Beer Me, You Sweet Thing!

There are just far too many amazing recipes that involve alcohol in some way: beer can chicken, Jack Daniel's BBQ, rum cake. It's a beautiful thing. Cupcakes just makes since to be a part of this genre.

I was intrigued by the concept of a beer cupcake with the frosting serving as the slice of fruit. Our 12-year-old was torn between being intrigued and pure shock. "Real beer? Like what you and dad drink. In the cupcake??"

Well yes, but the alcohol bakes off. No need to card him before he has one.

The recipe suggested either Corona and lime (not in this house) or Blue Moon and orange (wheat beer; now that's a winner.) The Blue Moon ended up being substituted for my new favorite beer: Longboard by Kona Brewing. This is about the smoothest wheat beer I have yet to encounter and I could not wait to combine it with my favorite form of food: cupcakes.

To be honest, while I was measuring out ingredients and lining them up on the counter I was glad I chose to measure out the beer first. There was more than one or two pauses to contemplate the recipe and "taste check" the beer.

The only concerning part of the recipe was the combining of the milk and beer prior to addition to the batter. I held off on the combining part as I suspected curdling. This was a good technique because half way through adding the beer-milk, which was done in alternating amounts with the flour, curdling did begin. I'm just glad I use soy milk.

Let's take a moment and hop back to the start of this shindig: creaming the butter and sugar.

Maybe it is a little gross or maybe it is a baker thing, but I am in love with creamed butter and sugar. The slightly savory taste of butter in a silken fluffed form, sweetened by the sugar - that's what heaven is made of. Seriously, I believe that.

My spouse recently made this bit of heaven better, which I did not think could happen. While at our local bulk supply store, he happened upon a 10 pound bag of sugar that was labeled as containing no-GMOs. Yes, we are one of those families. Better yet, the non-GMO sugar happened to be raw cane sugar.

I have never tasted something so pure and clean as butter creamed with raw cane sugar. This was delightful and I can honestly tell the difference in the taste of the cakes as I did use the raw sugar in a batch of vanilla cakes. Amazing.

 So together went my ingredients and the batter was scooped into a pastry bag then squished into the little cups, ready to bake.

The kid wandered back and forth between me in the kitchen and his father in the living room. When you are twelve it can be difficult to decide between baking and spray painting the wheels for the family RC truck. Good thing the living room, kitchen and back porch are all contained within 10 feet as this makes keeping up with both activities much easier.

One of the moments contributed to the cupcakes coincided with the mostly cooled cupcakes getting a second dose of beer via soaking. He stopped to watch me poke the last couple of cupcakes with a toothpick and then, when I picked up the measuring cup and brush, asked "What's that? Is that more beer? You're not brushing them with beer. Are you? No, I don't believe you. You're messing with me."

I'd never. Except if it were entertaining.

Yes, I truly was brushing the cakes with a beer soak. Then they cooled and settled while I whipped up some lovely lime buttercream. I felt inspired to be colorful so the buttercream got a couple dollops of color gel and then a sprinkling of green sugar.

I will say, these were really good. The beer flavor was not there, only the wheat-ness as a smooth hang-about flavor. The lime was a bright contrast. This recipe is a keeper!

I do recommend keeping the beer and milk separated as long as possible. I made this recipe twice, once with Blue Moon and once with Longboard. The Blue Moon round I did combine early but did not look for curdling. I did notice the cake was a bit more dense though.

When soaking cupcakes, be sure to provide as many holes as possible to allow for maximum impact. Soak heavily! You will be surprised by how little this process affects the moisture of the cake but how much it will assist the flavor. Be sure to let the cakes cook thoroughly to aid the soaking.

With a Lime Twist

I have not so patiently waited for a certain fruit to be in season. For the past couple of months a recipe for Key Lime Cupcakes has lain in wait. Finally, I discovered the box set out at the grocery store for the lovely little green devils and only one bag remained.

Pie runs a close second on my favorite desserts list. Mainly, meringue or pudding style pies are what I love. Apple pie is great, but give me Lemon Meringue or Key Lime and I'm in sweet tooth bliss.

This being the first cake tribute to pie that I have ever done, I felt compelled to truly understand what I was representing. I found a well-written article here. I believe I was just as surprised as the author to learn the pie's recipe originates with condensed milk arriving in the Keys.

Here's what I took from the origin story: Key Lime Pie is a celebration of change as well as a unique platform for self expression. What a fabulous tale to attempt to translate via cupcakes.

First, I needed to deal with the little limes.  In case you're unfamiliar, key limes are smaller than your ordinary limes used to chase tequila and not as tart. My obstacle for this recipe? Juice and zest. You ever try to zest something about the size of a cherry tomato?

And to those that have read previous postings: yes, I got some of my pinky knuckle but I don't think it made it all the way into the zest.

Juicing was a bit easier although still tough. It takes quite a few of these little buggers to get 2 tablespoons of juice. Thank goodness for the awesome countertop juicer I found online!

Next was the matter of a chocolate crumble base for the cake. The recipe called for chocolate cookies crumbled up. Unfortunately, the grocery store had every type of cookie but the one I needed. I did, however, find chocolate graham crackers! Good old fashioned sandwich bag and rolling pin never fails to produce marvelous crumbles.

Finally, with chocolate crumbles in the cups, I am ready to mix my batter and pipe it into the cups. I recently got the mixer bowl cover that provides for an easy way to add ingredients without spilling on the counter. The shield around the remaining areas of the bowl help keep any overly exuberant flour from poofing out and away. What a wonderful add-on; I'm sad I waited so long to get it! 

I love substitutions. Where applicable, I prefer to find healthy substitutions such as applesauce instead of oil. In this recipe, buttermilk was called for. Normally I would add some lemon juice to soy milk and be on my merry way. This time, however, I used plain yogurt as my substitute. I thought this would bring an added depth to the cake.  

Let me just say real quick: I was incorrect about the yogurt. Far too thick a substitute! The cake was super dense - although still tasted great. Also, yes, those are pepperoni slices on the counter; no, they are not for this recipe. I got hungry after all the zesting and juicing!

The recipe calls for a buttercream frosting flavored with more key lime juice. I decided I wanted cream cheese frosting. I love how smooth and silky it is. For some unspoken reason, I felt a lavender-pink a nice contrast to the flavor. This was a fun little treat.