The Best Cupcake I have ever made

Who would have thought stout beer in a chocolate cupcake would be a good combination?  Certainly not me.

I am "game" for any recipe.  I was intrigued by the beer in a dessert. Let me just say, the stout and chocolate plays off of each so well.  I found this recipe on this website.

Guinness Cupcakes

INGREDIENTS:

For the Cupcakes

1 (12-ounce) bottle Guinness Stout
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
3 large eggs
3/4 cup sour cream
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa (I used Scharffen Berger Cocoa)
2 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

For the Vanilla Bean Buttercream

1 stick salted butter – room temperature
1 stick unsalted butter – room temperature
1/2 cup shortening
1 tablespoon Clear Vanilla extract
1 1/2 pounds confectioner’s sugar (powdered sugar, 10x)
4 tablespoons very cold milk

DIRECTIONS:

For the Cupcakes

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the Guinness, milk, vegetable oil, and vanilla. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Mix in the sour cream.

3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the cocoa, sugar, flour, and baking soda. Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the wet Guinness mixture.

4. Butter 24 muffin tins and divide the batter among the muffin tins.

5. Bake 25 minutes, until risen and set in the middle but still soft and tender. Cool before turning out of the tins.

For the Vanilla Bean Buttercream

1. Cream the butter and shortening in the bowl of an electric or stand mixer.

2. Add the clear vanilla extract and combine well. Begin adding in the sugar and mixing thoroughly after each addition.

3. 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.

Homemade Valentine Chocolates & Fortune Cookies

This year I wanted to try my hand at making homemade chocolates for my three favorites guys.  How hard could it be to melt chocolate, pour into molds, fill with ganache filling and seal.  Oh boy, was I in for a rude awakening.  It took me all day to make them. 

First, I made the boys simple chocolates out of a couple different molds.  The for my husbands I decided to add some flavor to his chocolates.  I made some basic chocolate ganache.  I made a couple with the plain ganache.  Then I stepped it up and added some Bailey's Irish Creme to the rest of the ganache.  Yummy!!!  For the third flavor I decided to make a Mounds style filled chocolate.  Mmmmm.... 

The boys devoured them in a day or so.  My husband liked them even though he is not a big chocolate person.

Since my husband always brings me flowers, I wanted to make something special for him.  While looking at a quilting website I noticed the lady had made some fabric fortune cookies.  Ding Ding Ding the bell went off in my head.  I collected the things I needed to make them.  Good thing I love my husband very much.  These fortune cookies were very labor intensive.  When I finished assembling the two dozen of them, I printed off a bunch of fortunes.  The fortunes were comprised of  valentine sayings, quotes, lines from songs, sayings in different languages and my own personal feelings.  It took home several minutes to crack them open and read the fortunes.  Then he looked at me and said the sweetest thing, "It's hard to compete with your homdemade gifts."  Awww....

Paula Deen's Chocolate Dippity Donuts

Last night my youngest son and I were watching Paula's Party on the Food Network. The show was all about chocolate. Paula and her son Jamie were reminesing about his childhood. The Dippity Donuts he remembered very fondly.

After that segment was over my son looked at me and said can we make those tomorrow morning. (that was the deal breaker for him being waken at 6:45 to go grocery shopping with me. See my husband and oldest son was on a boy scout retreat climbing Mt. Washington (NH) so that left me and the little one (10 yrs old is not little by any stretch of the imagaination but when he wants to cuddle he will).

So I woke the poor kid up and we went shopping. We came home put the groceries away and he started in on the donuts. I heated the oil and helped put the holes in them. He stood there flipping the donuts and taking them out. In the meantime I was getting the toppings ready.

He did a great job on the donuts and they were delicious for something so easy.

Chocolate Dippity Donuts
by Paula Deen

Ingredients:
Oil, for frying
1 can biscuits

For the sauce:
1 (4-ounce) bar sweet chocolate (recommended: Baker's German's)
1/2-ounce unsweetened chocolate
1 stick butter
3 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 cups evaporated milk
1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract

Toppings:
Chocolate chips
Chocolate sprinkles
Toasted coconut
Colored candies
Chopped pecans
Store-bought glaze

Directions

Preheat oil in a deep-fryer to about 360 to 375 degrees F.
Remove biscuits from the can. Poke a hole in each one with your thumb. Form them into doughnuts. Drop them into hot grease and brown them on both sides until they were done about 2 minutes on each side. Don't forget to flip often.

For the sauce:

Melt the chocolate and butter in a saucepan over very low heat. Stir in the sugar, alternating with the evaporated milk, blending well. Raise the heat to medium and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Lower the heat and cook, stirring, until the mixture becomes thick and creamy, about 8 minutes. Stir in the vanilla, remove the pan from the heat.

Dip cooked doughnuts immediately into the chocolate mixture before the chocolate starts to cool.
Add topping/toppings of your choice.

Place the doughnuts on a plate and serve when the chocolate on the doughnuts sets, about 5 minutes.