Oreo Chocolate Cupcakes

I may or may not take things a bit too far when it comes to chocolate, but sometimes you just need to have 3 different kinds of chocolate! In this case, the chocolate cupcakes have a chocolate ganache core and an Oreo topping. Just because I feel like moderation and chocolate don't go too well together. Yields approximately 16 cupcakes.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 pack Oreo cookies (154g)
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate
• 1 1/2 cups whipped cream
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp instant coffee powder
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1 pack of vanilla sugar
• pinch of salt 

Preheat the oven to 175 °C (fan oven). Mix the flour, sugar, unsweetened cocoa powder, baking powder and a pinch of salt in a bowl. Dissolve the instant coffee in 1 cup of boiling water and add it to the dry ingredients. Add the eggs, vegetable oil and buttermilk. Distribute the dough among your muffin forms. Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes (use a toothpick to make sure that the muffins are done).

Next, melt the chocolate in the microwave or with a saucepan. Mix 2-3 tablespoons of whipped cream with the chocolate. However, you might want to keep a bit of the chocolate to use it as decoration later. Remove part of the muffin core and fill it with your chocolate mixture while it's still soft. 

Smash the Oreos with a rolling pin and mix them with the remaining whipped cream and vanilla sugar. Use the mixture as a topping.

Fudgy Brownies

Just the fact that I spent a whole day eating nothing but brownie batter and these brownies should suffice to convince you that these brownies are going to make your day. However, that does not mean that I reccomend this as a healthy lifestyle :P I usually go a little overboard with chocolate, so I guess the ganache topping is optional (but definitely worth it).

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sugar 
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup whipped cream
• 1/2 tsp instant coffee powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• a pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 175 °C upper and lower heat. Mix the dry ingredients. Melt the dark chocolate inside a saucepan or the microwave. Put 3 tbsps of the dark chocolate aside for the topping. Mix the rest of the chocolate with the dry ingredients and add butter and eggs. Line an oven form with butter (I had to go with a lasagna form, because I don't have a proper one for brownies) and spread the dough.

Bake for 20-25 minutes. Don't leave them in the oven for too long, as they're supposed to stay a little chewy and sticky. For the topping, mix the remaining dark chocolate and whipped cream. Cool the mixture for a while and spread it over the brownies. Do not cut the brownies until everything has cooled off properly, otherwise they'll break into lots of crumbs.