Blue-Eyed Baker: I made a Napoleon

I made a Napoleon and it turned out really well.

When we went to Carlo's over the summer Kyle bought a Napoleon, ate it, and instantly fell in love with it.  Then when we came back to State College he asked me to make him one.  I was really iffy at first because pastries scare me but I conquered my fear.  I made everything from scratch and from what I hear it was really delicious.  (I didn't actually have any.)

So in case you didn't know a Napoleon is a pastry that is made up of three components, pastry cream, puff pastry dough and fondant.  I was, in all honesty, really afraid to attempt making any of these things.  I'd tried pastry cream before and it was an epic fail, boiling sugar (for the fondant) scares the crap out of me and puff pastry is just a chore.  BUT at the insistence of my significant other I cut no corners, okay one corner with the dough, and made everything from scratch and it was all a success.  I did use a "quick" puff pastry recipe because I didn't have 4 million hours to make classic puff pastry.

So here was my result,

Not perfect but still pretty awesome.

The only thing that didn't turn out perfectly was the design on top because A.) I wasn't working fast enough and B.) the chocolate fondant decided it was the boss for the day.

The recipes I used were mainly from JoePastry but I did, like I said, I used a quick puff pastry recipe from another site.  Today I'm not going to type out the recipes because it's a lot of stuff and I think most people would probably use store bought puff pastry anyways but Kyle got his way this time.

Happy Baking!

Blue-Eyed Baker: Graduation Cake

So if you read Summer is HERE you know about the graduation cake I made and if you didn't read it don't worry, a) you still can and b) I'm going to tell you all about the cake anyways.

Last Saturday an old friend of mine had her college graduation party and I volunteered to make her cake.  It was a half sheet cake and the biggest cake I've made to date.  I tried to make it the day of the party and that was mistake number one.

Mistake #1

Try to make the biggest cake you've ever made in approximately four hours.

It was dumb and I'll never do it again.  I should have made the cake the night before so it could have cooled completely and the icing wouldn't have been a fiasco.

Mistake #2

Underestimate how much you'll need of each ingredient.  

Okay, so at first I thought I was only going to make a one layer cake.  Well I didn't have enough batter to fill the pan up as much as I wanted and the first cake came out a little small so I made a second layer because I didn't want to give someone that was paying me a chincy cake.  So in short I barely had enough ingredients for both cakes and definitely didn't have enough ingredients for the icing so I had to make a few trips.

Mistake #3

Try to work with warm cake.

Just don't do it, ever.  It was the main reason everything went down hill.

It may seem like I'm being hard on myself but I'm really not.  I needed to make these mistakes in order for me to learn.  I ended up finishing the cake and admitting to myself that it wasn't my best work.  I ended up having to free-hand the design on the cake and I learned with some practice I really could become good at that.  I also learned that it's a good idea to bake for people you know because when you mess up and the cake falls apart in transit they will be understanding and still eat the cake.  The best part was later when I was told the cake was delicious and they would order from me again.  So all-in-all it wasn't that bad.

I'm not posting any recipes today because I used the Guiness cake from the Irish Car-Bomb cupcakes which you can find on my blog and a basic butter-cream icing that isn't my favorite to use but I was in a jam.

The result.  I did pipe some bad-ass shell bordering.

Happy Thursday and Happy Baking!

Blue-Eyed Baker: Cupcake-palooza

So last night I was invited to a "Ladies' Night" event at our local chiropractor's office.  I was asked to bring samples and/or a portfolio to show off my work. I, the ever overachiever, brought both.  I prepared myself for a crowd and took 72 mini-cupcakes, three different flavors.

My set-up

I was really excited because I thought I was going to get my name out to a lot of people and maybe have some projects to do over the summer.  Not the case.  I don't think this was their most successful Ladies' Night because the turnout for the vendor show portion was like 4 people.  I left with about 64 of the 72 cupcakes that I took.  Not to mention there were a ton of extras that I left at home.  So now at my house we have stacks on stacks on stacks of cupcakes in the kitchen.  I don't really know what to do with them all.

So here's the Blue-Eyed Baker portion.  I made three flavors, chocolate with peanut butter icing which are the same recipes I used for my Mother's Day Cake, a vanilla cupcake with chocolate frosting that wasn't so great so I won't post the recipe (I think for vanilla stuff I will stick to this recipe), and finally a red-velvet cupcake with cream cheese icing.  The red-velvet recipe is from Brown-Eyed Baker.  Like I said I love her stuff.

Red-Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

Yield: 12 regular cupcakes or 36 mini-cupcakes

Ingredients:

  For the cupcakes:

•   4 T. unsalted, room temperature butter
• 3/4 c. granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 1/2 T. cocoa powder
• 3 T. red food coloring
• 1/2 t. vanilla
• 1/2 c. buttermilk
• 1 c. + 2 T. flour
• 1/2 t. baking soda
• 1 1/2 t. distilled white vinegar

  For the icing:

• 4 oz. cream cheese
• 4 T. butter
• 2 1/2 c. powdered sugar
• 1 T. vanilla

How to:

  Cupcakes:

•   Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and line your cupcake pans.  
• In a bowl cream together the butter and sugar for about 3 minutes and then add the egg and beat on high until well incorporated.
•   In a separate small bowl mix together the food coloring, vanilla and cocoa powder to form a paste.   Add this mixture to the larger bowl. Make sure all of the batter is incorporated with the red food coloring.
•   With your mixer on low add half of the buttermilk and then half of the flour.  Repeat this step.  Mix on high for an additional minute or so to make sure the batter is smooth.
•   Pour the batter into your cupcake tins and bake for about 20 minutes for regular cupcakes and 11 minutes for mini-cupcakes.
•   Let cupcakes cool for 5-10 minutes in pans and then transfer to a cooling rack.

  Frosting:

•   Cream the butter and cream cheese together.
•   Add the vanilla.
•   Add powdered sugar until you reach your desired consistency.
•   Ice cupcakes when cool as desired.

Your final product should be pretty delicious.  I hope you enjoy! Happy Baking and Happy Thursday!

The red-velvets are on the bottom

 

Blue-Eyed Baker: Gobs

Yesterday my little brother asked for Oreos and my mom said no, mostly because she was going to a smaller grocery store and they charge like $5 for a package of Oreos.  He got upset and then she told him to ask me to make him some.  I didn't want to try to make Oreos and I was in a cookie making mood so I made gobs (or whoopie pies) instead.  They kind of look like Oreos.

I stole the recipe from Brown-Eyed Baker because it was the first one to pop up and like I've said before all of her recipes that I've tried so far have been really, really good.

So here you go,

Gobs
Yield: 18-24 Gobs

What You'll Need:

Cakes:
2 c. Flour
1/2 c. Cocoa Powder
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1/4 tsp. Salt
1 c. Sugar
1/2 c. Shortening
1 Egg + 1 Egg Yolk
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 c. Buttermilk (I used 2% milk because I had no buttermilk and didn't feel like buying it for just one recipe)
1 c. Hot Water

Frosting:
1 1/4 c. Shortening
1 1/2 c. Marshmallow Fluff
1 c. Powdered Sugar
1 Tbsp. Vanilla

How To:

For the Cakes:

1. Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Sift together flour, salt, cocoa powder and baking soda.  Set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, cream together the shortening and sugar.
4. Add the egg, yolk and vanilla to the sugar-shortening mixture and mix until incorporated.
5. Alternating the flour mixture and liquids, add 1/3 flour mix, milk, 1/3 flour, water, 1/3 flour.  Mix well (3-5 minutes).
6. Here's the tricky part, originally the recipe I used said to drop about a tablespoon and a half of the batter/dough/whatever onto parchment paper lined cookie sheets.  I did that and it didn't turn out well.  If you look at Brown-Eyed Baker you'll see that her cakes are nice and fluffy, mine were not, maybe because of the substitution of the 2%, maybe not.  Anyhow, I didn't like how my cakes looked so I filled cupcake tins about a quarter of the way full and when I took them out of the oven I smushed down the tops.  That method worked well for me and I liked the outcome.  They also make whoopie-pie pans so if you have those I'm sure you can use them. So, if you use the Brown-Eyed Baker's method bake time is 5-6 minutes, if you use the cupcake tin method bake time is 7-8 minutes.  If you use whoopie-pie pans, well good luck!

For the Frosting:

1. Add the marshmallow fluff and shortening to your bowl, mix well.
2. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla. Mix on high for about 3-5 minutes.  Your final result will be a nice and fluffy frosting.

Finally, assemble the gobs as you would a sandwich, cake-frosting-cake.  I used an icing spatula but you can really use whatever tool you want.

My results,

I have yet to perfect my dessert photo-taking skills.

That's all for today! Happy Friday and Happy Baking!

Military Monday: For now I know more than you

Today I want to gloat about how I know more than Kyle.  I got upset yesterday because we were talking about the future and whenever anything about my/our future plans come up I get upset.  I've learned that this is just how it's going to be for a while.

Anywho, so we were talking about future plans and Kyle said that he probably wouldn't be assigned anywhere for like 2.5 years or so because of training and therefore I would have like 2.5 years to do what I want in PA because I "don't get to go with him through training".  WRONG! He was wrong.  I never get to say that but today I do.  He was partially correct in that I don't get to live with him while he's at OCS but I can live with him through the various stages of flight school which I am still unsure about.  When say unsure about I mean I don't know about all the various stages of flight training but I do know I can live with him if I so choose and that makes me happy because A. we can live together and B. he was wrong and I got to tell him that.  So for the time being I can say that I know more than him.  Ha-ha!  Thank goodness for small victories.

In other news, I don't think I'm going back to the bakery job.  My boss basically called me an idiot multiple times on Friday and other times earlier in the week and I'm not going to put up with that.  I don't think she's going to stop either or that this is some kind of new hire ritual because she constantly puts down the other girl that works there and she's been there for 8 months.  I don't know how you can put up with a person like that for so long but more power to you.  I however am not going to deal with her because I don't have to and I'm not going to let her ruin my enjoyment of baking by her verbally abusing me.  So I'm back on the job hunt hopefully it's short lived.

Happy Monday!

Blue-Eyed Baker: Evan's Pre-School Graduation Cake

Last night my littlest brother, Evan, graduated from pre-school.  Now I know it's not really that big of a deal but he asked for a cake a few days ago and this was a good excuse to make one.  I don't really like making cakes just out of the blue because I feel the need to decorate them and I like to have a theme going.

However I didn't really keep to a graduation theme because he asked for Manny from Ice Age to be on it.  So I did my best and here's the result.

Not my best work but I did all right.

I used the "Cake Boss's" recipe for a vanilla cake.  I haven't tried a vanilla cake recipe that I loved just yet so hopefully this will be the one.

Buddy Valastro's Vanilla Cake
Yields: 2-9 in cakes

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups cake flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cups vegetable oil or 1 1/2 sticks of butter
• 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 cup whole milk

Directions:

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees

In the bowl of a stand mixer add the flour, sugar, butter or oil (I used oil), vanilla and salt.

Mix the ingredients on low until combined.

Increase the speed to med-low and beat for about a minute.

Decrease the speed and add the eggs one at a time.

Add milk 1/2 a cup at a time with the mixer still running.

When the batter is fully mixed (no more lumps) divide it into your greased cake pans.

Bake the cake for 25-30 minutes.

 Let cool and Enjoy!

The icing I used was a vanilla butter cream.  I'd never tried it before but it had a nice consistency.  You can find the recipe here.

I'm writing this post on Thursday so the cake hasn't been eaten yet but I'll let you know how it turns out.

Happy Friday and Happy Baking!

The New Job

Today I started my new job at a local bakery.  It was interesting.  I hope to god none of my coworkers and/or boss stumble upon my blog because this isn't going to be a "nice" post.

I like working there.  Let's start with that BUT, there are some serious short-comings in that bakery.  For instance, I never thought I would walk into a bakery and see them use a box cake mix.  I know my friends, Micah and Nicole, will rag on me later about another rant on box mixes but SERIOUSLY?  I could never imagine charging people for a cake that I made if it came out of a box.  They don't even add anything extra.  It's just the mix.  I was like super stunned when I saw that.  Now she (my boss) does make everything else from scratch, I think, but still.  It's not hard to make a cake from scratch; I do it quite often.  I feel like you're probably costing yourself more money by purchasing the mixes individually.  I'm sure it'd be much cheaper, not too mention authentic and possibly tastier, if you bought all of your ingredients in bulk and made things from scratch. But whatever, it's not my bakery.

Next point, the health inspector would have a field day with that place.  It's a mess.  While I was standing around all day with my thumb up my ass watching people teach me how to make a cake out of a box I wanted nothing more than to clean.  It was dirty and unorganized.  I personally wanted to just shut it all down.  Robert Irvine (for you Restaurant Impossible fans) would be appalled.  I'm not the neatest, most organized person in the world so when I say it's bad then it's definitely bad.  I don't know how they've survived for so many years without being shut down.

One more thing, I understand that when you own a business you get to do things your way.  I understand that you have the freedom to be a little particular about things.  My boss however is super particular about EVERYTHING.  She yelled at me today because of how I washed the dishes.  Puh-lease! That's a bit ridiculous.  Also, I hate the way she ices her cupcakes, it'll never be a problem I'll just do it the way she wants it but for the record I think it looks stupid.

When she told me that I could feel free to put in my opinion I wanted to say so many things but I don't think she'd like to hear them.  I still like my job but I no longer think that I'll be going back next summer or anything like I thought I did at first.

That's all, end rant.  I'm sure I'll have more to say on the subject later.  Happy Tuesday!

P.S.  My sister, Mercedes, says hi!

No Military Monday

As you may have noticed I was on hiatus for the weekend.  Also, I'm skipping Military Monday today because I don't even want to think about the military or the Navy or the fact that my significant other is joining today.

I had a great weekend.  I ended up in Virginia with Kyle and his parents.  We went to this lovely little winery called "Narmada".  They had really good wine and Drew Stevyns was there.  He's a musician and he's just wonderful.  You should all check both the winery and Drew out.

Also I don't know if I mentioned this but I'm now home for the summer.  I don't know if its the better choice but I'm here with the people I love so that's good.

I started and ended my summer job hunt today.  I'll be starting work next Tuesday at this darling local bakery called Sweetie's and I'm so excited.  Mostly because it won't be just a counter, customer service job like I thought.  I'll actually be helping bake!  I'm totally pumped.

That's all for today.  Summer is a hard time to blog.  Happy Monday!

Blue-Eyed Baker: Mother's Day Cake

Sunday was Mother's Day.  I hadn't bought my mom anything and I also hadn't planned on it because money has been tight.  So I thought to myself, I like to bake cakes and my mom likes to eat cake (and share it with her coworkers) so why not bake a Mother's Day cake?  That's exactly what I did.  And here is the result.

Gorgeous.

Okay, my decorating wasn't great but I made it at the last minute so I think I did pretty good.  I mashed up two of my fave recipes, Hershey's Chocolate Cake and Wilton's PB Buttercream.  They're both really simple recipes but they always turn out so lovely.  The cake isn't too heavy and I can't get enough of the icing.  You'll also want a nice glass of milk as a chaser.

Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Cake

Yield: 2 9-in cakes

Ingredients:

• 2 c. Sugar
• 3/4 c. Hershey's Cocoa Powder (Unsweetened)
• 1 3/4 c. Flour
• 1 1/2 t. Baking Powder
• 1 1/2 t. Baking Soda
• 1 t. Salt
• 2 Eggs
• 1 c. Boiling Water
• 1/2 c. Vegetable Oil (I also use Olive oil when need be it makes no difference)
• 1 c. Milk
• 2 t. Vanilla

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.  

In a large bowl stir together the dry (flour, salt, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, baking soda) ingredients.  Then add the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla.  Beat together for appx. 2 minutes.  Stir in the water.  Don't worry the batter is supposed to be thin.

Bake each cake for appx. 30-35 minutes. Mine took exactly 30 but it always depends on the oven you're using.

Wilton's PB Buttercream

1 recipe = 3 cups

Ingredients:

• 1/3 c. Butter
• 1/3 c. Vegetable Shortening (I use Crisco. ALWAYS)
• 3/4 c. Peanut Butter
• 1 t. Vanilla
• 4 c. (1 lb.) Confectioner's (powdered) sugar
• 4-6 T. Milk

Cream the butter and shortening.  Then add the PB and vanilla.  Gradually add the powdered sugar.  If need be add milk to reach your desired consistency.  Note: I didn't add the milk and everything turned out fine.

Just lovely.

This was the first time I ever attempted a basket weave.  I've never even practiced on a flat surface.  It didn't turn out perfect but I was happy with the results.  Plus it tasted amazing so no one actually cared.

I hope you all had a fantastic Mother's Day and Happy Friday!

Author's Note: I didn't change these recipes at all.  I did include the links so that no one could say I plagiarized.

Blue-Eyed Baker: Boxed Mixes and Canned Icing

As you all know I've been home this past week and the original plan was to bake a couple things while I'm here.  That actually hasn't happened.  I'm going to bake a cake for Mother's Day that will be just lovely but other than that I haven't made anything except for some cupcakes that came out of a box but to me those don't really count.

I haven't used a boxed cake mix in about a year, Wednesday night was the first time since I discovered my love for baking from scratch.  In the past I've made my famed Irish Carbomb cupcakes and people have said "Did you make these from scratch?" and I very pompously replied "Of course I made them from scratch.  Who wants to use a boxed mix?".  I'm very proud of my from scratch creations even if they're recipes from other people, I have yet to make up my own recipe or even drastically change a recipe I've found on the internet. We'll get there someday.

So on Wednesday, my sister, Julia, text me asking if I would bake cupcakes for school the next day.  At first  I said no because I was going out with a friend later and I didn't want to be up late baking.  Then she said they're for Josh Seader, who's a guy that I graduated High School with, he was always really nice and Senior year we had like every class together so she guilted me into making them.  I still knew I wasn't in the mood to bake anything from scratch and I probably wasn't going to have all of the ingredients anyway so, much to my chagrin, I purchased a boxed mix and some canned icing.

It was your classic yellow cake and chocolate icing.  As I was making them, 3 eggs, 1/3 cup oil, 1 cup of water, yuck, I thought to myself that this is really gross and I would have rather taken the time to make something from scratch.  The icing was Duncan Hines Whipped and if I ever had to endorse a pre-made product that would probably be the one.  It wasn't bad.  I still wasn't happy with the overall product but I'm sure the kids in Julia's class could care less.  They're getting free cupcakes at school they most likely do not care that I went through a lot of emotional pain making those boxed monstrosities.  At this point you can probably tell that I really dislike using boxed mixes.

They didn't look half bad,

I used my favorite cupcake icing technique to ease the pain.

I'd also like to express my disdain at the glut of wedding cake recipes online that masquerade as "professional" or "homemade" recipes but utilize a boxed mix.  Now these recipes add other things to the boxed stuff but if you're going to use the boxed crap don't say that it's homemade or that you're a professional.

Okay, my rant is over.  Happy Friday!

Big things are happening

Today I wasn't sure what to blog about but then I remembered that today I have a phone interview for a blogging internship!  How fun is that?

A couple weeks ago a friend of mine from school sent me a link for an internship that corresponds with the blog "Best Friends for Frosting".  I took a look at it and saw that it was unpaid and I didn't think much of it.  I took a second look at it later and realized it was for a baking blog and got a little more excited.  I really like blogging and I love baking so what could be better?  I sent in my resume and "patiently" waited for a reply back.

A few days later I got my reply and THEY WERE INTERESTED! So I answered some questions and once again waited "patiently".  This time the reply was much quicker.  They asked me to do a phone interview and we scheduled a day and time.

Now, I've never done a phone interview so I'm a little nervous.  The prospect of sitting unshowered, in your PJ's and doing something professional just doesn't make sense to me.  I've heard that you actually should like shower and look nice just to give yourself that confidence boost while you're on the phone. I might actually end up doing that but we'll see.  All in good time.

Like I said I'm really excited and I hope to get the internship.  I'm not really sure where it's going to take me but it'll be some sort of experience and it will give me something to do when I'm home for the summer probably jobless and bored.  I can only be entertained by my siblings for so long before they get annoying and I want to lock them up.

Happy Thursday!

Shorty but Goody

Yesterday, as you all may have noticed,  I skipped a day of blogging.  Oh No!  I really didn't mind it because I could not think of a topic that wouldn't bore you all to death.  It'll also probably happen more frequently through the summer because I won't be doing too many exciting things on a daily basis.

But today I write with a purpose.  It's to tell you all about how I had my first cake consultation session today with a lovely bride-to-be.  I met today with a lovely lady named Brandi, who turns out is my cousin, to talk about her wedding cake.  Can you believe it?  Someone wants me to make their wedding cake AND they're going to pay me for it.  Yippee!  I'm totally excited and I haven't even gotten the job yet.  However, it's insanely complicated to price a wedding cake.

I've never ever priced a cake before.  Usually, I bake a cake and my family eats it.  So when I was asked to give a price for a three tier cake that feeds 150-200 people I was like, "Give me a sec".  I did a little research and found 18,000 different ways to calculate the price of say a birthday cake but then I found another 10,000 ways to price a wedding cake.  In case you didn't know pricing a birthday or baby shower cake is COMPLETELY different from pricing a wedding cake.  Who woulda thought?  I definitely didn't.

So today I start the adventure of pricing my first wedding cake.  Wish me luck! And Happy Wednesday!!

Going Home

Today, after work of course, I'm packing up my car and going home! The only downside is that it's only for a week and then I have to return to State College for a rousing six weeks of summer classes.

So you're probably asking what will I do when I'm home....well maybe not but I'm going to tell you anyways.

1. Take my dog to Ohiopyle

 Ohiopyle is the most wonderful place in the world. I love it.  I also love my dog.  She adores car rides and I can't wait to put her in the car and go for a hike in one of my favorite places.  It will be pure bliss.

2. See my BFF's

My two best friends in the whole wide world live back home.  I can't wait to see them and possibly (probably) go out for drinks.

3. Beg my mom to make all of my favorite foods

I eat a lot of pasta here but I cannot replicate my mom's spaghetti and I've been craving it for weeks.  Also I just LOVE not having to cook.

4.  Spend oodles of time with my mom

My mom is also on my list of best friends she's actually number one.  I'm super excited to do super mundane things with my mom because I miss her so much.  Plus we'll also go out to the bar on Thursday and that's always fun.

5.  Spend time with my family in general

My family occasionally does things all together but usually it's hard to have everyone in one place.  But I can settle with just being in the same general area with them.  I like knowing my little brother is just upstairs playing playstation and not 150 miles away.

6. RELAX

This semester has been crazy and I'm sure taking 16 credits over six weeks while also working is going to be no walk in the park so for 7 days I'm going to relax as much as possible.

7. And finally, get my bake on

Next Sunday is Mother's Day and since I'm short on cash I want to make my Momma a gorgeous cake.         Don't worry there will be pictures.


That's all folks! Happy Sunday!

Blue-Eyed Baker: Irish Carbomb Cupcakes

Today is the last day of finals week.  I had an 8 am final and now I'm finished with everything concerning the Spring 2013 semester.  I'm officially a Super Senior and that means in just one year I will finally be graduating.

With all the hustle and bustle of this week, studying, odd work hours, etc. I didn't get to bake anything and I'm not feeling a last minute baking adventure today.  Until 5 pm when I go to work today I just want to relax and maybe read a book.  If the boyfriend ever wakes up, it's still early, maybe we'll go to lunch or something.

So today my Blue-Eyed Baker post is going to focus on the most popular of the cupcakes I've baked so far, The Irish Carbomb.  I made these for the first time about a year or so ago and I've had to make them multiple times because they were a hit.  If I ever own a bakery someday I'll definitely have to use these as a daily item.

The recipe I use is from browneyedbaker.com and I don't change a thing.  They're a moist delicious cupcake that I couldn't imagine "fixing".

Irish Carbomb Cupcakes

Ingredients

For the Cupcakes:
1 cup Guinness stout
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1½ teaspoons baking soda
¾ teaspoons salt
2 eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

For the Whiskey Ganache Filling:
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
2 teaspoons Irish whiskey

For the Baileys Frosting:
2 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
5 cups powdered sugar
6 tablespoons Bailey's Irish Cream

Procedure

1. To Make the Cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 24 cupcake cups with liners. Bring the Guinness and butter to a simmer in a heavy, medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the cocoa powder and whisk until the mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

2. Whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in a large bowl to combine. Using an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sour cream on medium speed until combined. Add the Guinness-chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and beat just to combine. Reduce the speed to low, add the flour mixture and beat briefly. Using a rubber spatula, fold the batter until completely combined. Divide the batter among the cupcake liners. Bake until a thin knife inserted into the center comes out clean, about 17 minutes. Cool the cupcakes on a rack.

3. To Make the Whiskey Ganache Filling: Finely chop the chocolate and transfer it to a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream until simmering and pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for one minute and then, using a rubber spatula, stir it from the center outward until smooth. Add the butter and whiskey and stir until combined. Let the ganache cool until thick but still soft enough to be piped.

4. To Fill the Cupcakes: Using a 1-inch round cookie cutter (or the bottom of a large decorating tip), cut the centers out of the cooled cupcakes, going about two-thirds of the way down. Transfer the ganache to a piping back with a wide tip and fill the holes in each cupcake to the top.

5. To Make the Baileys Frosting: Using the whisk attachment of a stand mixer, whip the butter on medium-high speed for 5 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally. Reduce the speed to medium-low and gradually add the powdered sugar until all of it is incorporated. Add the Baileys, increase the speed to medium-high and whip for another 2 to 3 minutes, until it is light and fluffy.

6. Using your favorite decorating tip, or an offset spatula, frost the cupcakes and decorate with sprinkles, if desired. Store the cupcakes in an airtight container.

This recipe yields about 2 dozen cupcakes.  It takes a few hours to make them at first and it's a very involved process.   But, if you do it right you won't be disappointed.

Here are some of my previous results:

My mom requested that I make them for Christmas last year so I added a little festive detail.  They were a hit with my uncles.  They even decided that they were taking me to Hollywood to have my own show.  They're a hoot.

Happy Friday and Happy Baking!

Blue-Eyed Baker

I've decided that Fridays will be baking posts and I'm going to call them Blue-Eyed Baker.  It's true, I have blue eyes and I'm a self-titled baker.  I kind of stole this idea from a lovely lady that has amazing recipes, she calls herself the Brown-Eyed Baker and you can find her here.  I have found a ton of recipes on her site and they always turn out fabulously.

However, today we won't be using a recipe from the Brown-Eyed Baker.  A week or so ago I said these words to Kyle, "I really want to bake some cookies".  At the time he was talking about a tail-gate he was going to for Penn State's Blue and White game and then I said, "Maybe I could bake something for your tail-gate!".  He said yes but it never happened because work got in the way and I was tired and I needed ingredients.  I was also upset because it was when the whole prospective going to the Navy thing started (we'll talk about that on Monday).

Anywho, I'm finally going to bake my cookies today.  As I type I'm waiting for my butter to come to room temp.  Usually I microwave it but I decided to do it right today and wait it out since I have literally nothing else to do.  All of my classes were cancelled today, I couldn't be happier.

The recipe of the day comes from Simply Recipes.  I've never used a recipe from here but I'm sure it will turn out just fine.  Kyle requested peanut butter chocolate chip cookies so that's what I'm making.  The recipe is just for PB cookies but I'm going to be daring and add some chocolate chunks.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Yield: About 2 dozen

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1 egg
• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1.2 of an 11.5 oz. bag of Nestle Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chunks

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit*.
2. Using a stand or hand-mixer cream the butter (appx. 2 minutes), add both sugars and combine (appx. 2 minutes).  Add Peanut Butter and Egg.
3. In a separate bowl mix the dry ingredients.  
4. Stir the dry mixture into the butter, sugar, egg, and peanut butter mixture.   Gently fold in the chocolate.
5. Make approximately 1 in. balls of dough and place them on an ungreased baking sheet about 3 in. apart.
6. Bake for 9-10 minutes.  Let cool on sheets for about a minute and then transfer to a cooling rack until cooled completely.

*If you prefer a chewier cookie bake at 300 degrees for 15 minutes.

They turned out really well.  I ended up baking them for 13 minutes but I'm pretty cautionary with cookies.  I've had a few issues with them being under baked in the past.

That's all for today folks and I hope you enjoy! Happy Baking!