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Sunday, June 3, 2012

Body Slam Your Taste Buds

By Kevin Hunsperger
@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter


Okay, I'll admit, this isn't really a wrestling related blog, but I'm going to connect them.  Go figure.  I recently participated in a fundraising event for the local Kiwanis Club.  It's called 100 Men Who Cook.  Last year, I dressed like a wrestler and made Chicken a la Jericho.  This year, I baked Irish Cupcakes, thinking of both Hornswoggle and Sheamus as I did it.


I got so many requests for the recipe, I've decided to write up a blog about it.  First and foremost I must give credit where credit is due.  I got this recipe from my friend and coworker Emily Finnegan.  People at the fundraiser really enjoyed the treats and asked me what made them Irish.  My response... the whiskey in the ganache, which got a lot of thumbs up and smiles.


So, here's the recipe.


For the cupcakes:

1 cup Guinness
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (Dutch-process if you want them to be really dark chocolatey!)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

Preheat the oven to 350--prepare pan either with liners or grease and flour (it says it makes 24, but it made 32 for me)

Melt butter with the beer in a sauce pan over medium heat; bring to a simmer. Whisk in cocoa powder until smooth. Allow to cool slightly

In a large bowl whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt together.

Beat the eggs and the sour cream together until well blended. Add the beer/butter/cocoa mixture and beat to combine. Add the flour mixture and beat briefly just to combine--do not overbeat. 

Fill the cupcake liners 3/4 full; bake for about 17 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool completely to room temperature. 



For ganache:

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
2/3 cup heavy cream
1 to 2 teaspoons Irish whiskey (I used 4!)

Bring cream to a boil in a saucepan; pour boiling cream over chocolate. Add whiskey and allow to stand for 1-2 minutes. Whisk until smooth. Allow to cool slightly until it thickens, about 10-15 minutes.

You can use an apple corer or small knife to cut out the centers of the cupcakes and fill them with the ganache, or you can just use it to frost them.





As you can tell from the pictures, the cupcakes I made are much smaller than a traditional cupcake.  Since I was cooking for 100 people, I used the mini cake liners.  All told, this recipe was enough for about 106 mini cupcakes if you're going that route.  But because they were so small, I did not use the apple corer for the ganache.  Also, I probably could have used more ganache on the cakes I had, as I ended up with extra at the end.



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