Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

There is a drink called an Irish Car Bomb. You drop a shot of Jameson's into a Guinness followed with a Bailey's chaser. (I've also seen it with the Jameson's chaser and dropping the Bailey's and dropping both shots.). No matter how you drink it, you will get bombed pretty quickly.

So yeah, I had to make the cupcakes.

The cake is chocolate cake made with Guinness:

Bring 1 cup of stout and 1 cup I salted butter ti a simmer. Whisk in 3/4 of a cup cocoa powder until smooth and remove from heat.

In a large bowl, whisk together 2 cups of flour, 2 cups of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon baking SODA and 3/4 teaspoon of salt.

In another large bowl, beat together 2 large eggs and 2/3 cup sour cream. Slowly beat in the egg mixture. (Slowly be the key word so you don't cook the egg and make it curdle.) Slowly beat in the dry mix. When fully mixed, fill cupcake liners 2/3 to 3/4 full. They don't get that huge.

Since I used my Babycakes thingie, I didn't have to set ovens. Otherwise bake at 350* F for 15-20 min.

While cooking, make the "bomb" filling:

Warm 1/3 heavy cream to simmering (NOT boiling) and pour over 8oz of chocolate. (I used semi-sweet chips). Let sit for a half minute or so before mixing until smooth. (I melted the rest of mix over a double boiler because the chocolate didn't fully melt.). Take off the heat and add 1/3 cup Baileys, 2 tbsp butter and 1 or 2 tsp of Jameson's. Mix until smooth.

When cool hollow the center and inject the filling into the center.

Then make a Bailey's buttercream frosting by beating a stick of unsalted butter together. When it's big and fluffy, and 3-4 Tablespoon of Bailey's. I also threw in a dash of vanilla to lighten the frosting.

These are yummy. Not overly sweet or overly moist it's a nice cupcake. :)


Thursday, December 15, 2011

Bento for Dinner!



It's the holiday season and we all find ourselves out and running about. Tonight I was at the Natick Collection after finishing my final and wanted to celebrate. There's a new sushi bar in the mall called Wasabi and for $5 I could get a kid's bento box. It was rice, fruit, and an entree. The choices were things like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich roll, veggie sushi or teriyaki chicken. I thought I'd tried the chicken and was pleasantly surprised it was fresh roasted chicken with a light dressing, not that usual mall fare of sticky, gooey something on the grill how long ago? My dinner was fresh, light and had strawberries. :) :)

I also got a cup of Miso soup and a cup of tea with my dinner.

The adult fare was various sushi plates that would meander past on a conveyer belt so you just pick what you want and the price is the color of the plate. It was a fun concept and good food.

You know I'm going back... probably soon. If I worked in the mall, I had a feeling this would be my usual dinner stop. Either way, if you're in the DC area or Natick, check these guys out.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Veggie Soup

Something funny happened on the way to my soup, I tried using my immersion blender.

I started tonight in the veggie drawer in the fridge: onion, carrots, peppers and mushrooms. Oh wait, there's a tube of crushed garlic and crushed ginger on the door. So after I sautéed the veggies, I poured a carton of veggie broth in with some herbs de Provence, a shake of red pepper, a shake of cumin, salt and pepper. A splash of lemon juice and some white wine and let things simmer.

Then I decided to give the immersion blender a try.

Lessons learned? Immersion blenders have amazing suction and work wicked, wicked fast and sort of puréed everything.

Yummy though.

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