because she does

erica loves whisky. and i love erica (and whisky).
ooohhhh yeeaaaah, chocolate whisky cupcakes!

ingredients
2 sticks butter, room temp.
2 c flour
7 oz. el rey 60%-or-higher chocolate
1/4 c instant espresso (or instant coffee)
2 T cocoa powder
1 c whisky (i used stranahan's. classy.)
2 c sugar
3 large eggs
1 T vanilla
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt

directions
preheat oven to 325.
melt chocolate in a double boiler.
combine instant coffee and cocoa. add enough boiling water to equal 1 cup, and mix.
add whisky and salt.
beat butter until fluffy. add sugar and continue beating.
add eggs, one at a time. don't stop beating.
beat in vanilla, baking soda, and melted chocolate.
[beat in 1/3 whisky mix.
add 1 c flour.] x2
beat in last 1/3 whisky mix.
pour into cupcake holders, about 3/4 full.
bake approx. 18 minutes, depending on your oven size, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
decorate! perhaps you know an erica who also rocks?

san diego: (1) glorious and (2) disappointing

in chronological order.

(1) glorious: these cliffs are truly the best place for 'ritas and 'nitas. also, bonus points to adam for his mixologist skills -- the 'ritas were balanced and lovely.

(2) disappointing: why, hodad's, why? dry overcooked burger, unforgivably inept service (i.e., they forgot my bacon). do not believe the hype.

irish car bomb cupcakes

these are guinness cupcakes filled with bailey's cream. decadent and fabulous in honor of st. patrick's day!

for the cupcakes:

ingredients
2 large eggs (room temp)
½ c sour cream (or yogurt)
6 oz Guinness
2 t vanilla extract
½ c dutch processed cocoa powder
1 c sugar (i used rapadura)
1 ¼ c + 2 T cake flour (all-purpose is ok too. just subtract the extra 2 T.)
1 t baking soda
1/8 t ground cinnamon
6 T melted unsalted butter

directions
preheat oven to 350 degrees.
line a cupcake pan with cupcake papers. this recipe makes about 12 cupcakes.
melt butter, then set aside
whisk together eggs and sour cream in a large bowl. add Guinness and vanilla and whisk.
mix all of the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl. some will tell you to sift, but not i.
add the dry mixture into the wet ingredients about a third at a time, mixing well after each addition. add the melted butter at the end and continue mixing until very well combined.
pour batter into the 12 cups, filling each about ¾ full.
bake for approx. 25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean.
let cool.

for the filling:

ingredients
6 T softened unsalted butter
1 ½ c powdered sugar
¾ c marshmallow fluff
2 ½ T (or so) bailey’s irish cream liqueur
1 T (or so) heavy cream

directions
beat the butter with the powdered sugar, fluff, bailey’s and cream.
(the idea here is to make the cream taste as much like bailey’s as humanly possible, so i just kept on adding bailey’s until the taste was strong enough for my liking.)
transfer to a pastry bag fitted with a ¼ inch plain round tip.
insert the tip of the pastry bag into the top of each cupcake. squeeze way harder than you think should be necessary -- you want a lot of cream in there. squeeze some extra cream on the top to make a little nipple.

okay, confession: these were supposed to have frosting on them, but the frosting (an attempt from the normally foolproof martha stewart baking handbook) was a total bomb, i suspect because i didn't whip the eggs enough, so i nixed it. perhaps you have hardier forearms than i. still, i thought that the cupcake-to-cream filling ratio was moist enough that the frosting wasn't missed.

heidrun sparkling mead

like drinking springtime,

but this bloom is out of stock.

please make more, heidrun!

http://www.heidrunmeadery.com/