids And A New Venture

Whoa! Do I have your attention with the unusually long and cryptic blog title? Good, read on then. Let’s start with the muffins and the whole ‘baking with kids’ thing first.

I feel so lucky that Boy suggests a baking adventure on his days off from school. Lately, he’s been into rainbow-colored cakes or cupcakes and his all-time favorite are of course, chocolate cupcakes or muffins. I’ve tried a few recipes before, but for now I feel Nigella’s recipe is a keeper. It has just the right amount of cocoa powder and chocolate chips in the batter. I actually hate it when I am hit with an overly chocolate-y, almost bitter taste in a muffin. I am also a fan of mini chocolate chips, but that is not really relevant. You can use your favorite ones.

Whenever Boy has a school holiday, this is how the day goes.

7:00 AM (sometimes even earlier): “Oh, wow! It’s morning, the sun is up!” (He shows real enthusiasm to wake up, never seen on regular school days).

7:15 AM: “Can we make cupcakes for breakfast?”

You can guess my answer. Which makes him sulk and refuse breakfast for till maybe another half hour.

8:00 – 8:30 AM: I somehow convince him to eat breakfast.

8:30 AM: “But you said we could make chocolate cupcakes. I want them in green, grey and blue.”

Huh? What?!!

Around 9:00 AM: I attempt to eat breakfast, all the while dealing with a whiny kid (which means he is bored already).

9:30 AM: I start some of the lunch items, do my round of phone calls (all the while telling him to be patient).

Around 10:00 AM: Cake/cupcake/muffin time!

You will not believe how well-behaved he becomes! My boy!!

• Pre-heat the oven. Remind him to not ever touch or open it.
• Give him the cupcake pan and liners.
• Dump the dry ingredients in a bowl and the wet in another. Measuring and dumping goes like this. I measure, pass him every cup/spoon, he takes it and dumps it in the right bowl.
• Combine dry ingredients uniformly. Lightly whisk wet ingredients. He is actually good at that.
• Combine the two (with mommy’s help).
• Fill the pan. Count and add chocolate chips on top of each muffin, all the while popping those chips in his mouth.
• Bake. Meanwhile, he licks the bowl and spoon, while mommy gets to err… you know, clean up the Master Chef kitchen!
• Remove muffins and cool them.

“Are they done, mommy?”

“It’s very hot. Give it 5 minutes.”

“But my tummy is hungry now.”

“5 minutes.”

11:00 – 11:30 AM: Taste test. Silence for all of 5 minutes.

“What do we do next? I wanna go out.”

Oh Boy!

Mmm…muffins!

You will need: (Makes 12 regular cupcake sized muffins)

• All purpose flour – 1 3/4 cups
• Baking powder – 2 tsp
• Baking soda – 1/2 tsp
• Unsweetened cocoa powder – 2 tbsp
• Sugar – 3/4 cup
• Semi-sweet chocolate chips – 1 cup, divided
• Milk – 1 cup
• Oil – 1/3 cup + 2 tsp
• Egg – 1
• Vanilla extract – 1 tsp (or honey or maple syrup – 1/2 tsp)

How to:

• Pre-heat oven to 400 deg.F and line a cupcake pan with paper liners.
• Place all the dry ingredients from all purpose flour to sugar plus 3/4 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips in a large mixing bowl and combine well.
• In a smaller bowl, whisk together the milk, oil, egg and vanilla extract. Add this to the dry ingredients and mix till just combined. Do not over mix.
• Fill the cupcake pan, sprinkle 1/4 cup chocolate chips on top and bake for 20 minutes or till it passes the toothpick test. The muffins will be well risen, browned and the tops slightly cracked.
• Cool in pan for a few minutes, remove and cool completely on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container for a few days.

Enjoy them with a warm glass of milk (tea/coffee acceptable for mom/dad!).

Now, onto the third part of the blog title. I was approached a while back by an online home decor shop based in India to do a few guest posts for them. I actually kept putting it off, for a few months in fact. After a lot of thinking (it is in my genes to over-think something as simple as a guest post!), the first post is up. You can find it here and check out their site as well – BuynBrag. Yep, pretty cool name, right?!

Disclaimer: All opinions stated above are personal. I have no further financial affiliation with said store, but I really do find their collections quite charming. Do visit them!

Well, that’s all for today then. Hope you try the muffins, enjoy summer break with your kids and go window shopping online!

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I am linking this up at these awesome blogs.

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