My daughter recently turned nine. With a wife working full time and up to her eyeballs in research for her thesis, I told my daughter I'd plan her birthday party. I've thrown some successful shindigs in the past, so I thought this would be fun (and it was). This year must be the Year of Owl, as it's all she talked about for the months leading up to her big day. After scouring Pintest for ideas, we came up with several things to do during the party, which included a sleepover. My wife pinned some ideas my way too, which made the planning process all the easier. Add my parents into the mix to help tie up the loose ends and we were ready to par-tay.
Pinata: Before & After
Brooke really wanted an owl pinata at her birthday. Owl party themes aren't all the rage these days, but I did find a huge one at Party City, but it was damaged. When I was a kid, my parents made the pinatas we had at our birthday parties. So I figured, what the heck, I can do that. I found a "recipe" for an owl pinata at this website, which made it much easier to do. Since I usually procrastinate, I actually started this a few days early, as the process requires time for the paper mache to dry. I tweaked the instructions a bit, and used the colors from my daughter's school instead.
Once it was complete, we filled it with nine bags of candy (thanks mom). There were nine girls at the party, and each got three swings at the owl. On the ninth girl's final swing, the owl dropped from his perch and candy spilled everywhere. It timed out perfectly.
Painting time
In an effort to encourage some creativity (and eat up some time), my wife suggested everyone do a painting. We both read up on how to paint owls. I got each girl a canvas square (you can find these probably anywhere, but I got our's at Hobby Lobby). We squeezed out ample amounts of acrylic paint and let the girls' creative juices flow. We ended up with some wonderful works of art.
Owl cupcakes
What's a party without sweet treats? My mom and Brooke baked cupcakes the morning of the big day. Each girl got her own, along with some icing, candy corn, M&M's, and miniature Oroes to create their own owl cupcake. Some went with just an all-candy topping which didn't come close to resembling an owl, but that was okay, as it was all part of the fun. Those are just a few of the things we did before winding things down for the night. All in all, I think birthday number nine ended up being a memorable one from the planning process through the party itself.
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.
