CHOCOLATE CHERRY PEPSI CUPCAKES WITH GLAZE AND COKE ICING

Because the root beer cupcakes were popular last week, I thought I'd try another soda cupcake recipe: Cherry Pepsi. I also wanted to do a cupcake that I thought R would favor and he does loooove his Cherry Pepsis. 

It was a lot more work than I thought. I was scrambling like hell to finish them on time. I didn't even have time to taste them fresh. I'm usually the first to taste the finish product, to make sure they're worthy of sharing with friends and family, but I was in such a rush - I was unable to. When I finally tasted them, I wasn't all too pleased, but it's probably because I'm not a fan of cherries. I enjoy myself a Cherry Pepsi, but I have to be in a certain mood for them. I won't grab one at the gas station as idly as a regular Pepsi, Mountain Dew or water. 

R, on the other hand, loved the cherry filling, but couldn't taste a drop of Pepsi. This kind of shocked me because there seemed to be a lot of Pepsi in the recipe. Now, if I'm ever going to make some Coke- or Pepsi-flavored cupcakes, I need to find me some Coke or Pepsi flavoring to add to the recipe. Using sodas alone just doesn't seem like it's going to cut it. 

I found a new baking supply website that I find to be awesome called SWEET!. They have a ton of flavorings that I'm wanting to purchase soon (like Cola, of course). I also have a recipe for mimosa cupcakes that I'm going to make for a friend on her birthday that needs champagne flavoring for the frosting. It sounds delicious and I'm anxious to try them myself, let alone my mimosa-obsessed buddy. What sucks is that her birthday is in May.. so no need to start dreaming about the champagne flavoring now. 

ROOT BEER FLOAT CUPCAKES

Because I was so disappointed with the taste of my absinthe cupcakes, I decided to make a new cupcake a few days later. My sweet tooth wasn't satisfied for the week. I decided to try and make a cupcake that R was appealed to, which was a root beer float cupcake.

I looove root beer floats. I also looove coke floats. When in middle school, I was one of those kids that had their parents drop them off at the skating rink on Friday & Saturday nights. I was also one of those kids that didn't rent any skates - I just walked around in my shoes (proudly), talked with my friends when they weren't skating & falling on their asses, played the arcade games & drank coke/root beer floats in the concession court area. I also ended up going out with a guy that everyone in the skating rink had the hots for. He was a grade below me, but cute as hell, and the relationship ended up being the most retarded thing I've ever done. Because of that guy, I date no one younger than me.

Okay, enough with the awkward nostalgia...

These cupcakes turned out great. Everyone loved them. A few co-workers of R's believed them to be the best I've made yet. The recipe called for root beer extract, but because I couldn't find any around, I used the only thing I could find - root beer concentrate. Even with the concentrate, the cupcakes turned out fine, but I still want to try to make them again whenever I decide to order some extract from AMAZON. At first, I thought the frosting was too sweet, but that may have been because I licked the frosting off the beaters before trying a cupcake. There was another frosting recipe that went with the root beer float cupcakes that I rather had made, but lacked cream soda extract and could find nothing to substitute it with.

Regardless, the recipe made four dozen mini cupcakes and they were gone in a day. I ended up making another batch of a dozen standard cupcakes to share with R's family because his father is a root beer fanatic. Both of his parents loved them and had requested more samples whenever I bake new batches of different cupcakes.

R grading (A-): He loved them. I was pleased to see it because I made the cupcakes pretty much just for him and his father. I told him about the cream soda frosting and after he thought about it for a second, said that he like the frosting just the way it was.

B grading: B+

GREEN FAERIE CUPCAKES

R & I have always wanted to taste absinthe. Apparently, you can't sell absinthe in America, but you can buy absinthe so we ordered a bottle from France. I remember looking up LA FEE and being dumbfounded at all the different types. I thought that there was just the typical green shit, but there's plenty to choose from. We ended up purchasing some kind of "starter kit" and were amazed at how cheap it really was..

Anyway, when we received the imported package, we made a date to get wasted on a night where we didn't have to work the next morning. The kit came with the bottle, two glasses, two spoons & a ton of sugar cubes. I tried to remember how the entire process was done in BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA, but we actually YouTubed a how-to video (gotta love YouTube).

After it was all said and done, we took a sip of the green faerie and practically spit it out. To me, it tasted like watered down Jager. I'm not a fan of the black licorice flavor & R isn't a fan of Jager, so we kept the bottle in our freezer for probably about five years before I pulled it out again to make these cupcakes. I dunno what made me believe that I'd like the taste of absinthe in cupcake form, but NOOOPE. The recipe ended up making 6 dozen mini cupcakes and the frosting recipe made enough for 2 dozen of the minis, so I threw away the remaining 4 dozen. I just didn't want to keep any of these cupcakes around and I didn't think anyone else would like them.. it turned out that my boss and the security guard loved them. They thought I was crazy for throwing away 4 dozen.

R grading (D): Like I said, he's not a fan of the Jager flavor. I was more surprised that he gave a D because I gave them an F.

I didn't give any to my parents because I just thought they were so gross tasting that I shouldn't share any of them, but my boss at the bar and the security guard were excited to hear about them and wanted me to bring them the next time I came in. After I warned them that they taste like Jager and have that weird licorice-type taste to them, they finished off the batch for me one after the other. They even threw out a pitch to sell them during the next show we were hosting, which was practically a rave. I didn't have the heart to go through with it. 

CHOCOLATE MICHELOB LAGER CUPCAKES WITH HONEY MERINGUE FROSTING

 At work, some days are mundane & monotonous. Some days are filled with drama & gossip. Some days are just flat out shitty. But every day that I worked with this one woman & her daughter, were fucking awesome. The mother-daughter duo cooked in the grill and on slow nights (most nights), they would just hang out in the bar with me and smoke cigarettes, talking. The daughter & I got along great because we had much in common, mostly due to the fact that we're both laid-back tomboys. The mother was cool as shit & laid back, a retired pothead, but remained a pothead in her heart. We would joke around, make each other laugh, play practical jokes, goof off, tell nostalgic stories about our stupid antics, you know - shootin' the shit (don't know why we ever got paid, really). And I'm the shoot the shit kind of gal so those endlessly entertaining nights are missed by me since they've quit. 

The daughter had gotten a new job, but drops in every now & then to hang out in the bar. Her mother, on the other hand, had to stop working because she started having back issues flare up from a previous car accident. She ended up having back surgery nearly a week ago and during the surgery, she had a stroke followed by several seizures. This, of course, frightened everyone, but as of right now, she's at home & recovering. So I decided to bake her a special batch of cupcakes to help aid in the recovery. 

I knew I wanted to make her MICHELOB LAGER cupcakes because that's what she would drink whenever she got off work. She would clock out at 10:00PM and sit at the bar, chain smoking, laughing and joking, and drinking bottle after bottle after bottle of Michelob Lager. She was the only person to every drink the stuff. My boss hasn't even stocked the stuff since she hasn't been around because of her back.

I had a different cake recipe for Irish Car Bombs and thought that I'd substitute Lager for Guinness. The hard decision was what I should make for a frosting. I originally figured a Bailey's buttercream would be the way to go because it's the safest, even though I didn't agree with the flavor combination. A chocolate cake is a bit on the dense side to me and I thought a Bailey's buttercream would just be dense on dense, let alone an overpoweringly sweet dense. I was also desperate to try something new since I've made two frostings with Bailey's in it. But, like I said, I was just going to go with it because it was the safest. 

When I went to the grocery store to buy the Lager, I saw on the shelf above it, MICHELOB HONEY LAGER and I immediately thought, "That's a bingooooo!" (INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS = fave Tarantino film). I jumped on the internet and came upon a recipe for a honey meringue-like frosting. I thought it would be perfect since the frosting was going to be light & airy, and have a more subdued sweet taste. It was exactly what I was looking for so I rushed home to start. 

The recipe's process was much like the Irish Car Bomb cupcakes, in that it was more grueling due to extra steps. I don't know if it's because it's a chocolate cake made from scratch or what, but it turned out excellent. I'm not one for chocolate - if I had the choice, vanilla will always be my pick because it's light & fluffier in texture, but this is one of the better chocolate cakes I've tasted in a while. It may be because of the light & fluffy frosting that counteracted it? I should have tried the cake by itself, but I like my first taste to be the finished product. I actually tasted no hint of beer in the cake, which somewhat disappointed me since that was the point of the whole cake. The recipe called for 8 oz, but I poured the entire bottle (12 oz) in the batch. If I  had poured any more, I fear the batter would have been too liquid-y.

R grading (B-): He actually gave me a decent critique. I couldn't believe it. He said that the cake was a bit too "chocolate-y", but thought that the frosting balanced it well. He also said, "the after taste is the best part", which I'm not entirely sure what that means, but it sounded like a compliment.

B grading (B+): And that was that. She seemed reluctant to try them, maybe because I told her they were "Michelob Lager" cupcakes?

The mother I baked them for loved them, but she loves everything that I bake so.. nothing to go on there. 

IRISH CAR BOMB CUPCAKES

A buddy of ours from AZ flew into town last night to stay with us for a week. It is always a pleasure having him and we look forward it to every time. Whenever he simply mentions that he's only thinking about flying in, we get excited and try to hurry him up. When we were picking him up at the airport at 11:00PM, I pulled into a parking space and played with my PANDORA for a bit to find something I was in the mood for. I was looking down and saw that Stuck in the Middle with You was playing and when I looked up at R in the passenger seat to say something, I saw that a dark figure was standing just 3 feet from the window behind him and ever-so-slowly lifted a lit cigar to his mouth.

I was initially startled, but burst into laughter when I realized that it was C. R stared at me like I was diseased for a moment, waiting for the punchline because he was oblivious to the scene behind him.

Now, R & I aren't big drinkers. We're more social & a special occasion type of drinkers and C being in town is considered a special occasion. I consider C a professional drinker, he strictly drinks beer. All types of beer and loves trying different beer. He used to travel a lot across the country for his job and whenever he was off duty, he'd roam around the city - getting to know the city from behind the scenes. He mostly frequented local breweries and is currently a big fan of STONE BREWERY in San Diego, CA. I consider all beers inedible so I really have no place in saying that Stone beers are too aggressive for me. Yuk. But I love their bottles.

Anyway, to celebrate C coming into town, I wanted to make an ARROGANT BASTARD cupcake, but when I found an Irish Car Bomb cupcake, I immediately thought it was the perfect cupcake for the occasion. Both C & R are full Irishmen and they're both loving and sociable drunks. It's funny watching R trying to keep up with C because he always ends up losing and getting more drunk than anticipated and hanging all over me by the end of the night while C is seemingly un-phased & still drinking. One memory I have of the two of them on a night out was a challenge made by, I don't know who, but it involved an irish car bomb. When the bartender put the shots and glasses of GUINNESS in front of him, I said "GO!" and started counting. C finished his in 3 seconds, literally, while R finished a few sips. 

In all fairness, R hates his first glass of Guinness. He always says the first glass of Guinness is too bitter for him, but any & all after that is easy. I don't know how he can call himself an Irishman to be honest. LOL

If I had to do it all over again, the only change I would make is to add the entire bottle of Guinness instead of the one cup called for. The Guinness cake's flavor was too subdued for the Jameson's ganache and Bailey's frosting flavors, in my opinion. I also would double the frosting recipe because the amount in the recipe frosted a few more than half of the cakes. I was a bit frustrated with this recipe because it was more than just your typical, blend, bake & frost recipe. The ganache filling was an extra step that made the process seem endless. It wasn't difficult, just grueling. When I was done coning the cakes, I almost trashed the buggers because I thought the cupcake corer I bought made too big of a core. I thought ganache would pour out and make more of mess than anything else. BUT after all is said & done, I was pleased with the end results because I generally don't like chocolate anymore.

OH! And my icing gun fucking broke on me midway through frosting. I couldn't open the damn thing to refill it with icing and cracked down the middle while trying to. I was royally ticked, but not really since you get what you pay for and I only payed $5 for it. I'm gonna buy me the reusable frosting bags, believing they won't freaking break.

R grading: B- 

B grading (B): She thought the frosting was too sweet. I thought so too, but thought that it complemented great since the cake & ganache were a tad more on the bitter side.

C thought the flavor resembled a car bomb a lot and because he has eaten so may, claimed that I was going to give him diabetes.
Mom didn't get to try the cupcakes this week. Dad ate two before they left to go bowling and Grammy had one, but wanted one more when she was done. So, mom was disappointed when the weekly four cupcakes were gone. Almost malevolent, really. So, I set three more car bombs aside to drop off for her. Before I left, dad requested a dozen White Russian cupcakes to take with him to a Superbowl party on Sunday. I thought White Russians were a tad more on the girly side, especially when standing next to the Superbowl, but whatever. I'm glad to do it. One dozen is nothing, really.