Double Chocolate Cupcakes

Sorry I've been so absent...life has been really hectic and I have lots to share, which I'll get around to doing next week.

In the meantime, I'll tide you over with these double chocolate cupcakes. So, you know how I really don't like chocolate cake? Well, I think these cupcakes have made me a believer. I've tried out dozens of chocolate cake/cupcake recipes over the past few years but I've hated them all. This time, I decided to just use my own recipe and the result was chocolate cupcake perfection. I'm not quite sure how it happened, but somehow it did, and the result is a moist, not too dense but not too light, slightly rich, and perfectly chocolatey cupcake. I just might have to make them again.

Win Two Tickets to New York Magazine’s Highbrow BBQ!

On Saturday August 23rd, New York magazine is throwing a Highbrow BBQ at Solar One in Manhattan from 1 pm – 5 pm. I wish I could go, but my brother is getting married that evening down in Baltimore, so obviously I can’t go (it would be probably be a bit uncouth for me to show up late to my only sibling’s wedding). But that means that one of my lucky NYC-area readers will win a pair of tickets to what promises to be a really fun event, and two one-year subscriptions to New York Magazine, to boot.

So what’s the deal with this BBQ, you ask? Here are the details:

What: Highbrow BBQ

• All you-can-eat food (yes, there will be plenty of food for vegetarians, otherwise I wouldn’t want to go, now would I!)
• All-you can-drink beer for the 21+ set (so long as you provide proof of age)
• A BBQ contest to be judged by CJ (click here for details)

Who: Former Top Chef contestant Chris "CJ" Jacobson (who happens to be one of my favorite Top Chef contestants) and a full-set performance by Islands (one of my current favorite indie rock bands)

When: Saturday, August 23rd, 1:00pm - 5:00pm. (Rain date August 24th, same time.)

Where: Solar One, East River waterfront at 23rd Street, Manhattan

How much: Tickets are $25, but one of you will get a pair for free!

Is that it? Nope, a 46 issue New York magazine subscription is included with each ticket.

Admission is all ages but ID will be required for drinking.

Even if you don’t win tickets, you should totally check this out – there will be great music, tons of free food and beer, a lovely location on the East River, CJ from Top Chef, and a free year of New York magazine. Not bad for $25, if you ask me.

To be entered to win the pair of tickets, leave a comment with:

• Your first name
• Your location
• Your email address (in the format name at domain dot com, for example, mine would be raspberryeggplant at gmail dot com), and
• Your favorite BBQ item (mine would be grilled corn with lime juice, ancho chili powder, and crumbled cotija cheese)
  

All comments must by posted by 10 pm (EST) on Thursday, August 14th; I'll email the winner by Friday morning. You must live in the NYC area to win these tickets, and please be over 21 – otherwise all the free beer will go to waste!

Good luck!

Lemon Raspberry Cake

I made this cake for a family gathering at my parents’ house a few Saturdays ago. I was initially planning on making a cake version of my Brown Sugar-Hazelnut Cupcakes with Blackberry Frosting, but apparently all the supermarkets my mom went to were conspiring against us, as she was unable to find blackberries at each of the stores she went to that day (and she went to a lot just to find those elusive blackberries). I was informed of this dearth of blackberries while I was at work, and she asked what she should get for my Plan B cake…except I didn’t have a Plan B, so I was forced to come up with one on the spot: Lemon Raspberry Cake.