teacher by day - chef by night
These may look really pretty (ok, really pretty for my first time – at least maybe give me that?) but the taste is just ‘eh’. I was not a fan of any of the “boxed” flavors and the fondant tastes like worn out bubble gum. I am usually a taste over looks kinda girl (you can’t just be a pretty face) so overall, I give these a thumb down… even though they did look nice on the dessert part of the table.
When life gives you ugly cake… you make cake balls! Last year Rich gave me a really cute zoo animal cake pan for my birthday, which I had still yet to use and decided that I should make cute little mini-cakes (also by using my …
… or that is at least what I am going to be calling them! Since it is the time of year where you see lots of St. Patrick’s Day themed thing, I kept stumbling across lots of recipes calling for Guinness, which I can not really take more than a few sips of… so using it in cooking I knew would be a better way for me to enjoy it. When I have really enjoyed Guinness, it has been mixed with chocolate so I just knew that I needed to make Stout Cupcakes & the perfect frosting for these is a Baileys buttercream! (This would also make a great cake recipe.)
The flavors of the stout cupcake (rich, light, & dense all at the same time) are perfectly balanced with the creamy sweet Bailey’s frosting. Topped with some Green Sugar Sprinkles (or shamrock sprinkles) and your St. Patrick’s Day Cupcakes are all ready.
As I post this – I realize that St. Patrick was the Patron Saint of Ireland and brought Christianity from England to Ireland… so it is against Judaism to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day!? Hmmm. Well – here is how I figure it: I am very “not religious” (I consider myself someone who honors and appreciates tradition and honors/respects everyone more than someone who is religious/follows a religion) AND St. Patrick’s Day has been very commercialized – just like everything else… SO: thanks to modern commercialism, everyone can enjoy this holiday, wear some green, drink some Guinness, and eat their Americanized corned beef.
Cake: (from The Culinary Chronicles)
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line cupcake cups with paper liners.
Melt your butter with the beer in a sauce pan over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Whisk in cocoa powder until smooth. Cool slightly while working on the next phase.
In a large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. In your mixing bowl, beat the eggs and the sour cream together. Add the beer/butter/cocoa mixture and beat to combine. Add the flour mixture and beat briefly just to combine. Then (using a rubber spatula) fold the batter until completely combined.
Fill the cupcake liners about 3/4 of the way filled (for a nice dome – slightly less if you want a flatter cake). Bake about 17 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool completely (this can easily be done one day & frost the next… spreads the cleaning out too)
Frosting: (from Pages, Pucks, & Pantry)
In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment or with a hand mixer, add the cream cheese, butter and confectioner’s sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Slowly drizzle (or pour by the shot-glass full) in the Bailey’s and beat until completely incorporated into the frosting.
Use your favorite pastry bag (or a freezer-sized ziploc bag) with a nice tip (either a large hole OR a large star-tip – I don’t know sizes, just make it look nice) and make circles starting either at the center or the edge… the more you play the easier it will get (and remember, these taste amazing so even if they don’t look perfect everyone will forget and just remember how awesome they tasted)!
* Frosting Note: after reading quite a few comments/feedback – this is just [barely] enough for all the cupcakes, but doubling it makes a lot of frosting… so I went with 1.5 times what the recipe calls for and it seemed to work out pretty well, although I still has some extra!
* GREEEN recipes can be found HERE
Happy St. Patrick’s Day… and enjoy any reason explore new corners of the globe through your kitchen!
Cupcakes = Good Banana Bread = Comfort ‘healthy’ Dessert Peanut Butter & Jelly = Childhood Classic Banana Cupcakes filled with Jelly & topped with Peanut Butter Frosting… oh yeah! As I was getting ready to make cupcakes for my “kids” & co-workers at Big Boulder …
“Sweet and Spicy” – that explains me pretty well. I try to be sweet and do things for others, but I’m stubborn and don’t take garbage from anyone so I guess that I can be called pretty spicy usually too, and we wonder why I love those two flavors, haha! Enough about me – prepare to get into the kitchen for the best of both worlds!
Last week we had my “2nd annual pumpkin carving party“. I knew I wanted to make some sort of fun dessert (and was going to try “cake pops” but then realized I needed a creative way to serve/display them). Finally I realized that I have wanted to try “Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes) for a while! After finding numerous different recipes online, I used this one from All Recipes as a basic kinda-sort-ish guide!
A few places I read that you should make these cupcakes like normal cupcakes but before putting them in the oven that you put the cone upside down on top of it. I wanted filled cones (the cones were never my favorite part of ice cream – so I didn’t want them to just be a handle). There were many places that I found where they filled the cones – but warned about overfilling. For the record – filling them to the part of the cone where it gets really wide at the top is probably a bit too much! There will also be enough from one cake mix box to make 24 cones (I made the rest in a mini-loaf pan & we snacked on it!!)
Once I filled up the cones I put them in the oven for the “cupcake” time on the box – that ended up being way too little. I think (when I kept adding a minute or 2 – I lost track of time) I ended up cooking them for about 8 minutes more than the cupcake time – just keep experimenting! As you can see – I ended up with some nice overflow (but if you notice – the method of covering your mini cupcake pan with foil & cutting an “X” in the openings really does work and make for easy clean-up and non-tipping cones!) but that overflow was the perfect time to taste-test!
The next day I opened the jar of frosting (sorry – I was doing everything else from scratch, just didn’t feel like making icing either!) & tried to use the cake decorating plunger thing Rich got me for my birthday. Some turned out more ok than others, but after talking to the baking expert from my school (she wins contests like crazy – it is always a GREAT day at school when Deb brings in a treat) – I was told that I should try to use a pastry bag, she finds it easier than the plunger thing. I will let you know how that goes in the next week or so as I am going to be a good friend to my band teacher & make her the cupcakes she requested (yes, I know you are probably reading this Jolene & yes, I will bring in cupcakes for your birthday on Friday!).
Once I put on some orange sprinkles (which I could not find ANYWHERE in the Mr. Z’s, but luckily the nice woman at the bakery gave me some), candy corn, & spiders we were beautifully in business. Overall – I was quite happy. These would be a hit at any kids party (no – make that any party) because they are easy to eat – a good serving size and just so darn cute when served (I was lazy by dessert and just served it up in those muffin pans!!)