Return of the Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes

Happy St. Patty's Day!!! Jeff and I started out our St. Patty's weekend celebrating our dear friends' puppy's 1st birthday. :) Too cute, and sooo funny to watch these pups eat their "pupcakes." 

Then, this morning I took Jeff to the airport at o-dark-thirty, so we found a breakfast place that was open before 6 am... The Five Point Cafe - dive bar and diner, and I can't believe we've never been there before - it's literally down the hill from us... I had a corned beef hash and J had a breakfast burrito. A nice treat before he's gone for a week on a business trip.

OK, now on to those cupcakes. :) This is a repeat recipe from St. Patrick's Day two years ago, and I had a hankering for them again. Since I'm going to Mom and Dad's tonight, I thought I'd contribute the yummy festive goodness. Someday, I will post the story of how I tried a Pinterest trick of making my own green glittery decorating sprinkles. Definitely one for that Pinterest failed project blog... 

I chose to use this Guinness Chocolate Cupcake &  Bailey's Cream Cheese Frosting recipe, from Nook & Pantry. Then the Irish Whiskey Chocolate Ganache filling from Smitten Kitten. The recipes for the cupcakes are similar on both sites, but I chose the first one because it went well with the frosting. And the Whiskey Ganache filling just makes these so much more exciting. Because what else do you put in cupcakes made with Guinness, topped with frosting made with Baileys... besides WHISKEY of course!!!! 

For the Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes with Bailey’s Cream Cheese Frosting

2 C unbleached all purpose flour

1/2 C Dutch processed cocoa powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 C granulated sugar

1/2 C light or dark brown sugar

4 oz./1/2 C unsalted softened butter

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 egg

1/2 C sour cream (or greek yogurt)

1 12 fl. oz. bottle/1 1/2 C Guinness or stout beer

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and butter or line with paper cups two 12-count muffin tins.

In a large bowl briefly whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.

In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy.

Add one egg and beat until evenly mixed and fluffy, make sure to scrape down the mixer bowl once in a while. Add the second egg and vanilla extract and beat again until light and fluffy.

Add the sour cream and beat in, then with the mixer running, slowly pour in the Guinness.

Sift the dry ingredients into the batter and slowly stir the batter until it is evenly mixed and there are no streaks of flour. Make sure to stop the mixer frequently to scrape down the sides and make sure to mix up any flour pockets hidden on the bottom of the bowl.

Divide 1/4 C of batter into each muffin cup, you’ll get about 20 – 24 cupcakes.

Bake at 350 degrees F on the middle rack for 20 – 25 minutes. A toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake in the middle of the pan should come out clean. Make sure to rotate the pans halfway through baking. Set on a rack to cool to room temperature before frosting.

For layer cakes: baking 25 – 30 minutes, rotate the pans around halfway, a toothpick inserted in the center of the cakes should come out clean.

Bailey’s Cream Cheese Frosting

1 8oz. bar of cream cheese, softened

1 4oz. stick of unsalted butter, softened

2 C confectioner’s sugar

4 – 6 Tablespoons of Bailey’s Irish Cream

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 in the Bailey’s, more or less depending on how boozey you want the frosting, and beat until completely incorporated into the frosting.

Ganache Filling (This will leave you with extra filling, but is that a bad thing? I think not!)

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate

2/3 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons butter, room temperature

2 teaspoons good Irish whiskey 

I decorated mine to look like a tall glass of Guinness with the nice foamy goodness on top... in penguin cupcake wrappers because I'm awesome and ran out of plain foil wrappers. Penguins celebrate St. Patrick's Day, right?!

Also, I have no idea why this text is now showing up weird? It's really because these cupcakes are so important I don't want you to miss the recipe. :) 

Pike Place Stout Beef & Coffee Chili

After a long week, and a long weekend, on this very CHILLY day, we decided to make some CHILI. :) My dad had put up this recipe on his food blog a while ago, and I decided to try and replicate it. It turned out wonderfully smoky, spicy, and toasty warm. Just what we needed since our heater in our apartment isn't working - darn!

Pike Place Stout Beef & Coffee Chili
adapted from Dad's recipe


INGREDIENTS:

oil
1-1/2 onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb+ steak cut into ½” cubes (I used chuck)
1 can diced tomatoes
½ bottle dark beer (I used Pike Place Stout Extra Stout, Dad suggested a porter - probably would try with a Porter next time)
1/2 cup strong brewed coffee
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
beef broth (see directions for quantity)
3 TB brown sugar
3 TB chili powder (I used a mixture of chili powder, Ancho chili powder, and smoked paprika)
1 TB cumin
1 TB dried oregano
Cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes to taste (start with ¼ tsp) (Omitted - and it was plenty spicy!)
Salt and pepper
2 (15 ounce) cans kidney beans (or sub 1 can for pinto) [We are not eating a lot of beans right now, so I put in about 5 medium chopped parsnips instead - worked well, since they have a nice earthy texture and flavor]
1 (8oz) can chopped green chilies
2 fresh hot chili peppers, seeded and chopped



Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Put some oil in big dutch oven and heat on stovetop to medium/medium-low. Add chopped onion and chopped peppers. Sauté briefly then add garlic and chopped meat. Mix well and season with salt and pepper. Put in oven for 1 hour uncovered. You brown the meat this way instead of on stove-top. And it's the most beautifully yummy smell you will ever smell.

After 1 hour, remove from oven to a burner on medium heat. Reduce oven temp to 300. Add the rest of the ingredients except for beef broth. Stir chili well and let it come back up to heat slowly. Add beef broth until amount of liquid is appropriate and consistency is how you want it. Cover pot and return to oven for at least 1 hour.

YUMMMMM!

Pumpkin Cognac Cheesecake

Made this last year for my practicum group while still in the program, and it got rave reviews :) Tried it again for Halloween this year at Grandma's, and again, it was a hit. Think it's a keeper!




Pumpkin Cognac Cheesecake
Originally from: Cool Culinary


2 lbs cream cheese
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp molasses
1 tsp GOOD vanilla + 1/4 cup cognac or brandy
2 eggs + 2 egg yolks
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup canned Libbys pumpkin (not the pie filling!)
1/4 tsp cinnamon, pinch of cloves, sprinkle of nutmeg + pinch kosher salt

Take a 10′ spring form pan,
Spray the pan w/ non-stick spray. Wrap pan very tightly in aluminum foil all around the bottom & sides.

Pulse a 1/2 box of Famous dark wafer cookies in cuisinart, into a bowl, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup melted butter. Press into to the bottom of the pan. Whew the hard part's over!

*You could also make a crust using any chocolate wafer cookies, OR gingersnaps for a twist!

Beat cream cheese until smooth, and LUMP free, scraping bowl frequently, mix in sugars, molasses, vanilla, cognac, eggs, yolks, sour cream, pumpkin &; spices.

Pour into the prepared pan. Set into a pan with tall sides & fill w/ warm water. (I have skipped this step both times I've made it, and it just takes a little longer to bake and you have to watch it carefully to make sure it's baking evenly. Bad, I know! SO don't skip this.)

Bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Turn off the oven and let sit for another 20-30 minutes. Cake should be set & fairly firm! I stick the blade of a very thin paring knife thru the center, it should come out clean. Your going to cover the top, so don’t worry if you have a few cracks. I usually don’t. Let cool in the water bath. Chill overnight.

Remove foil wrapper, run a hot wet knife around the cake & unmold.

You can press crushed chocolate wafers into the sides or ditto w/ amaretti cookies.

You can cover the top w/fresh whipped cinnamon cream, or white chocolate buttercream or a smooth layer of chocolate ganache or anything else that sounds good to you.

YUM.

Epic Ales Brewery visit

So Jeff and I are excited to keep trying all of the many, many breweries in the Seattle area - at the same time as being embarrassed about how many we haven't tried!! I listed several we want to try a few months ago in this post.

Recently, we visited Epic Ales brewery in SODO with some friends from my program. We showed up on a Friday evening, and were greeted by a TINY tasting room, but it felt really intimate and friendly. The owner and brewmaster was behind the counter and immediately offered some of his crazy beers for us to try (in 8 oz. samplers, mind you!) - Wow!

We had one brewed with the Mexican spice "epazote" and it tasted spicy, earthy, and peppery - really unique, and would have been great paired with a nice Mexican meal. The last beer we tried was called the Solar Trans Amplifier. It was light and summery, and by far the most unique and complex of the 3 we tried. It's brewed with ginger and cammomile! You can imagine how interesting it tasted! Yum.

After we tasted these beers, we made the trek back up into downtown for dinner at Pike Place Brewery & Pub. One of our favorite places to eat and drink in Seattle. I had the Scotch ale (Kilt Lifter) as usual, and Jeff enjoyed his favorite "Monk's Uncle" Tripel Ale.

Corned Beef Update!

Corned Beef was a success!!! Unfortunately, so much of a success, I don't have a great picture of everything on one plate!! Oops! But here's some of the final prep process...

~*~

Take the meat out of the bag, and rinse, then pat dry. I debated this step, because I didn't want to wash away all the yummy-ness, but after reading numerous blogs and deciding to trust Bow-Tie Man, I did. It really doesn't take away any of the flavor, after all - it's been soaking in its juices for a week!!

The meat was added to a pot of water, filling the pot 1 inch above meat so it was all covered. Bring to boil, then reduce to simmer, and continue to simmer covered for 2-3 hours. Occasionally check, and skim off any foam that rises to the top. Meanwhile, you can clean house, pack up for camping, find some fun Celtic tunes to play, and chop up the veggies you choose. I decided on cabbage (of course), potatoes, onions, carrots, and some brussels sprouts. This pile of veggies did not all fit in the pot, so make sure you have an appropriate sized cooking vessel. :)

The veggies were added to the pot after the meat finished cooking. Place the meat on an oven-safe platter, and put in a 200 degree oven covered with a little bit of the juice, and cover the whole thing in foil. Carrots, potatoes, and onions go in first for 10-15 mins. Then add cabbage and brussels, for another 10-15 minutes. Like the meat, bring to boil, then simmer covered until veggies are cooked.

Irish Soda Bread, courtesy of Katy Bowers. Check out her baking blog! This turned out great - very simple and quick, and tasted amazing after cooking on a cast iron skillet. Just a little flour, salt, baking soda, dash of sugar and buttermilk - yum!

Our final adventure of the evening was these amazing cupcakes. I chose to adapt a couple recipes, because I liked different features of each. I chose to use this Guinness Chocolate Cupcake & Bailey's Cream Cheese Frosting recipe, from Nook & Pantry.Then the Irish Whiskey Chocolate Ganache filling from Smitten Kitten, because it seemed too good not to include!

Final verdict:

OOF and YUM!!!

Christmas Rum Cake

We had a Christmas party for my MFT program, and were invited to bring our favorite holiday baked goods ... and the winner is - Rum Cake!! I remember having this growing up, as my Grandma would make this every Christmas eve. Not everyone would get as excited as I did about the Christmas Rum Cake... but I think Rose last night shared in my joy :) So, for Rose ... here's the recipe straight from the Duncan Hines site, since it's made with good ol' yellow cake.

Ingredients:

1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)

1 package yellow cake mix (**)

1 (3 3/4-oz.) package Jell-O vanilla instant pudding and pie filling

4 eggs

1/2 cup cold water

1/2 cup Canola Oil

1/2 cup Bacardi dark rum (or any kind - I used a splash of Black Strap Rum, and the remainder Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum)

Glaze:

1 stick butter

1/4 cup water

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup Bacardi dark rum (again, any type is fine - I used all Cap'n Morgan)

** If using yellow cake mix with pudding already in the mix, omit the instant pudding, using 3 eggs instead of 4 and 1/3 cup oil instead of 1/2.

Glaze:

Melt butter in saucepan. Stir in water and sugar.

Boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly, and remove from heat.

Stir in rum.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Grease and flour 10-inch tube or 12-cup Bundt pan.

Sprinkle nuts over bottom of pan (optional)

Mix all cake ingredients together.

Pour batter over nuts.

Bake 1 hour.

Cool; invert onto serving plate. Prick top with fork (many many times!! This creates all sorts of little holes for the yummy glaze to soak into. Don't be shy!)

Spoon and brush glaze evenly over top and sides.

Eat up! I don't have a picture because this was gobbled up way too fast! But I'll make another one soon, I'm sure... :)