No TWD - instead: Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes with Baileys Irish Buttercream

No TWD for me this week, I was pooped from my cupcake bake-a-thon. This weeks recipe for TWD was picked by Mike of Ugly Food for an Ugly Dude, he chose Thumbprints for Us Big Guys. The recipe can be found on page 164 of Baking: From My Home to Yours or over at Mike's blog. Check out what my fellow TWD-ers thought of the thumbprints here.

As I mentioned in my last post my mom asked me to bake her cupcakes for her to take to work for her birthday. Because my mom works at a call center she has lots of colleagues, which meant that I had to bake loads of cupcakes. I gave my mom several options for the miniature cupcakes and she picked three of them: Strawberry Cupcakes, Coconut Cupcakes with White Chocolate Icing and these Chocolate Guiness Cupcakes with Baileys Irish Buttercream that I found over at Le Petit Pierogi.

This recipe made 36 miniatures (that needed 12 minutes in the oven) and 18 regular-sized (requiring 17 minutes in the oven) for me.

Ingredients

adapted from Le Petit Pierogi

For the Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes

1 cup Guinness

2 sticks unsalted butter

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

2 large eggs

2/3 cup sour cream

For the Baileys Irish Buttercream

3 to 4 cups confectioners sugar (I used about 3 1/2 cup)

1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature

3 to 4 tbsp Baileys Irish Cream (I used 4 tbsp)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line cupcake bakingtray with liners. In a saucepan over medium heat melt butter and add Guinness, bring to a simmer. Whisk in cocoa powder until mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool slightly.

In a large bowl mix together flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. In another bowl beat eggs and sour cream until thoroughly combined. On low speed drizzle in Guinness-cocoa mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture, a little at a time, and mix briefly on low speed until the mixture comes together. Using a rubber spatula fold the batter until completely combined. Divide batter over cupcake liners, filling them 2/3 to 3/4 of the way. Bake cake until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, the mini's needed 12 minutes and the regular-sized needed 17 minutes. Cool cupcakes on a rack completely.

To make the buttercream, whip the butter in a bowl until the butter is very light and fluffy. Slowly add the confectioners sugar, a few tablespoons at a time. When the frosting looks thick enough to spread, drizzle in the Baileys and whip it until combined. If this makes the frosting too thin, beat in another spoonful or two of powdered sugar.

Ice and decorate the cupcakes.

Adopt-A-Blogger + Sticky Toffee Cupcakes for my Mom's Birthday

The time has come to tell you about Adopt-A-Blogger! Kristen of Dine and Dish first came up with Adopt-A-Blogger a couple of years ago and this is round #4. I actually already wanted to sign up for round #3, but I missed the deadline back then so I had to wait for the next one. Now my time has come! Adopt-A-Blogger is about 'veteran-bloggers' helping 'newbees' out with all their questions and giving them advice. Now I don't consider myself a veteran at all, in my opinion I still have a lot to learn about blogging, but I feel that everyone can learn from everyone and this event seemed like a great way to meet new bloggers. Now let me introduce you to my two adoptees:

First there's Molly, from Duchess of Fork, who is starting a new career as a teacher in Northwestern Florida. She's married to the Duke of Pork and they have a Maltipoo called Ruby. Molly started blogging in July 2009 after drooling over other cookblogs for a while. She cooks up delicious meals. In fact her first post looks like the perfect dish for me: Chicken Fajita Pizza with Avocado Cream.

Then there's Sarah, who writes catch a cub in it's den, who lives in California and she and her boyfriend recently moved into their new appartment with a kitchen to die for! Sarah started blogging back in July 2008, she blogs about her travels as well as recipes. I love the Challah French Toast she cooked up for her boyfriend on Valentine's Day.









Now on to today's recipe: Sticky Toffee Cupcakes. My mom asked me to bake 15 regular-sized cupcakes and about 90 miniature cupcakes that she could take to work with her on her birthday. Last week I saw this recipe for Sticky Toffee Cake over at Marie's blog The English Kitchen last and I immediately knew this was the pefect recipe for my mom, I just had to transform the cake into cupcakes!

The cupcakes needed about 25 minutes in the oven, the recipe made exactly 15 cupcakes! These were a big hit, even if they were a bit sticky: but that's to be expected from something called sticky toffee cupcake :) The recipe can be found here.

TWD: Toasted-Coconut Custard Tart

Yeah, so I was right on time with my tart this time... Or at least with making all the parts, but then I decided to sit down on the sofa for a while while my tart crust was in the oven to bake. Big mistake!!! I fell asleep.... I only woke up because The Neighbour texted me. As soon as I realised that I had fallen asleep, I ran to the kitchen to check on my crust that was in the oven. Too late: it had already blackened and was of no use anymoren.... Not sure if I can fit in making a new crust today as I have to bake loads of cupcakes for my moms birthday. I promise my post about the Toasted-Coconut Custard Tart will go up later this week!!

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This week Beryl of Cinemon Girl picked the recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie and she did an amazing job: she picked the luscious Toasted-Coconut Custard Tart. As soon as I saw the list of ingredients I simply knew I was going to love it: it's basically a Pina Colada in tart-shape and my favorite Summer Cocktail is a Pina Colada.

Coconut reminds me of summer, so this was perfect to distract me from the dreary winter weather we've been having lately. The crust came together easy and I even managed not to burn it on my second attempt. The custard was equally effortless to make, although I did freak out at one point: I was whisking the custard, waiting for it to start cooking when all of the sudden it turned from liquid to looking curdled and then to almost solid..... But it still tasted great :)

This is a tart that I will be making again, I absolutely loved it!! The recipe can be found here at Cinemon Girl, go here to see what my fellow TWD-ers thought of the tart.