St. Patrick's Day Cupcakes (Belated)

This is not a stoner food review, but I did a lot of baking today, so I've decided to blog about it because I worked hard, dammit!  Also because I had 66 posts and the numbers 6 and 66 make me uneasy, so I had to make a 67th post.  Not that I won't post more, because I will.  "And she never posted again…"

If you are wondering why I am posting this the day after St. Patrick's Day, it's because I slept through most of the day because I work nights and missed the date by a couple hours.  But, I had selected the recipes and bought the ingredients already, so I decided "fuck it!" and made the cupcakes anyway.  I have decided that St. Patty's is today and no one can convince me otherwise.  I even listened to the Cranberries and U2 and I am currently sipping a Guinness, so there!

Bailey's Irish Cupcakes:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/baileys-irish-cupcakes/

I found the recipe for these at allrecipes.com and followed the recipe to the letter, except for the fact that I omitted the almond extract, because my experience is that almond extract overpowers the other flavours.  The cook suggested whipped cream or Buttercream frosting but I thought, since they are Baileys cupcakes, I'll top them with Baileys icing.  I found the recipe for the Baileys icing in the Southern Food section of about.com:

http://southernfood.about.com/od/cupcakerecipes/r/chocolate-stout-cupcakes.htm

I'm not sure what is Southern about a recipe that is so clearly Irish.  You'd think it would be nothing but Twinkie cupcakes and Fried Green Tomatoes there.  I guess it's because a lot of Americans have Irish ancestry or something like that.

Taste: They are pretty yummy, but without the icing I can barely taste the Baileys.  The icing is delicious and tastes exactly like Baileys, only in icing form.  They have kind of a weird taste, but they still taste good.  Maybe it's just a unique taste.  The texture is a bit firm and flat for a cupcake, but still moist and cakey enough that I have no complaints.

Chocolate Stout Cupcakes:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/dave-lieberman/chocolate-stout-cupcakes-recipe.html

This one is from Food Network and it was created by Dave Lieberman.  The recipe called for cream cheese icing but, since I wanted to share with my brothers (who don't like cream cheese), I decided to use Baileys icing again, which makes for less work.  In the end, I had just enough icing to ice both sets of cupcakes, so that worked out nicely.

I think the Baileys icing works better than the cream cheese icing would have because in the cook's pre-recipe blurb, he wrote that he wanted the icing to look like the foam that lines the top of a mug of Guinness, but, as you can see in my picture, Guinness foam is not white, but a very light brown, so a Baileys icing works much better for imitating the look of a mug of Guinness.

How does it taste, you ask?  I'll tell you!  The icing is buttery and has that strong taste of Baileys, but mixed with the cake, I can taste a hint of banana.  The cake itself, without icing, tastes chocolatey and rich.  You can also faintly taste the yeast and hops of the Guinness.  The texture is moist and spongey, utterly perfect.

I must say, it feels very weird to write this sober (or mildly sober, considering the fact that I just drank a can of Guinness).  There is more clarity, but also more insecurity.

Happy St. Patty's day, everyone, and even if in your mind you think St. Patrick's day was yesterday (which is ridiculous), you shouldn't feel a lick of shame when you hoist a few (or a lot) tonight in celebration of the absurd thing that is life!  I sure won't!

What's happening lately

Current musical phase: ABBA

I was obsessed with them in childhood, and since I burned them to my iPod yesterday, I haven't been able to play anything else.  Every once in a while it sounds like indie or techno, because they use a lot of synthesizer.  "SOS," "Gimme, gimme, gimme," "Voulez-vous," "Does your mother know" and "Thank you for the music" are masterpieces. 

ABBA is also a musical form.  Haha.

I thought I had caught the Owl City fever as well, and I listened to some of their songs, but I think it's just the song "Fireflies" that I like.  The rest is not very remarkable.

Current book:  The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

I haven't read that much yet, but so far it reminds me of 1984.

Current anime: Nadia: the Secret of Blue Water

Such an awesome anime.  I got into it because I heard my favourite Disney movie (Atlantis) was largely based on it (to the point of copying it).  Watching it now, I have to agree.

Milo = Jean
Kida = Nadia
Helga = Electra
Rourke = Gargoyle
Mole = Hanson

Both casts of characters live on a submarine most of the time.  Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water is longer, with more character development.  Also, the villains in Nadia are the Neo-Atlanteans, while the heroes are the surviving Atlanteans and the descendants of the Atlanteans.

The series is very imaginative and you can learn a lot about science from it, like in Star Trek.  It also kind of reminds me of Pokemon and Trigun.  Pokemon, because the villainous trio is pretty much exactly like Team Rocket, although Pokemon came later, so Pokemon copied this series.

Grandis = Jessie
Sanson = James
Hanson = Meowth (only human, and much more intelligent)

They have almost the exact same voices and appearances, although Sanson has a very aristocratic British drawl while James has more of a gay British accent.

It's also similar to Trigun, because of the animation style and the constant theme of whether it is worth it to be pacifist.  On the Nautilus, there are occasions when people have to die in order to defeat Gargoyle, and there is no other option.  Like Vash, Nadia is a pacifist throughout the entire series, and it costs her sometimes.  She is a lot more vocal about it, though.

Also, the villains (Neo-Atlanteans) are quite frightening for anime, which is refreshing.  They wear KKK hoods that are black (kind of like the Death Eater hoods) and army uniforms that are like the Nazi, Soviet and American soldier uniforms and white frowning masks.  These villains don't make speeches, fly around in silly machines and cackle evilly.  They shoot people, make nuclear weapons and believe in a superior race.  Yeah.  Get your kids to watch this one, parents!   I lost sleep watching the first few episodes with these villains.  They are creepy.  Those KKK hoods really scare me for some reason, and I'm not even black.

I've really enjoyed watching it so far.  Sometimes, I'll watch 3 or 4 in a night.  It is addicting.  But I'm still only on episode 25 and there are 39 altogether, so I'm about 2/3 through the series.  It doesn't seem to be very well known.  I guess because it's from 1990 (older than Pokemon!).  I highly recommend this series to people who like any of these shows/movies: Atlantis, Pokemon, Trigun and Star Trek. 

In conclusion, it is a combination of Disney's "Atlantis," "Pokemon," "Trigun," and "Star Trek."  But it is original in many aspects.


What I will be baking soon: St. Patrick's Day cupcakes

I will tell you how it goes.  They are green cupcakes with green sugar, white icing, green gummies made into shamrocks and Leprechaun hats made from green icing, Ritz crackers, marshmallows, M&Ms and Tootsie Rolls.  Go to the website if you want to try making it as well.  Warning: it was hard for a college student like me to find all the materials (my apartment is kind of understocked with obscure baking supplies and ingredients).

Here it is: http://hoosierhomemade.com/st-patricks-day-cupcakes-cupcake-tuesday/
 
Her version looks awesome.  The woman on this website seems very creative.  Wish me luck!  Luck of the Irish, that is!