Sugar Swings! Serve Some: April 2012

Sunday, April 29, 2012

blue moon beer blondies & cupcakes....!


....so since cinco de mayo is coming up! what a fun holiday and i love how lots of beer and alcohol infused foods start showing up all over the place this time of year....

....and it's also the season for spring like beers....so why not make some beer blondies and cupcakes?!


...this is another super simple recipe that i found here which was inspired by this recipe....it called for 2/3 cup of light colored beer so i used blue moon which is a belgian style wheat beer (you could also use corona or similar too)....


...i also replaced the lemon and lime zest in the recipe with orange zest since this beer has flavors of coriander and orange (so it fits in nicely with flavor)...


.....for the icing i also used the beer for the liquid....add confectioners sugar to about 1/3 cup of the beer and the zest of 1/2 of an orange....


....add enough sugar to get a good glaze consistency...


....and i've made blue moon beer cupcakes before here from scratch.....but these are super simple since i had frozen vanilla cupcake batter that i wanted to use.....just bake up normally then "inject" them with about 2 teaspoons of the beer! (you could also brush on while the cupcakes are warm and let the beer soak in)...the frosting is left over swiss meringue buttercream....i actually experimented and added a little beer (maybe 1/8 of a cup) to about 2 cups of this frosting...it made it too liquidy so needed to add some confectioners sugar to firm it up


....cut up the blondies into squares once the glaze has set.....and you get some really tasty beer blondies! (these are actually more like a tea cake versus dense like brownies or blondies---which actually was a nice surprise - very very tasty and moist!)


...and also some really simple beer cupcakes topped with swiss meringue buttercream with a little beer flavor as well and topped with some orange zest....adding the beer directly too the cupcake made them moist and the beer flavor is not at all overpowering.


 ....i am just getting back from a solo trip to amsterdam for work, so still recovering from that (what a beautiful city!) .....but definitely make one of these beer desserts for a grown up party....the cupcakes were good, but i have to say the blondies may be one of my favorite desserts to date!..thanks for stopping by and hope everyone has a super great week!

Sunday, April 22, 2012

birthday devil dog cakes.....!


....so the biggest kid around here turned 42 (!!!!) this past friday on 4/20 (interestingly he shares his birthday with napoleon, george take [aka mr sulu], hitler, and joey lawrence) and it's also the big "smoking" day 420--who knew??....some super big birthday buddies right?

....and it seems i do way too many cupcakes around here....and most of the immediate family is pretty sick of them....

....so the request was for whoopie pies...last year he got sun and planet whoopie pies...this year the request was for traditional chocolate...which to me taste a lot like drakes devil dogs...they still make them but as a kid of the 70's and 80's those pre-made cakes from drakes, hostess, and tastykake were always around the house.....(and i've already talked about my love of hostess snoballs here and here!)

...so these are basically whoopie pies in "devil dog" shape....but the taste is pretty similar

add batter to zip lock bag, snip end off (not too large) and pipe out the shape
...the recipe for the chocolate whoopies and filling is really simple and from the marshmallow fluff site....super simple, easy and yummy so i've never even tried a different recipe

once baked add marshmallow filling


...and throw some sprinkles on top to make them a little more festive and you get some really easy and fun birthday devil dogs!


....and happy birthday to my best friend!....can't wait to make you whoopie pies for the rest of your birthdays to come....i can definitely say life with you is pretty darn awesome!

Sunday, April 15, 2012

cherry blossom cupcakes....!

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...so i am loving how early spring came this year on the east coast......the flowering trees are totally doing there thing right about now so of course cherry blossom cupcakes were needed....

cherry tree from the backyard!

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...these are made with a doctored box mix (vanilla butter mix--add an extra egg and 1 cup of buttermilk in place of the liquid and keep the oil the same)...also had some cherry chips so added those in too--to go with the "cherry" theme...

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cherry blossoms are made with vanilla tootsie rolls....nuke them in the microwave in 5 second intervals until pliable and you roll it out flat....(it works well, try it!)...the flowers are cut with a mini cookie cutter and the blossom buds are just made by hand...paint with some diluted food gels with a paint brush....

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...if the color is too much... just dip the brush in plain water and it will dilute it....add a center with an edible food writer and since the totsie roll is pliable....bend the edges to look like the cherry blossom....

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...the icing is a recipe for black and white cookie icing.....and it worked out great for this since i wanted the icing to be flat and to fill in the cupcake top evenly....stems/bark is made with chocolate candy wafers/melts....

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....and you get a bunch of cherry chip vanilla cupcakes with some edible cherry blossom toppers! Spring has sprung, lovin' that so much!



Saturday, April 7, 2012

Where the Wild Things Are (Day 7 of Peep Pop Week + Giveaway!) (updated with winners!)

Where the Wild things Are Peep Pops

...so we're finally here....Day 7 of Peeps Week here.....i can't believe you all stuck it out with me all week!

....in celebration of all those peeps on the shelves this time of year.....it was 7 days of nothing but peep pops with a different theme every day here.....!!!

7 DAYS OF PEEPS POPS!!!





DAY 6 was KISS Peep Pops

and finally Day 7 is Where the Wild Things Are Peep Pops!

Please don't go. We'll eat you up. We love you so.

Where the Wild Things Are Peep Pops

....this is one of my all time fav kids books.....and we have a max at home too---and i'm not saying he was named for the character in the book.....but he is pretty good at wild rumpus'ing! 

...so i really hope you enjoyed my week of Peeps!....I had a lot of fun and tried to include Peeps themes across a bunch of different genres....music, kids shows, artwork, sports, geekness, books.....i could have gone on and on though....(although it may be quite awhile before i do any peeps themed posts again!)

....and lookie at some fun peep pops made out there in the web world....!


zombie peep pops from Ang from Tribute Sweets!...can zombies be cute? ('cause these guys surely are!)...you are THE best Ms. Ang! for reals...!


and christi from love from the oven always has some pretty awesome peeps recipes to share....


...and ali from gimme some oven also has some killer peep pops as well!


....and look at these awesome pikachu peeps from the infamous bakerella!

AND as a thank you for visiting and checking out all the peep pops ALL WEEK....i'm giving the Famous Artwork Peep Pops to one of you....

Artwork Peep Pops

...all you need to do is leave a comment on this post with your fav peep pop of the week....follow this blog for another entry and leave a comment that you do, and follow me on FB for another entry, and leave another comment---if you already do those things, just leave comments and say so....

.....i don't care where you live---so i'll get them to you---although i'm not shipping them in an icepack---so hopefully it's not super hot where you live :)  Giveaway ends on April 15th - so your comment has to be dated by then and importantly----leave a way to contact you back--like an email!! i'll pick a random comment using random.org

--the winners (yeah decided to give away 2 sets of peep pops!) are Erin and HannahW---congrats to you both!!!!--contact me if i haven't emailed you already)

...THANK YOU again for following along this week, i really did have fun with this (although I may never look at a marshmallow bunny peep quite the same way....!)