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CAPPUCCINO BUTTERMILK MUFFINS…Virtual Connect & O Food Contest

2009/09/22 / 48 Comments
“Caffeine isn’t a drug, it’s a vitamin!”
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Woke up groggy one morning. Had been up till 1.30am battling blogger issues. Then the son decided to wake me up at 4.30am with a painful foot. They’re ‘growing pains’ the doctor once said; the lad has P L E N T Y. ‘Why me, why today’, was the only thought I had! coffee+butermeilkFor some insane reason, I was wide awake thereafter. Had to find something therapeutic to do. Hadn’t made them a snack for school the day before because I had been dog tired. A thought ran through my head – ‘I’m going to bake some muffins’ … the first time I’ve actually baked at 5.30am! Reached out for my recipe folder on the counter & opened the most in demand comfort bake – Cappuccino Muffins. I love making these. They are simple, get put together real quick, and above all, connect me to Nic @ Cherrapeno where I found the recipe. 3IMG 1895
Nic and me get on famously, and our email exchanges are sometimes quite hysterical & funny. Makes me a happy baker carrying out a virtual conversation with her! We do also catch up on twitter sometimes, though not as often as we’d like to. Nic and I have plenty of giggles that keep us in splits! I just love ‘food with a connect’ – a memory, a conversation, a giggle attached to it, something like the macarons we made in a mac attack on twitter not so long ago.

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They are lovely muffins & pack a punch in each bite. Soft and delicious, with a deep coffee taste. I think using buttermilk instead of milk makes them a tad lighter. Maybe it’s just a figment of my imagination, but well…I find them to be just perfect comfort food. Grab a warm muffin, curl up with a cup of coffee, a good cookbook…bliss!

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Cappuccino Buttermilk Muffins
adapted from Nic @ Cherrapeno
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsps baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup vanilla sugar
1/2 cup melted butter, cooled
1 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsps instant coffee
1/2 cup chocolate chips

5

Method:
Mix coffee into melted butter. Whisk well.
Whisk eggs lightly into the buttermilk with the vanilla extract.
In a big bowl mix well the following – both flours, vanilla sugar, baking powder & salt.
Now pour in the buttermilk mixture & the butter mixture, and mix in gently by hand till moist. DO NOT over mix or muffins won’t be nice & soft. Fold in chocolate chips lightly & do not over mix.
Fill up the prepared muffin tins 2/3 full, sprinkle a few coffee beans if you like. Bake in preheated oven at 180C for 20-22 minutes.
Cool on rack.

6

♥ Thank you for stopping by ♥

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This is my entry for the 2nd Annual O Foods Contest for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. ‘CAPPUCCINO BUTTERMILK MUFFINS’. Do head across to Michelle’s at Bleeding Espresso and be part of tradition in honor of award-winning pastry chef Gina DePalma, author of Dolce Italiano: Desserts from the Babbo Kitchen; Gina has been fighting ovarian cancer for the past year and a half, and in addition to physically battling the disease, she has also started the Cowgirl Cure Foundation to raise awareness and money for research as well.

ovarian cancer awareness175CONTEST RULES

O Foods Contest for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month

September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, and for the second year in a row, Sara of Ms Adventures in Italy and Michelle of Bleeding Espresso are hosting the O Foods Contest to raise awareness of this important health issue.

There are TWO WAYS to take part in the O Foods Contest:

ONE: Post a recipe to your blog using a food that starts or ends with the letter O (e.g., oatmeal, orange, okra, octopus, olive, onion, potato, tomato); include this entire text box in the post; and send your post url along with a photo (100 x 100) to ofoods[at]gmail[dot]com by 11:59 pm (Italy time) on Monday, September 28, 2009.

PRIZES for recipe posts:

1st: Signed copy of Dolce Italiano: Desserts from the Babbo Kitchen by Gina DePalma, Executive Pastry Chef of Babbo Ristorante in NYC, who is currently battling ovarian cancer, inspired this event, and will be choosing her favorite recipe for this prize;
2nd: Signed copy of Molto Italiano: 327 Simple Italian Recipes to Cook at Home by Mario Batali (winner chosen by Sara);
3rd: Signed copy of Vino Italiano: The Regional Italian Wines of Italy by Joseph Bastianich (winner chosen by Michelle).
OR
TWO: If you’re not into the recipe thing, simply post this entire text box in a post on your blog to help spread the word and send your post url to ofoods[at]gmail[dot]com by 11:59 pm (Italy time) on Monday, September 28, 2009.

Awareness posts PRIZE:

One winner chosen at random will receive a Teal Toes tote bag filled with ovarian cancer awareness goodies that you can spread around amongst your friends and family.
———
From the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund:

Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death from gynecologic cancers in the United States and is the fifth leading cause of cancer death among U.S. women; a woman’s lifetime risk of ovarian cancer is 1 in 67.
The symptoms of ovarian cancer are often vague and subtle, making it difficult to diagnose, but include bloating, pelvic and/or abdominal pain, difficulty eating or feeling full quickly; and urinary symptoms (urgency or frequency).
There is no effective screening test for ovarian cancer but there are tests which can detect ovarian cancer when patients are at high risk or have early symptoms.
In spite of this, patients are usually diagnosed in advanced stages and only 45% survive longer than five years. Only 19% of cases are caught before the cancer has spread beyond the ovary to the pelvic region.
When ovarian cancer is detected and treated early on, the five-year survival rate is greater than 92%.
And remember, you can also always donate to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund at our page through FirstGiving!

Please help spread the word about ovarian cancer.
Together we can make enough noise to kill this silent killer.

Posted by Deeba @ PAB

About me: I am a freelance food writer, recipe developer and photographer. Food is my passion - baking, cooking, developing recipes, making recipes healthier, using fresh seasonal produce and local products, keeping a check on my carbon footprint and being a responsible foodie! I enjoy food styling, food photography, recipe development and product reviews. I express this through my food photographs which I style and the recipes I blog. My strength lies in 'Doing Food From Scratch'; it must taste as good as it looks, and be healthy too. Baking in India, often my biggest challenge is the non-availability of baking ingredients, and this has now become a platform to get creative on. I enjoy cooking immensely as well.

48 Comments

  • Pari

    2009/09/22 at 7:41 am Reply

    Hi Deeba.
    First of all the muffins are very inviting dear and even I do agree adding buttermilk makes them light, this is my experience too.
    I completely empathise with you when you get woken up at 4AM. I have faced this very frequently in the last few days where I have gone sleepless for almost 48hrs. But sorry I could not muster up myself to bake, in the wildest of my dreams at 5:30 in the morning. Tussi great ho.:-)

  • Happy cook

    2009/09/22 at 8:06 am Reply

    Deeba baking so early, if i do that hubby will drag me back to the bed 🙂
    Love anything with chocolate and last time i tried one of you cupcakes with coffee theywere yumm. SO bookmarking this .

  • Divina Pe

    2009/09/22 at 8:19 am Reply

    You've just combined two things I love – chocolate and coffee. They're gorgeous and tempting.

  • The Cooking Ninja

    2009/09/22 at 8:31 am Reply

    Gorgeous! I wish I can have one of those. Need coffee badly.

    For the past few nites, daughter woke me up a few times in the nite bright as a chirpy bird even though she has a bad case of flu and all she can think of is 'mommy, time to go to school yet?' arrgghhh

  • Marq | Brochure Printing

    2009/09/22 at 9:08 am Reply

    Cool! my mother will really love this 😀 I should make some for her 🙂

  • Aparna

    2009/09/22 at 9:24 am Reply

    People drink coffee to stay awake and you get up and bake coffee somethings at 5.30 in the morning!
    I don't need convincing about your coffee love affair. 🙂

    A used to have bad "growing pains" till about a year back. Pouring warm water over the legs and a slight massage helps.

  • Sophie

    2009/09/22 at 10:01 am Reply

    Waw,…your muffins & all of your baked goods always look so tempting & appetizing!!

    These muffins look wonderful!!

  • MeetaK

    2009/09/22 at 11:49 am Reply

    coffee in baked goods always gets me, however i do not usually bake with it myself too much at home due to soeren. lovely muffins!

  • Curry Leaf

    2009/09/22 at 12:16 pm Reply

    Happy Early baking.Its midnight baking for me.Love the muffins.I too have been toying the idea of coffee-yogurt muffins.Coffee in baked items is GREAT.

  • Tangled Noodle

    2009/09/22 at 12:49 pm Reply

    I don't know where you find the energy and motivation to bake after a sleepless night, but we get to enjoy (at least visually) the gorgeous end results! Food with a connection alwasy has that extra special flavor – I just hope I find the time to make the many extraordinary recipes I've found online (including yours!)

  • Dawn

    2009/09/22 at 12:56 pm Reply

    I am thankful you have a love affair with coffee/espresso as do I.
    When I saw the title of this post I was in HEAVEN. I love these types of muffins. I am printing this one!

  • Parita

    2009/09/22 at 1:13 pm Reply

    You are grt deeba, i have baked 12 clock in the night but never so early in the morning, muffins look delicious!

  • shaz

    2009/09/22 at 1:43 pm Reply

    Goodness Deeba, you are indefatigable! Baking after 3 hrs sleep? The muffins look fantastic..I'm a mocha fan too.

  • Barbara Bakes

    2009/09/22 at 2:13 pm Reply

    If I mail you food will you take pretty pictures of them for me? The muffins look scrumptious!

  • ♥♥♥Ria♥♥♥

    2009/09/22 at 3:40 pm Reply

    Growing pains! I know very well what they are! I used to wake up my mom zillion times 😀

    The muffins look WOW! A small pointer..how much choco chips do we need to add? I guess it's 1/2 cup.

  • Avanika [YumsiliciousBakes]

    2009/09/22 at 4:10 pm Reply

    Growing pains! I still have them sometimes 😛 😛 Poor Mom!!

    The muffins look delicious! I cant imagine being up in the middle of the night baking with coffee, instead of drinking it 😛

  • Cinnamon Girl aka Reeni♥

    2009/09/22 at 4:22 pm Reply

    What a delicious treat! I guess if one has to be up so early in the morning baking is a fun thing to do. I love these with chocolate chips – such a great combo with coffee.

  • pigpigscorner

    2009/09/22 at 4:52 pm Reply

    wow..you really love baking! I don't think I can get myself to do anything after such little sleep. They look gorgeous!

  • Bellini Valli

    2009/09/22 at 6:05 pm Reply

    Now this is the way I love to have my coffee Deeba, in a muffin, a cake, a brownie….

  • Gera @ SweetsFoods

    2009/09/22 at 7:37 pm Reply

    So early in the morning to bake but what a magnificent result totally outstanding muffins 🙂

    Cheers!

    Gera

  • Annellénor

    2009/09/22 at 8:26 pm Reply

    Je crois que je préfèrerais me coucher très tard pour réaliser ces douceurs plutôt que de me lever à l'aube … mais je suis sûre de les apprécier à toute heure de la journée !

  • Julie @ Willow Bird Baking

    2009/09/22 at 10:53 pm Reply

    They sound delicious, and good for you for turning a too-early morning into an opportunity for baking! 🙂

  • Liliana

    2009/09/23 at 4:18 am Reply

    Those are my kind of muffins!! And I would bake them at 5:30 a.m.

    Great photos – thanks for sharing the recipe.

  • Nicisme

    2009/09/23 at 8:59 am Reply

    Oh they look fabulous! I couldn't get up that early in the morning, although if it has chocolate in it….
    Sounds like the perfect breakfast – love the way you used buttermilk, must look out for that at the store.
    Hope to catch up with you in the next day or so! xxx

  • Shabs..

    2009/09/23 at 2:06 pm Reply

    wooww…what a lovely muffin….would love to bake this. Let me move to my new place,(next month)need to get a muffin pan to bake this though!But im making this…They are so inviting deeba….I love coffee flavoured cakes and muffins….
    Well one doubt, Guess it's a dumb one too. What's buttermilk?…Is it dahi+water or you get something called buttermilk itself?!….if so which one did u use?…let me know please…
    Bookmarking this one…

  • Gloria

    2009/09/23 at 4:29 pm Reply

    Deeba these are absolute wonderful! I really love muffins, I think we can use butter instance buttermilk didn't??? huggs xoxoxoxoxo

    or simple yogurt

  • Palidor

    2009/09/23 at 11:39 pm Reply

    Baking is definitely therapeutic, and a great activity when you can't sleep. Absolutely delicious muffins!

  • Faith

    2009/09/24 at 1:42 am Reply

    These muffins look like the perfect accompaniment to a good book and a fresh cup of coffee!

  • Jamie

    2009/09/24 at 1:26 pm Reply

    Great muffins for a great cause! I love the coffee + chocolate chips combo and this is a marked recipe in my book. Must bake and eat them!

  • Arwen from Hoglet K

    2009/09/25 at 11:36 am Reply

    O foods is a great cause, and your muffins look perfect for an early morning. I agree that buttermilk helps make things moister. It makes gluten free scones almost edible.

Thank you so much for stopping by. I'd love to hear from you.

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