Thyme After Time: Sundae I'm in Love

Black Forest Sundae Cupcake

In my wonderfully crazy and sometimes neurotic week, Sunday begins my little weekend. It's my everything day. Sometimes it's my 'sleep in, pull the covers over my head, enjoy staring into space' day.

Sometimes it's my 'wrap myself in a blanket and watch the sun rise' day.

Sometimes it's my 'explore the city' day.

Sometimes it's my 'stay in and hide' day.

Mostly, it's my day to be in love.

Once upon a time, I worked a full six days a week. Sunday was my off day. It also became my everything day. I tried to achieve everything that I couldn't accomplish throughout the week in the first hour Sunday morning. (Ha) I then hoped that the rest of the day would be our day. Sunday became the day for my husband and I to spend together, to fall in love once again, every week. It was our shared day off.

The concept was difficult to achieve. For me, there was a myriad of chores and things to do. For him, it had been his day to play golf, watch football, be a guy.

We somehow managed to get everything done, though not always in one day. We compromised. I became a little less of a perfectionist. He switched most golf games to Saturdays. We even watched a few football games together. No matter what, we always took time out to spend with each other on Sundays. It was our day.

I eventually gave up one of my days at work. It makes for such a wonderful week and now every weekend feels like a vacation. Still, out of all of the days in the week, Sunday is the one I look forward to.

The Cure sings about Fridays and being in love. My cure for a long week is Sunday. Sundays, I'm in love.

Sunday is here early this week (in the form of a Sundae cupcake). It's a perfect little package of love that you can have any day of the week. It's a little indulgent and a little bit of a guilty pleasure. I didn't make the cherry filling from scratch. I didn't make a chocolate ganache to drizzle over the whipped cream. I compromised. I let Hershey and the pie filling people take over that part of the recipe.

My other little compromise was the coffee. I slightly adapted the cake recipe from David Lebovitz, a chef living in Paris. His recipe called for 1/2 cup strong coffee or water. I used our regular morning brewed coffee. It worked well and it fell right between a very strong brew and plain old water.

(I also added vanilla. I can't make cake without vanilla!)

It's a cupcake worthy for any day of the week; one that you can fall in love with over and over again...

"Dressed up to the eyes
It's a wonderful surprise
To see your shoes and your spirits rise
Throwing out your frown
And just smiling at the sound
And as sleek as a sheik
Spinning round and round
Always take a big bite
It's such a gorgeous sight
To see you eat in the middle of the night
You can never get enough
Enough of this stuff
It's ~~Friday~~ Sunday, I'm in love....."

-The Cure

Ingredients***

Makes 18 cupcakes

9 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 cups cake flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. baking powder

4 oz. (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

2 large eggs, room temperature

1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 cup coffee

1/2 cup whole milk

1 can Cherry Pie Filling

1 pint Heavy Whipping Cream

3 Tbsp. Powdered Sugar

1/4 tsp Vanilla Extract

1 envelope Whip It**

Chocolate Syrup

**Whip It is a whipped cream stabilizer, allowing one to keep fresh whipped cream at room temperature for a bit without it separating or melting. It's usually found near the gelatin, baking aisle, at the grocery store.)**

**Devil's Food Cake slightly adapted from David Lebovitz's recipe. Original can be found here.***

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sift the cocoa, the cake flour, the baking powder, baking soda and salt together.

Beat the softened butter with the sugar until light and fluffy and creamy.
(Mr. Lebovitz suggests about 5 minutes.)
Add the vanilla extract.
Add the eggs one at a time.
Mix the coffee and milk together.