These may look like ordinary chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting… but oh my friends trust me, they are not. They are not ordinary at all. These cupcakes are incredibly moist. These cupcakes are incredibly rich in chocolate flavor. And these cupcakes made me VERY popular with my co-workers… the “belle of the work-a-day ball” one might say. Perhaps it’s because these cupcakes have a secret ingredient… something you might not even know is there…. something not typically considered standard cupcake fare. What is this secret ingredient? Guinness Extra Stout. Beer? Yes, beer. And if you’ve never made these cupcakes, well, let me just say right here for the record that you should. I paired them with a chocolate cream cheese frosting instead of an uber-sweet buttercream… and notice that I didn’t slather on goo-gobs of it. Why, you ask? Because I wanted the flavor of the cake to be the star of this show and not take a back seat to anything. N-E-thing. Ordinary chocolate cupcakes? Oh hardly! They’re extraordinary…. even to avowed beer-hating, non-chocolate-lover like me.
I took this photo two different ways… focusing on the cupcakes in the foreground (above) and focusing on the beer in the background (below). I like them both and I can’t choose which one I like best. I’ve agonized for a ridiculously long time about which picture to put in this post. I obsessed over it which is silly. So the final decision is to include both of them :P
My friend Brandi is married to a great guy named Andy. Andy loves Guinness. Loves it. If they lived closer, and not half way across the country, I’m betting Andy would love these cupcakes. I’ve been wanting to make them for months now – in fact I bought the bottle of Guinness a little while back and it’s been sitting in my fridge ever since. The other night I had planned to make something totally different and the Hubs was in the fridge and said to me “are you EVER going to make those Guinness cupcakes you’ve been talking about?”. I figured it was time to make the Guinness cupcakes… if for no other reason that I could use that reclaimed space in the chiller ;-) Fridge space is always at a premium around here and if you’re a baker or food blogger then you know what I’m talkin’bout! LOL
The flavor of these cupcakes is chocolate… but different. And when they’re baking in the oven, the aroma is chocolate… but different. I can’t describe it. The scent is not yeasty…. and the scent is not sweet-chocolatey. It’s something different. Initially I had no intention of even trying these since I abhor everything, ev-REE-thing about beer and I’m not a huge fan of chocolate. But the Hubs raved about these cupcakes… raved about them. RAVED. I saved a few at home and took the rest to work. My colleagues raved about these cupcakes… raved about them. RAVED. After lunch I caved in and finally tried one. The first bite made me think “well these don’t suck as bad as I expected”… the second bite made the think “hmmm… these are pretty good”…. the third bite had me thinking “these really ARE good!”. They are… and you should make them :)
Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes
adapted from RecipeZaar
Ingredients
4 ounces unsalted butter
10 ounces dark brown sugar
2 medium eggs, beaten
6 ounces plain flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
7 fluid ounces Guinness stout
2 ounces cocoa powder
Method
Prepare 18 muffin tins with paper liners
Preheat oven to 350 F
Cream butter and sugar together
Beat in the eggs
Sift flour, baking powder and baking soda into a separate bowl and set aside
Stir Guinness into cocoa and set aside
Alternately mix in 1/3 of the dry ingredients and 1/2 of the chocolate mixture into the mixing bowl… starting and ending with the dry ingredients.
Pour batter into prepared cups about 2/3 full
Bake for 18-20 minutes
Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
8oz Cream Cheese
3/4 cup Powdered Sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
These are really good… and I bet they’ll help you have a delicious day!
Posted in Chocolate, cupcakes, recipes | 11 Comments »
The calendar tells me it’s October… but you wouldn’t know that by the weather here. Today it was over 90°F so I’m hard pressed to actually feel like it’s Autumn. I’ve always said it’s difficult to get in the Holiday spirit and bake pumpkin pies on Thanksgiving Day when it’s this hot outside. I thought this year I would start a bit earlier in the season so that perhaps come actual Holiday Time, it will be somewhat easier on my psyche. The first item…. a pumpkin roll with cream cheese filling. And oooooh yeah, this one is good!
Those of you who visit my friend Jamie’s blog over at My Baking Addiction know what she did to us last weekend. She “mistakenly” auto-published the beginnings of a post about pumpkin roll… but {gasp} didn’t finish it. She’s left us hanging… waiting… anticipating… literally for days now! I mean, we’re food bloggers – that’s like cruel -&- unusual punishment or something!! We were all excited about seeing the pictures and trying out the recipe but… but… but… none of that was there :( Nothing but tantalizing prose that took us to the edge of the cliff…. and then unceremoniously dumped us on our collective keesters! LOL!! She later posted a notice that the entry auto-published by mistake and she’d finish it off early this week. That gave us hope!!! While I can speak only for myself but my tummy was surely rumbling in anticipation!! I now had pumpkin roll on da-brain!! I had a fever and the only cure was more pumpkin roll ;-) (those of you that’ve seen the Christopher Walken Cowbell sketch on Saturday Night Live will get that obscure reference right there hahahaha). Valiantly, I kept checking Jamie’s blog… several times a day,in fact, but still no update :(
Finally, left to my own devices, in a moment filled with desperation, I headed over to one of my favorite sites, All Recipes, and tried one of their pumpkin roll recipes. Having never actually made a pumpkin roll myself, I had to kind of wing it… and I’m sure this can’t compare to what Jamie will share with us cuz, well, she says she’s got goo-gobs of experience and friends, we all know that can only mean one thing…. it’s gonna be goooooooood!. But this one here actually turned out pretty darn good if I must say so myself. The hubs is not a big fan of pumpkin but he liked it… saying it tasted more like spice cake than a screaming-in-your-face pumpkin flavor. In fact, he had two slices saying the cream cheese filling is what made this really good. I liked it a lot and I would consider making it again… but not until I’ve had a chance to check out what Jamie has waiting for us… someday… eventually… if she ever finishes off her entry…. cuz I for one still have a grumbling tummy ;-)
If you’d like to try this recipe, it can be found right here. The only thing I did differently was to omit the nuts and the lemon juice. Other than that, I followed the recipe to a “t”.
Have a delicious day!
Posted in recipes | 14 Comments »
NOTE:: There’s an update at the end :)
Yay me! DH proclaimed that I couldn’t possibly still be contagious so I got up out of my sick bed for a little while today. I logged on and did some work and then I decided to tackle this week’s TwD recipe while I still had some energy in me. DH loves almond and he loves biscotti so I really wanted to make Dorie’s Lenox Almond Biscotti recipe as a special treat just for him!
This week’s TwD host was Gretchen of the blog Canela & Comino and she chose Dorie’s recipe for Lenox Almond Biscotti. I’ve made biscotti before using a different recipe but was looking forward to trying Dorie’s because it was a bit different than what I’m used to. I wish I had more energy and not been feeling so poorly the past few days because I would have wanted to play around with different variations just for fun. As it is, I’m just proud of myself for making these, getting the pics done and the post written on the due date :)
These are an absolute breeze to make… IF you have all the ingredients. Not everyone happens to have cornmeal in the pantry so that might take these from being “an absolute breeze” to “requiring forethought and planning”. With the exception of baking times and halving all of the ingredients, I followed the original recipe to the letter. I used slivered almonds in the batter and then before baking I pressed in some sliced almonds into the finished “log” for aesthetic purposes :)
DH thought these were really good and enjoyed a couple with a cup of coffee. Me? Not so much. I have to be honest and tell you the cornmeal really turned me off. I find that gritty consistency of unsoaked cornmeal to be just as bad as raspberry seeds… ptooey! Other than that, the taste was really good. I had to bake these quite a bit longer than the recipe indicated. I turned down the oven to 200 and then baked probably an additional 20 minutes total, rotating on each of the cut sides.
If you’d like the full recipe, be sure to visit the blog of our hostess Gretchen and while you’re at it check out the others who bake Tuesdays with Dorie.
Have a delicious day!
Update:: It’s late, I decided to make a cup of tea… and I’m eating one of these Lenox Almond Biscotti… it’s much MUCH better with something to dunk it in. The cornmeal doesn’t bother me nearly as much when the biscotti is a bit soggy with tea ;-) I still wouldn’t make this particular biscotti recipe again and primarily because of the cornmeal… but maybe, just maybe, I can enjoy a few of these with DH and a nice cup of tea :)
Posted in Dorie Greenspan, Tuesdays with Dorie, almond, recipes | 16 Comments »
I’m sorry to say that I’ve been sick for the past several days so there’s no Tuesdays-with-Dorie [TwD] post from me this week. Whatever severe cold / flu bug that’s been going around finally caught up with me… grabbed my collar from behind as I was trying to outrun it, threw me down on the ground and mightily proclaimed “HA! You are mine!“. So, yes, there’s been no baking going on lately. But I did want to post something that I made a short while back. These cinnamon muffins are so moist, so tasty, so delicious that I wanted to share them with you. They’re great with breakfast, for breakfast or even as an anytime snack.
Moist -&- Delicious Cinnamon Muffins
Yields 12 muffins
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup vanilla sugar
1/4 cup Lyle’s Golden Syrup (or an additional 1/4 cup sugar)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground cinnamon
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup butter flavored shortening (or melted butter, but this will result in a drier muffin)
Melted butter and cinnamon sugar mixture for topping
Method
Preheat oven to 400F and spray 12 muffin tins with Baking Spray
In a large bowl using a whisk combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. Add in the egg, milk, shortening (or butter) and combine until the ingredients are combined. The batter will be rather thick. Spoon into prepared muffin tins filling each approx 2/3 full. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes or until done. Remove muffins to cooling rack, brush with melted butter and roll tops in cinnamon sugar.
Have a delicious day!
Posted in breakfast, cinnamon, muffins, recipes | 5 Comments »
I’m not a real fan of angel food cake. I won’t go so far as to say I dislike it but I’ll state for the record that I’m not a real fan. It is rather popular though… and it’s definitely something DH just goes ga-ga over. Go figure. For his most recent big “milestone” birthday he specifically asked for an angel food cake with chocolate frosting. He just really likes it. So the other night I whipped up a few angel food cupcakes and he was very very happy :) They turned out a lot better than I had expected and while I still won’t say I’m a fan, I will say these really are quite good!
These are pretty darn easy to make, especially if you have a stand- or hand mixer. I don’t even want to think about the effort required to whip egg whites into peaks by hand – wow – just too much for for me! And with just a few ingredients to pull together, these are nice to try out. They’re light… they’re fluffy… and not spongy/chewy like I find most angel food cake to be. And topped with some of this wonderful buttercreme (recipe found here) I’d certainly eat them again :)
Angel food Cupcakes
Yields 8 standard size cupcakes
Ingredients
1/4 cup cake flour
7 tablespoons vanilla sugar - divided use
2 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
Method
Preheat the oven to 325F
Line a muffin pan with 8 cupcake liners
In a small bowl, whisk the flour and 1 tablespoon of the sugar. Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, and using high speed, whip the egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt until peaks form – you want them stiffer than soft peaks but don’t go so far as to have stiff peaks. Reduce the speed to medium and slowly add 1 tablespoon of the sugar at a time until all remaining 6 tablespoons have been added then continue to beat for 1 minute. Add the vanilla extract and combine. With the mixer on low speed, add small amounts of the flour mixture into the egg whites, beating after each addition to incorporate all of it.
Spoon the batter into the unlined muffin cups. These will rise to form domes.
Bake for about 20-25 minutes until the tops are golden and spring back when lightly touched (if an indentation remains, they are not done)
Remove from oven and cool on wire racks.
If you like angel food cake, you’ll really like these. I think they’d be great as the cake part of a fantabulous strawberry shortcake… not that I’ve got that on the brain or anything ;-)
Have a delicious day!
Posted in cupcakes, recipes, vanilla | 9 Comments »
