Mini peanut butter cookies. Yum!
Drunken Cupcakes
On my last trip to Trophy Cupcakes, I tried their Guiness Stout chocolate cake (in honor of St. Patricks’s day). I loved it! I loved it so much that I had to try to make my own.
First, I went shopping!
First, in a medium saucepan on medium heat: heat 1 cup of Guiness with two sticks of unsalted butter
Add 3/4 cups of cocoa powder and cool, continue whisking to keep from seperating.
Mix all of the dry ingredients in another bowl
- 2 cups flour
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 tsp salt
In a stand mixer, with paddle attachment, beat 2 eggs and 2/3 cups of sour cream. Add in Guiness mixture and slowly (with mixer on low speed) the dry ingredients.
Fill lined cupcake tins and fill 2/3 with batter. Recipe yields 24 cupcakes. Bake for 17-18 minutes at 350 degrees.
While the cakes are cooking and cooling, you can now make the Bailey’s Irish Cream and chocolate ganache filling!
Finely chop 8 oz. of bittersweet chocolate (I used Ghiradelli) and place in a heat proof bowl. In a medium saucepan on medium heat, heat 2/3 cups of heavy cream until simmering. Pour cream onto chocolate and whisk together, add 2 tbs of butter and 2 tsp of Bailey’s. Cool completely, stir occassionally.
When the cakes have cooled, take an apple corer or cupcake plunger, and cut the center (leave the bottom) out. Slice the top removed cake off and set aside. Fill with ganache filling by piping. Place top back on (see pictures).
The next and final step is the frosting. Only three ingredients.
- 1 stick of butter
- 3-4 cups of powdered sugar
- 4-8 tbs of Bailey’s Irish Cream
Mix well and pipe on top with whatever tip you want!
Happy Valentines day! No flour Nutella cookies.
Recipe: 1 cup sugar, 1 cup Nutella, 1 egg; bake for 8-10 minutes @ 350 degrees.
Summer treat in the Winter!
To relieve stress, some people take baths or have a glass of wine. I bake. After a very trying day yesterday, I needed to bake. With no inspiration, I looked in the freezer to find some. In the bottom drawer I found some frozen blackberries and got excited!
I don’t have any recipes for blackberry cake, so I headed to the computer and found this lovely one: lemon blackberry cupcakes
This baking excursion also happened with no cupcake liners (I’m living on the wild side! :D). I quickly made the batter and filled the liner and placed the trays in the oven before realizing I hadn’t taken any pictures yet.
They didn’t raise like I had quite expected them to, but texture was fantastic. The lemon didn’t quite come through, but I couldn’t get nearly enough lemon zest from my old lemons. Easy fix for next time!
The blackberries actually thawed better than expected! I pureed them next and did not strain them - bad idea. Seeds were everywhere!
I put the puree straight into the mixing bowl and added the softened butter. At first, it looked like the butter wouldn’t cream and I started to freak out a little. I let it mix a little longer than usual and it looked much better and I calmed down.
In addition to butter and blackberry puree there is A LOT of powdered sugar. I think it’s time to restock!
In combination, the cakes and frosting looked like this. I used a standard frosting tip, but they are cute and simple.
I think the seeds add a nice touch visually. :)
