With Sprinkles on Top

St. Patrick’s Day is mere hours away – the day where we all get to be Irish, eat corned beef, and maybe even drink green beer. And this year, I can eat Irish Car Bombs in cupcake form. Enjoy the sugar high and not the hangover :)

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes
Recipe Source: Smitten Kitchen
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Cupcakes
1 cup Guinness
1 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Bring 1 cup stout and 1 cup butter to simmer in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.
3. Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 3/4 tea. salt in large bowl to blend.
4. In another bowl, beat eggs and sour cream together with an electric mixer.
5. Add the stout-chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and beat just to combine.
6. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using a rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined.
7. Fill the lined cupcake pans 2/3 to 3/4 of the way full. Bake 17 minutes or until tester comes out clean. Cool completely on a rack.

Ganache Filling
4 oz. bittersweet baker’s chocolate
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon butter at room temperature
1 teaspoon Irish Whiskey

1. Chop the chocolate and transfer it to a heat-proof bowl.
2. Heat the cream until simmering and pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for 1 minute and then stir until smooth. This should sufficiently melt the chocolate — if not, use the microwave to help things along.
3. Add the butter and whiskey and stir until combined.
4. Let the ganache cool and thicken. Meanwhile, using a knife, cut out 1-inch circles in the cupcakes. Remove the centers of the cake, going about 2/3 of the way down into the cupcake.
5. Put the ganache in a piping bag with a wide tip and fill the holes in each cupcake to the top.

Frosting
3 to 4 cups powdered sugar
1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature
3 to 4 tablespoons Bailey’s

1. Cream the butter with an electric mixer.
2. Gradually add the powdered sugar
3. Add the desired amount of Bailey’s (or milk, if you don’t like Baileys) to the frosting to make it a little creamier.
4. Ice the cupcakes and decorate.

Mmmmm mint chips. It took A LOT of willpower not to eat that entire bowl of mint chips – especially given how stressed out I am with school! But I persevered… the chips were used for these delicious cookies. Which I may or may not have eaten about 8 of in one day. They taste a little bit like mint Oreos – dark chocolate, rich, and deliciously minty.

The only downside, however, is that they are the world’s ugliest cookie…

See, I told you so. But trust me, they taste SO GOOD!

Chocolate Mint Chip Cookies
Recipe source: Two Peas & Their Pod
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1-1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup dutch-process cocoa (make sure to use dutch process for a rich/dark flavor)
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temp
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/3 cup milk
1 bag of mint chips (I used a bag and a half… cause the more mint the better, in my opinion!)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Whisk together flour, salt, baking powder and cocoa, and set aside.
3. Beat the butter on medium-high until light and add sugars, creaming well.
4. Add the vanilla and beat until smooth.
5. Add the flour mixture in 2 batches, alternately with the milk in one batch, mixing well.
6. Stir in the mint chips.
7. Chill dough for at least 15 minutes. (You can make the dough a few hours or 2 days before baking and it will be fine. Just wrap it up and keep in the fridge.)
8. Scoop the dough onto the cookie sheet, press down on them slightly, and bake for 14-15 minutes.
9. Let the cookies cool completely on the cookie sheet, they will set as they cool.  Cookies will stay fresh for 2 days in an air-tight container.

St. Patrick’s Day is a few weeks away! Next week I am planning on making Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes, but in the meantime, here are some pretty rainbow cupcakes for you all! Because nothing says St. Patty’s day like a rainbow and some shamrocks. :)

Rainbow Cupcakes
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1 box white cake mix (plus ingredients needed for the box mix, like eggs and vegetable oil)
AmeriColor food coloring (I use this brand so I get vibrant, rich colors)
24 cupcake liners

1. Make cake mix according to directions on box.
2. Divide the batter into six bowls.
3. Color each bowl of batter with a different dye.
4. Line cupcake pans with liners and spoon a little of each color batter into the liners. I started with purple and worked my way up to red. Don’t worry about them not being perfectly balanced or neat, they will turn out regardless!
5. Bake according to the recommendations on the box.

First step – a little purple batter!

Work your way through all of the colors. As you can see, i was a little messy!

Finished products!

And now for the buttercream. I’m not a huge fan of buttercream and I’m always trying to find a recipe that I really enjoy. Well, I’ve found it. This stuff is AMAZING – even for a buttercream disliker like me! (is “disliker” even a word? I doubt it… oh well)

The Repressed Pastry Chef: Buttercream Icing
Recipe source: therepressedpastrychef.blogspot.com

1 stick salted butter – room temperature
1 stick unsalted butter – room temperature
1 cup shortening
1 tablespoon clear vanilla extract**
2 pounds confectioner’s sugar (powdered sugar, 10x)
4-6 tablespoons very cold milk

**the CLEAR extract is very important if you want WHITE buttercream. Most buttercream tends to have a yellow-ish tint if you use real vanilla extract.

1. Cream the butter and shortening in the bowl of an electric or stand mixer.
2. Add the clear vanilla extract and combine well.
3. Begin adding in the sugar and mixing thoroughly after each addition.
4. After all of the sugar has been added and mixed thoroughly, begin adding the very cold milk… one tablespoon at a time, combining very well after each addition (mixer on medium-high to high speed) until you reach the desired consistency.

Frost the rainbow cupcakes and top with any decorations you’d like. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

One of my biggest weakness in life is cinnamon sugar. Anything is exponentially improved with the addition of cinnamon sugar. I saw this recipe and it practically jumped off the page at me. Doughnut-like muffins coated in cinnamon sugar? SOLD. These taste a lot like cake doughnuts! So yummy!

Doughnut Muffins
Recipe source: finecooking.com
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12 oz. unsalted butter, warmed to room temperature (1-1/2 cups)
1-3/4 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1 lb 11 oz. (6 cups) all-purpose flour
1 Tbs plus 2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1-3/4 tsp table salt
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1-2/3 cups milk (whole or 2% works best)
1/4 cup buttermilk

for dipping:
8 oz (1 cup) unsalted butter (more if needed)
2 cups granulated sugar
2 Tbs ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In a stand mixer or large bowl, cream the butter and the sugar. Beat in the eggs, one at time, until just mixed in. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg. Combine the milk and buttermilk.
3. With a wooden spoon or your mixer on low speed, mix a quarter of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture. Then mix a third of the milk mixture. Continue mixing in the remaining dry and wet ingredients alternately, ending with the dry. Mix until well combined and smooth, but don’t overmix.
4. Grease and flour a standard size muffin tin. Scoop enough batter into each tin so that the top of the batter is even with the rim of the cup (about 1/2 cup). Bake until the muffins are firm to the touch — about 30-35 minutes.
5. Melt the butter for the dipping mixture. Combine the sugar and cinnamon. When the muffins are just cool enough to handle, remove them from the tin, dip them into or brush them all over with the melted butter, then roll them in cinnamon sugar.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

This recipe belongs to my dear friend Amber, who runs Bluebonnets & Brownies. She has RAVED about this chocolate cake recipe. Although, it’s got a bit of a twist — it features mayonnaise and coffee as two of its main ingredients! Now, if you are skittish about either of those foods, don’t worry. Really, don’t. You can’t even taste the coffee or the mayo – all you taste is moist, delicious, EASY, homemade chocolate cake. Mmmm.

Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake
Recipe Source: Amber Bracegirdle of Bluebonnets & Brownies
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2 cups all purpose flour (for cupcakes, add 2 extra tablespoons of flour)
1 cup sugar
6 tablespoons cocoa (for cupcakes, add 1 more scant tablespoon of cocoa powder)
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup mayonnaise – no substitutes
1 cup cold coffee
1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Sift together dry ingredients – set aside.
3. In mixing bowl combine mayonnaise, cold coffee and vanilla – add sifted dry ingredients, incrementally. Beat until smooth – scraping sides of bowl often.
4. Pour into greased and floured 9 x 13 pan or 12 count muffin pan with paper cups. Bake 25 to 35 minutes. Do not over bake.

I frosted the cupcakes with store-bought chocolate frosting, but Amber has a GREAT recipe for ganache to go along with this recipe.