Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

Everybody loves cupcakes. They are fun, cute, and endlessly customizable. Cupcakes with beer and hard liquor = even better. Although I  do love a good cupcake like the next person, they are truly the remedial treat of the patisserie world. If you can make cake batter, you can make cupcakes. So it irks me that so many classically trained pastry chefs have settled by just making cupcakes, and only cupcakes day in and day out. We don't even make cupcakes in my patisserie program because they are so simple and many of my chefs have mocked said cupcake makers. So since cupcakes are so simple in nature, but so fun to make, one should thrive for perfection and come up with creative flavor combinations that really can outshine a plain chocolate, vanilla, or red velvet cupcake.

Adam's birthday was on Monday, I offered to make him a birthday treat. I wanted to try something I don't bake often, and then a light switch went off. I thought about chocolate stout and how its used in baking and then remembered Adam's obsession with Guinness and it was settled, my birthday treat was born.

A Guinness cupcake with Bailey's Irish Cream Buttercream. And it was delightful.

"Eggnog" Bundt Cake

I was really looking forward to making another eggnog flavored cake and after searching for what seemed like forever, actually found a recipe that didn't use a prepared box cake mix or instant pudding (yuck!). As I prepared my mise en place [*which in french translate to "everything in place"] I realized the eggnog had a use by date of that day. So, instead of chancing it- I just replaced the eggnog with heavy cream (which the recipe called for in that instance) and my own idea of adding an extra egg yolk to up try and still capture an eggnog flavor.

Well, it didn't quite taste like eggnog. It was more of a spiced bundt cake, so we'll just call it a holiday bundt cake. Don't be put off though, it was still very good! With cinnamon, nutmeg, dark rum, and orange flavors- no one really missed the eggnog.

Bananas Foster Banana Bread

Banana bread is one of those things that's always good. Whether its piping hot and fresh out of the oven, smeared with butter or cream cheese, or just plain at room temperature- its always delicious. And when there are a lovely bunch of super-ripe bananas sitting in a fruit bowl on my kitchen table, you know I'm going to bake banana bread with them! Extra ripe bananas are key for an amazing banana bread. The ones that are really soft, brown, and aesthetically unappealing make for the best concentrated banana flavor.

Well, then I got to thinking about how I could make one that's not just any ol' banana bread. Somehow it hit me to make one that resembles the classic dessert, bananas foster. That bubbling brown sugar caramel and spiced rum essence would be great on this banana cake bread, since its so yummy on just plain bananas.