Blackberry Wine & Chocolate-Olive Oil Cupcakes & A Giveaway!–GIVEAWAY CLOSED

GIVEAWAY CLOSED; A WINNER HAS BEEN SELECTED!!

Congratulations, Samantha!! Your comment telling me you liked Lucero Olive Oil on FB is what scored you a free(!!) bottle of Chocolate EVOO! Enjoy dipping bread or making brownies with this stuff–or take some suggestions from the other awesome comments!! Your email has been sent; email me back ASAP or a new winner will be drawn.

THANK YOU again to everyone who entered, as well as Lucero Farms for sponsoring this delicious giveaway!! I loved reading all of your unique and yummy suggestions and I’m so glad I still have some oil left to whip some of your ideas into tangible reality.

 

Up until a few years ago, I was completely ignorant in the kitchen and didn’t know how to bake, cook, wash a dish, or do anything except pour a bowl of cereal into a pot and call it a dinner.

I certainly didn’t know what olive oil was. Isn’t it like, the same thing as oil? Isn’t that the stuff you put in your car? Whatever, I’m gonna go blast some emo music in my room to drown out my pre-adolescent sorrows. Being thirteen is hard.

But then I started watching the Food Network and people like Rachael Ray basically survived on the stuff. I don’t think I learned anything from Rachael except that you must coat your pan with EVOO.

So when I started cooking, I became adamant about EVOO. Olive oil is totally good for you, people! You can use it on your hair (shiny strands), your nails (buffed & beautiful cuticles), your skin (hello, softness) and in your food. That’s like a magic potion in a bottle, endorsed by Rach herself. Yum-O!

But have you noticed most people don’t usually bake with olive oil? It’s kind of taboo. There are few recipes out there featuring olive oil as their “fat” component. It’s all butter (good) and canola oil (common). What about the olive oil?!!?

So when I found out my math professor (Hi, Professor Lucero!) and her husband, Dewey, owned and operated their own olive oil company called Lucero Olive Oil, I was stoked! Finally, I could potentially have access to some seriously yummy oils, mustards, and tapenades… the possibilities and ideas!

While I have no idea what’s going on in math class as I’m too busy thinking of recipes rather than linear equations, I did come up with this truly decadent recipe for a cupcake featuring a very special oil from their farm.

Chocolate. Olive. Oil.

Yup. Chocolate flavored oil.

How is such a beautiful creation even possible?! The world has many mysteries.

However, I must say, it’s perfect. In general, over ice cream (yes!) and in this rich cupcake. And because olive oil and chocolate could not be enough, I subjected this cake to even more deliciousness by making it with red wine and blackberries with a fresh blackberry buttercream frosting.

Math whaaaa?

Blackberry Wine & Chocolate-Olive Oil Cupcakes *adapted from Love & Olive Oil’s recipe 

2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup red wine
1/2 cup Lucero chocolate olive oil (in a pinch, light olive oil works)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup pureed fresh blackberries (or 1/2 cup seedless blackberry jam)
2 cups sugar
1 & 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
Blackberry Buttercream Frosting (recipe & ingredients follow)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 muffin tins with 24 paper liners. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, combine the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder and soda and salt. Set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the eggs, buttermilk, wine, olive oil, vanilla extract and pureed blackberries or jam. Begin gradually adding the dry ingredients into the wet, mixing well after each addition until a very thin batter has formed.
3. Portion batter evenly among muffin tins, filling about 2/3 full. Bake for approximately 14-16 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool completely, & prepare the frosting.

Blackberry Buttercream Frosting

1/3 cup pureed fresh blackberries or jam
2/3 cup butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
About 6 cups powdered sugar
Splash of Lucero chocolate oil

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the pureed berries, butter and vanilla until blended. Gradually add powdered sugar, about one cup at a time, until light and fluffy. Blend in the splash of oil for an extra richness, because everyone wants to be extra-rich.
2. Pipe or spread onto cooled cupcakes. Garnish with edible pearls or a fresh blackberry, if desired. Store airtight in the fridge.

Okay, so you wanna know the BEST part of all this (besides a cupcake featuring oil, wine AND chocolate)?!? You can win your own free! bottle of Lucero Chocolate Oil!!

The amazing folks at Lucero Olive Oil are giving one lucky reader a free bottle of their delicious and unique chocolate olive oil so you can experience this scrumptious madness, too.

To Enter, leave ONE comment telling me how you would use this one-of-a-kind oil. In cupcakes? Brownies? Cookies? Ice cream? In actual savory food? I wanna know!

To receive a BONUS entry, go to Lucero Olive Oil’s FB page and ‘Like’ them. Then come back and tell me so in an additional comment.

I’ll be running this giveaway from 2/7/12 until 2/13/12 (Monday) where I’ll draw a winner via Random.Org at approximately 8PM PST. I’ll email the winner Monday night as well as post their name on this post. If I don’t hear from the winner within 36 hours I will pick and email a new one. This giveaway is only open to US residents. (I promise all my other lovely international friends will get one soon!)

So please! make sure you leave me your comment with your name and a valid email address in order to be eligible to win this prize. Lucero Olive Oil and I reserve the right to revoke or alter this giveaway at any time, with or without notice. All inappropriate or invalid entries will be disqualified. 

A super-special THANK YOU!! to the amazing masterminds behind Lucero Olive Oil for sponsoring this giveaway!! Be sure to check out their website for more yummy things like Mandarin oil or Tequila Jalapeno Mustard. YES. PLEASE.

Good luck!!

xo, Hayley