Irish Car Bomb - triple shot cupcakes

What's better than a beer in one hand and a cupcake in the other?
A chocolate cupcake infused with beer!
In honour of St. Paddy's Day tomorrow, I made alcoholic cupcakes. And to take it a step further, it's IRISH alcohol!
I took a chocolate cake, infused it with espresso beer, filled it with whiskey ganache, and topped it with Irish cream icing!

Unfortunately I don't have any progress pictures for this, but really it's pretty straightforward work.

Here's what you need:
For the cake:
-One box Betty Crocker dark chocolate cake mix (yeah I cheated and used a box this time)
-1 & 1/4 cup stout beer (Guinness is a good one, I ended up using a local espresso brew because I thought the espresso would help bring out the chocolatey flavors)
-3 eggs
-1/2 cup oil

For the ganache:
-8 oz semi-sweet baking chocolate
-2/3 cup heavy cream
-2 Tbsp whiskey (Jameson or preferred brand)
-2 Tbsp room temperature butter or margarine

For the icing:
-one stick (4 oz) room temperature unsalted butter
-1/4 to 1/2 cup Irish cream (Bailey's or preferred brand)
-about one box (3 to 4 cups) powdered sugar

Let's begin!

Start by combining the cake mix, eggs, and oil in a large bowl. Slowly add in the beer, mix carefully because it is very bubbly and can be tricky.
Pour into prepared cupcake tins and bake according to directions on cake mix box.

Meanwhile, break up baking chocolate and place in heat proof bowl.
Pour heavy cream into a small pan and heat on low heat until simmering, constantly stirring so as not to burn.
Pour hot cream over chocolate and let sit for about a minute until chocolate begins to melt. Stir until smooth.
Add whisky and margarine and stir until combined.
Place in fridge until hardened.

For the icing, add unsalted butter to medium bowl and beat with electric mixer until light and fluffy.
Add just a few tablespoons of powdered sugar and mix.
Add Irish cream and mix until evenly combined.
Add more sugar, a little at a time, and combine until smooth to desired consistency.
I used about 3 cups, but started with less because I thought it was the consistency I wanted, until I went to ice the cupcakes and the icing dribbled off them.
If it is too thin, add more sugar; too thick, add a dash more cream.

Once the cupcakes are out of the oven, remove from pan and let cool.

When they are cooled, use a knife or apple corer and remove the center of each cupcake. (Set centers aside to make cake balls if desired, just add a bit of icing, stir, and form into balls. Dip in melted chocolate or candyquik for a coating.)
Once it's set, remove ganache from fridge and pipe into each cupcake.
Add icing and sprinkles and you're finished!

Happy St. Paddy's Day everyone!

Chocolate truffles!!!

It’s been awhile and I am itching to make chocolate truffles. BUT I really want to make some fun new flavors and I need inspiration.

In the past I’ve made nutella, wasabi, pumpkin pie, chili pepper, ginger, as well as various “normal” flavors like cinnamon, peanut butter, and of course plain chocolate.

But this time I really want to make something strange and new! 

If you guys want to see something specific let me know, I'm at least going to do a red wine truffle and a matcha one. Of course I'll post recipes if they turn out well.

I've been working on a list of flavors for a few days and OMG it's becoming pretty extensive. My current goal is adding to the list how to decorate each. Like if I were to make every single flavor here at once, how would I differentiate each one? Colored chocoalte drizzle, colored sprinkles, cookie crumbs, etc...

Anywho, here's my mighty list of what I've come up with so far.

Starbucks inspired:

• Matcha green tea
• White chocolate chai
• Dark chocoalte chai
• Mocha/expresso
• French vanilla
• Pumpkin spice
• Berry hibiscus

Fruity:

• Cherry/cranberry lime
• Key lime
• Strawberries and cream
• Orange creamsicle
• Raspberry cheesecake
• Apple cider/Apple pie
• Banana something fancy, like pie, foster, pudding, idek, split?! OMG banana split. It's decided. Banana vanilla flavored insides, chocolate and strawb flavor outside, topped with sprinkles.
• Pomegranate
• Ginger pear

Alcohol:

• Dark chocolate rum
• Whiskey sour
• Red wine
• Champagne
• Bailey’s
• Kahlua
• Absinthe (basically anise)
• Hot Toddy
• Beer. Probably stout.

Savory:

• Maple bacon
• Wasabi
• Chili pepper
• Salt and pepper
• Lemon pepper
• Naga (sweet curry and coconut)
• Everything bagel?! (I just saw this on a truffle website) "sesame seeds, poppy seeds, dried onion, dried garlic, sun-dried tomato, caraway seeds, and Utah sea salt." (Sounds interesting to say the least)

Cookies:

• Gingerbread
• Snickerdoodle
• Girl Scout Samoa (Caramel coconut)
• Thin mint
• Oreo

Random flavors I haven’t categorized:

• Peanut butter
• Nutella
• Cinnamon
• Ginger
• Plain chocoalte (of course)
• Salted caramel
• Earl Grey
• Amaretto
• Coconut
• S’mores
• Creme Brulee
• Lavender
• Butterfinger

1 minute Coffee Cake

So the other night I was watching the kids and D starts pulling out all sorts of baking ingredients; flour, brown sugar, butter, eggs. She's making a big mess and I just kind of ignored it because mentally I was done for the night.
But C comes up and asks her "what are you doing?"
All I heard her say was she was making coffee and I got very confused because these picky kids don't like anything, especially coffee.
But C gets really excited and ran over to the cabinet above the Keurig. Then stops. D laughs because he's gone to the wrong cabinet to grab a mug.
I am now very confused so I ask, "you're making coffee? You actually like coffee? You guys don't need coffee at this time of night!"
D corrects me. "Coffee CAKE! In a mug! Its really easy."

--

So I went home that night pondering coffee cake in a mug, is it really as good as they made it out to be? They're very picky eaters, maybe this is some really good cake!
I try to stay away from the microwave if at all possible, unless I'm heating up leftovers. I've tried other "minute mug" recipes in the past like chocolate cake and chocolate chip cookie, but they never turn out very good. Usually they're tough and chewy and not very flavorful. The chocolate chip cookie I made was more like a cake than a cookie.
But I decided if coffee cake was good enough for the kids, it's good enough for me.
The first time I did it, it fluffed up very nicely, perfect consistency, but it tasted a bit too eggy for my liking.
The second time around I used half an egg. It did not rise at all and was very dense, but tasted much less eggy.
I am determined to get it right, because it is a very yummy and quick breakfast.

Here's the original recipe, if you want to experiment along with me. I will update once I finally get the perfect result.

-1 tbsp butter
-2 tbsp sugar
-1 egg
-a few drops of vanilla
-1/4 cup flour
-1/8 tsp baking powder
-1 tbsp butter
-2 tbsp flour
-1 tbsp brown sugar
-1/4 tsp cinnamon

Add 1 tbsp butter to a mug and soften in the microwave about 5 seconds (try not to melt it.)
Add sugar and stir until blended.
Add egg and vanilla (you really only need a very little amount of vanilla). Stir.
Add flour and baking powder, stir until smooth.
In separate bowl, combine remaining butter, brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Stir until it's a sandy, crumbly consistency.
Pour brown sugar mixture into mug. It looks like a lot but I promise it's not.
Microwave 50-80 seconds depending on your microwave. I've found that exactly a minute is perfect for me.