Fancy Nutella-Filled Cupcakes

I made some cupcakes for a baby-shower this week and they got unanimously good reviews.  They were chocolate cake, filled with Nutella, and frosted with almond buttercream frosting.  The finished product is above.  (Or, rather, one of the finished versions.  There were some that were frosted with lavender, too)  

How did I get the filling in?  Easy, I used an apple corer to make uniform and neat holes in every cupcake.  

      

Then I took a quart ziploc bag, filled it with nutella, and then cut off a corner.  This let me stick the opening into the hole of the cupcake, squeeze, and neatly fill the hole in the cake.  A jar of Nutella filled one batch of 24 cupcakes.  Then I just frosted over the cupcakes (and the filling) with big swirls.  

      

Baked Cauliflower Tots

  

Last week I got a great big head of cauliflower in my Fare4All box of fruits and veggies.  "How to use this vegetable?" I wondered.  "Should I just eat it raw or roast it to make spicy cauliflower nibbles like I did in February?"  Then I remembered that I saw an amazing-looking recipe for broccoli tots (like tater tots, but with broccoli and cheese instead of potatoes) and wondered if I could make a cauliflower version of the broccoli tots.

Turns out that recipes abound online.  Yay!  So I made my own version.  (Also, my version is is a bit healthier than most of what I saw online because it leaves out the shredded cheddar/mozzarella cheese and uses just some parmesan.)

Ingredients:

• cauliflower (1/3 of a head, or enough to make about 1 cup finely chopped)
• scant 1/4 cup seasoned breadcrumbs
• heaping 2 Tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 egg, lightly beated
• salt, pepper, other seasonings (I added a smidge of garlic powder)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Boil cauliflower for 4 to 5 minutes, until soft
3. Place cauliflower in cool water until you can handle it
4. Finely chop cauliflower
5. Mix cauliflower and all other ingredients together
6. Spray cookie sheet with non-stick spray
7. Form mixture into cylinders. Be sure to press firmly so ingredients stay stuck together while baking.
   
8. Bake for 15 minutes (bottoms should be brown and crispy). 
9. Turn over and bake for 10 more minutes. 
10. Serve with ketchup or whatever sauce you like and enjoy your brunch/lunch/dinner treat!