Carrot Cake Cupcakes

It's currently about 90 degrees Fahrenheit as I write this, so it may seem a bit odd that I'm posting a picture of a cupcake decorated with snowflakes. It seems that I am SO slow at updating here that I am only now getting around to posting about cupcakes I baked during a blizzard earlier this year. Jeez.


These are carrot cake cupcakes, made with carrots (duh), and pineapple, raisins, and walnuts thrown in for good measure. You may turn your nose up at that, if you're a carrot cake purist, but I can't resist the combination. The frosting is a basic cream cheese frosting.

Easy Herbed Beer & Cheese Quick Bread

Sorry for the slow posting around here, folks. Health issues have been rearing their ugly heads again for me, and have made it difficult not only to keep up with my cooking and baking, but also to post about them. I hope this doesn't last much longer, but I really don't know.

Today, I have a little change of pace from my normal sweet posting - a savory herbed Guinness & cheddar quick bread recipe.


Easy Herbed Beer & Cheese Quick Bread
Adapted from A Year In Bread

Ingredients
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
2 teaspoons dried minced onion
1 teaspoon dried dill
2 teaspoons dried chives
1 firmly packed cup of shredded cheddar cheese plus a little extra reserved
1 11.2-oz bottle of Guinness

Directions
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, garlic powder, onion powder, onion, dill, and chives. Add shredded cheddar and stir to combine. Break up clumps of cheese with a fork. Stir in Guinness (dough will be thick). Add batter to a well-greased loaf pan and top with additional shredded cheddar. Bake at 375F for about 45 minutes. When the bread is done, remove it from the oven and cool for 10 minutes in the pan before removing the bread from the pan and allowing it to cool completely. Makes 1 loaf.

Mint Chocolate Chip Brownies

These came about after discovering some bags of Nestle dark chocolate and mint chips in the baking aisle of my local supermarket. I bought them with the intention of making mint chocolate cupcakes... but mint chocolate brownies just sounded so much better.

Irish Car Bombs, In Cupcake Form

I love St. Patrick's Day -- it's like Christmas for the Irish! Now, I'm Irish-Italian, so I grew up celebrating both St. Patrick's Day, and St. Joseph's Day (which is on March 19th.) I don't mean to ignore one half of my heritage, but it's kind of hard to come up with a theme cupcake in honor of St. Joe. Hopefully he'll forgive me.

In honor of their namesake, these cupcakes have Guinness dark chocolate cake with dark chocolate bits in the batter; Jameson whiskey-flavored whipped cream filling; and a simple Bailey's buttercream frosting.


If you don't already have a favorite dark chocolate cake recipe that can be adapted using Guinness, it's also super easy to create these using a dark chocolate cake box mix. Sift the cake mix into a bowl, and add one 11.2-oz bottle of Guinness, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, and 3 eggs. Stir in a 6-oz bar of dark chocolate that has been chopped into small bits, or alternatively, use 1 cup of dark chocolate baking chips. Bake according to the box directions.

When the cupcakes are cool, fill them with the whiskey cream mixture. The recipe is simple: whip up a cup of heavy cream, and add 2 tablespoons each of sugar and Jameson. Whip to combine.

The Baileys buttercream frosting is also simple. Beat 1 room temperature stick of unsalted butter, and gradually add 3 cups of powdered sugar along with however many tablespoons of Baileys (and possibly milk, if you don't want to go too heavy with the liqueur) until you get the taste and consistency that you want.

I am pretty sure these are my favorite cupcakes ever... and I say that as someone who doesn't even like chocolate cake all that much.

Mom's Tiramisu

My mom's tiramisu is my absolute favorite tiramisu in all the land. It's a simple blend of toasted ladyfingers soaked in a Kahlua-espresso blend, alternated with layers of a marscapone cheese & sweetened whipped cream blend, and topped with a dusting of rich cocoa powder. Let it sit in the fridge overnight so that it all comes together, and let me tell you, HEAVEN. Pure heaven. (And certainly deserving of a better picture than the one up above. I should have taken more, but it was devoured too quickly!)