Chocolate, Guinness and Baileys Cupcakes

It's been a while since the last post. No excuses really other than to say that it keeps dropping off my list of things to do. So with the Christmas break coming up I plan on being a bit more organised and I will be doing plenty of baking.

After many requests I am finally posting the recipe for Chocolate, Guinness and Baileys cupcakes, aka Irish Car Bomb cupcakes.

I have made these quite a few times now and are fast becoming one of the most requested of my recipes. I don’t think I have made a batch that lasts longer than 2 or 3 days. I also have to admit that these are my favourite cupcakes both to eat and to make; the Guinness gives the cake a bitterness to cut through the sweetness of the ganache and icing. Another reason why I love this recipe is because I use it as an excuse to drink while baking, and having a glass of Baileys while they are baking, it’s a perfect way to pass the time. For anyone curious enough to taste the Guinness and cocoa mix before adding the sugar WARNING it tastes awful, I would wait until its all assembled and drink the baileys instead!

I can’t take all the credit for this recipe; I first came across this recipe on Annie's eats. Since first trying out this recipe I have made a few subtle changes, but in essence it’s the same recipe as it appears on her blog. 

Chocolate, Guinness and Baileys Cupcakes: Makes 24 cupcakes

Cupcakes

1 cup Guinness

240 g butter

¾ cup cocoa

2 cup flour

2 cup white sugar

1 ½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

2 eggs

2/3 cup sour cream or yoghurt

Ganache

225 g dark chocolate

2/3 cup cream

2 Tbsp butter (soft)

1-2 Tbsp Baileys (2 tsp for weaker baileys taste)

Icing

120 g butter (soft)

3 cup icing sugar

4 – 8 Tbsp Baileys

For the cupcakes

Place the Guinness and butter in a medium saucepan over a medium heat until the butter has melted.

Remove from the heat and whisk in cocoa until smooth. Leave to cool to room temperature.

Beat eggs and sour cream/yoghurt until smooth.

Whisk into cooled chocolate mixture slowly.

In a separate bowl mix remaining dry ingredients together and add in the chocolate mixture.

Mix with an electric mixer until just combined.

Line a 12-hole muffin tin with liners and fill 2/3 of the way up

Bake for 17-20 min at 180^OC. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.

For the Ganache

Heat cream until just simmering and gradually pour over the chocolate. Mix until smooth. If chocolate is not completely melted, heat in microwave for 10 sec at a time and mix well. Add the butter and the baileys and mix until smooth. Place in the fridge to set for 1 – 1 ½ hr.

Take the cooled cupcakes and cut out the centre, keep the tops aside. Place 1 -1 ½ tsp of ganache in the cupcake and replace the tops.

For the icing

Beat the butter and baileys until creamy. Slowly mix in the icing sugar until the right consistency is achieved. Add more baileys to taste.

Pipe the icing on top of the ganache filled cupcakes.

Pancakes

I will always find an excuse to have pancakes: Pancake Sundays, pancake dinners, pancake desserts, pancake snacks! I think that my love of pancakes started when Dad would make them for us for breakfast on the weekends. Since then I instigated pancake sundays with flatmates and have experimented with different flavours and toppings, creating different ways to celebrate events such as shamrock-shaped pancakes for St Patricks Day and finding any excuse or meal to try something different.

This recipe from Alison Holst and is the recipe that I have always used. Its super easy and it never fails to give light fluffy pancakes.

Pancakes:

50 g butter, melted

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1 ½ cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

3 Tbsp sugar

Melt butter and whisk in eggs then milk.

Add flour, baking powder and sugar and lightly whisk until just combined and smooth. Don’t over-mix or you will get tough pancakes! (You can add a little extra milk to thin out the batter to the right consistency; I tend to add 2-3 Tbsp extra.)

Lightly grease a frying pan with butter and heat over a med-low heat.

Pour the batter into the warm pan. (A ladle works well to give a good size.)

Flip the pancakes when the edges start to look cooked and bubbles start to appear in the centre.

Cook the other side until the centre springs back when touched.

Top with your favourite toppings and enjoy!

(makes approx 8 pancakes)

Golden Syrup

Lemon & Sugar

Different topping/flavours to try

• Butter and maple or golden syrup – Classic!
• Lemon juice and sugar
• Bacon: Particularly good with fried banana or berries.
• Chocolate: chocolate or m&m’s to the batter or cover the pancakes with chocolate sauce.
• Fruit: eg banana fried in brown sugar, apple and cinnamon, Peaches and chocolate
• Caramel/butterscotch sauce



Apple Crumble Pancakes

• Berries: add berries to the batter or pile on top with icing sugar. You can also make a berry sauce by heating in a saucepan with a few tablespoons of sugar.
• Bounty Bar pancakes: add 3 Tbsp of coconut to the batter and cover the pancakes with chocolate sauce. This also tastes great with grilled pineapple.
• Buttermilk pancakes: replace the milk with buttermilk. You will need to add extra milk to thin out the mixture. This also works with yoghurt.
• Cookies & Cream pancakes: add crushed up biscuits to the batter, serve with chocolate sauce and cream. 

Berries and Bacon

Orange and Almond Yo-Yos

It is only fitting that the first recipe I post should be in keeping with the Kiwi inspiration behind our blog. This week I was helping out with morning tea for my department and I decided to make a New Zealand favourite: Yo-Yo’s, a pair of deliciously buttery biscuits sandwiched together with an equally buttery filling. This recipe puts a twist on the original by using orange and almond flavours.

For the biscuits:

250g butter, softened

1 tsp. vanilla essence

80g icing sugar, sifted

225g plain flour

75g cornflour

For the orange almond filling:

80g butter, softened

2 tsp. grated orange rind

A few drops of almond essence

110g of icing sugar

 

Preheat the oven to 160°C/140°C fan. Grease and line an oven tray with baking paper.

Beat together butter, vanilla essence and icing sugar until light and fluffy.

Stir in sifted flour and cornflour.

Roll large teaspoons of the mixture into balls and place on the tray 3cm apart. (Don’t worry if the mixture seems dry, with enough work it will hold together nicely.)

Use a fork to gently flatten the biscuits. (If you dip the fork into some flour it will stop it from sticking to the biscuits).

 

Bake the biscuits for 15 minutes then cool on trays.

Meanwhile, make the orange almond filling by beating all the ingredients together in a bowl.

Once the biscuits have cooled completely, sandwich pairs together with the butter filling.

Enjoy!

 

 

Welcome to our sweet as blog

This is our sweet as blog. 

Here will add some of our favorite recipes to share with our adoring fans (aka friends and family). This will include some of our experiments and tried and tested creations. A lot of this stems from our chronic need to procrastinate and baking doesn't quite cut it anymore. We need to start a blog!