Cake Madness - Day 19

Cake of the Day: Penguin Cupcakes

Before I say anything else about these cupcakes, I must immediately stress that this is the yummiest chocolate cake I think I have ever had . . .go make it . . .NOW. (I cut the recipe down from 12 servings to 9 and baked for 15-20 minutes as one of the recipe reviewers suggested). Here's the link: Sandy's Chocolate Cake, go bake, and then come back to read this while you are eating the magnificent chocolate goodness you just created. 

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How's the cake? ;) Anyways, even if you didn't go make a cake, I'll let you read about my adventures with these cute little friends. The recipe was easy to make, although I was a little concerned with adding all of the boiling water and how runny the batter was. I shouldn't have been worried, as they turned out incredibly moist and tender. I used a large cookie scoop to put the batter in the muffin tins and that worked out great. For decorations, I just used a store bought whipped vanilla frosting and topped them with halved mint chocolate cookies, cut up pieces of dried apricot, and mini chocolate chips for the eyes. The idea came from this site: Penguin Cupcakes 

Here they are:

Did you know a group of penguins has many names? On land they can be called a rookery, colony or waddle (my personal favorite :)) and when they are in the water, a raft . . . fun huh?

 These adorable little guys were gobbled up pretty fast at work, so fast in fact, I've pretty much given up trying to judge the cake quality based on the time it takes for the cake to disappear. I think people are starting to catch on to the "cake in the break room every day" idea.

Here are the comments these received:

• Cute and tasty.
• Super cute.
• So cute and yummy. Loved the mint cookies on top.
• Very cute and tasty.
• Very good, the thin mint makes it. 
• Aww - so cute :) 

I think "Cute" was the word of the day. 

How adorable :) 

In other news, today I was told I was in the wrong profession, and a coworker told me I've inspired his wife to make a different kind of cupcake every week for a year! I might be getting tired out from all this baking, but I still like cake, and this project is yielding some very fun results :)