Sweet chocolate cupcake with a twist or two...

I made a cupcake recipe today that was a little different, fun and quite tasty. These Chocolate Butterscotch Pudding Cupcakes have a little surprise in the middle that is actually added before baking, rather than after.

We've made cupcakes before where you scoop out a cone from the middle of the baked cupcake, spoon a filling inside, replace the cone and frost the top. We did it a little differently this time and actually layered a scoop of butterscotch pudding as we were filling up the muffin tin with the chocolate batter. Since we were just playing around, I didn't make a from-scratch pudding - I just used a box of butterscotch Jello cook and serve... you could also use those already prepared pudding cups you find in the market. Before we topped the pudding with the chocolate batter, we tossed a few toffee chips on to emphasize that caramel-like flavor.

Since we were not planning on frosting them, we added a scattering of mini chocolate chips on top of the cupcakes before we placed then in the oven. When we bit into them, we found the chocolate flavor was fairly pronounced, but it had a lingering subtle butterscotch flavor before we even got to the center. Some of the pudding and toffee melted into the dark cupcake, keeping them quite moist, however you are left with a little hidden pool of the two when you reach the center. I was hoping for a little more of the pudding to be visible, but I didn't mind that much as the butterscotch hint it added to the crumb of the chocolate cupcakes turned into a nice combination.

Jeff has been asking for another recipe for dinner that has a peanut sauce of some sort since he very much enjoyed that Chicken Saté we had earlier in the month. After digging around in my to-try piles, I found a recipe for this Aromatic Noodles With Lime Peanut Sauce dish.

While you wait on some whole wheat noodles to cook, a peanut-y sauce with a tang is made in a food processor by pureeing natural peanut butter, soy sauce, vegetable broth, rice vinegar, fresh lime juice, a touch of brown sugar, minced ginger root, one scallion and a sprinkling of crushed red pepper. A few minutes before the pasta is done, broccoli florets along with snow and sugar snap peas are steamed just until they are crisp-tender. The noodles and vibrant veggies are tossed with the creamy peanut sauce and the dish is finished with a scattering of crunchy toasted peanuts. The fresh lime juice added a tempting bright flavor to the sauce that was not distracting as I thought it might be - the majority of the flavor was the nuttiness from the natural peanut butter. Very good while warm, I'm excited to have this for lunch tomorrow as cold peanut noodles are so tasty!

Recipes
Chocolate Butterscotch Pudding Cupcakes
Aromatic Noodles With Lime Peanut Sauce