Saturday, May 30, 2009

Hot Chocolate with Baileys

Lately I've been in a cupcake baking kick yet I don't really want to bake the standard chocolate cupcake with vanilla frosting so I've started to branch out more. An idea came to me to try to recreate a classic drink, Hot Chocolate with Baileys, in cupcake form - I figured that if the flavor combination works for a drink, then it definitely should work for cake! I took inspiration for the recipe from a new cookbook that I picked up at Williams-Sonoma recently called Cupcakes.

Here is the basic recipe that I used:
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup Baileys
1/2 cup coffee, at room temp
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temp
1/2 cup granular sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg, at room temp

Preheat oven to 350. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a bowl. In a small bowl, combine Baileys and coffee. In the stand mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter & sugars until light and fluffy (2-3 minutes). Add the egg and beat until combined. Add the flour mixture in 3 parts, alternating with the Baileys mixture in 2 parts, beating on low speed until just combined.
Fill the cups about 3/4 full. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out cleanly, 22-24 minutes.

This recipe made 13 cupcakes for me, although had I not overfilled a few of the cups, it most likely would have made 14.

Now during the process of making the cupcakes, I faced the difficult decision of what sort of frosting I should use. Although the cupcakes have a chocolate base to them, the Baileys is definitely the dominating flavor so really it came down to 2 choices. I could stick with the chocolate buttercream - thus recreating the Hot Chocolate w/ Baileys idea - or I could switch it up and do a coffee buttercream and have the flavors of Coffee w/ Baileys. I opted to do half & half! I also tried out a new (to me!) buttercream recipe from the cookbook and although skeptical, it ended up being a delicious change from my normal recipe! It wasn't as sweet as my typical buttercream which complimented the cupcakes well, although the consistency of the coffee buttercream didn't seem quite right, but may have had something to do with me halving the recipe.

Here are the finished products!
Baileys Cupcakes

baileys cupcakes 2

baileys cupcakes 3

For any cupcake fans out there, I highly recommend Cupcakes by Shelly Kaldunski. It has some great ideas and fabulous photos to provide inspiration!

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Cox Arboretum in May

One of the great things about living in Dayton is the accessibility of many parks. One of my favorites is the Cox Arboretum because you can find so many different plants and wildlife on the grounds. Not to mention it's just a beautiful place to take a walk. Here are just a few photos from our visit there on Memorial Day.

Bells

Purple Spray

yellow iris

Monday, May 25, 2009

Weekend Visitors

This weekend we were fortunate enough to have friends come visit us here in Dayton. As we've found out in the Air Force, you make friends all over the country and then get to enjoy catching up when you can make it back to the same city again. We decided to take a walk down out the Cox Arboretum and show them a little bit of Dayton.

Friends

Standing Tall

Looking Down

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Yesterday & Today

Yesterday, a good friend & I took our kids to one of the local metroparks in Dayton. My plan was to take some photos of the children (4 under the age of 2.5!) while enjoying the beautiful weather we've been having! Well, Miss A really didn't want much to do with the camera, while Mr. J had enough energy for all of us and kept me moving! I'm still editing photos from the day, but I had to work on these 2 first.

It's amazing how a rock can fascinate children!
Friends

Sweet

And since Miss M ended up spending the whole morning in the stroller, I decided to take some photos of her in one of her many summer dresses today and as usual she was all smiles!

All Smiles

It's been awhile

Just sharing a quick photo of Miss A. Hopefully a more expansive post with photos of what we've been up to this week will follow later today!

Happy Girl

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Father's Day?

I know that tomorrow is Mother's Day, but I think this photo proves that there's something special between a father and a daughter.

Father - Daughter bond

And just one of Miss A because she's just too cute not to share :)

Close Up

Friday, May 8, 2009

3 Months

It's amazing how quickly time goes by these days. Somehow Miss M is already 3 months old! On wednesday she had her 2 month well baby check (yes, she's 3 months old but I was a little late in scheduling the appt!) and is now just under 14lbs and over 25 inches long. Along with the 2 month visit came immunizations but even with feeling a little under the weather she is still a happy baby. We had an impromptu photo session today and here are 2 shots from it - more will follow later when I can fully edit them!

3 Months

3 Months II

A New Creation

Last weekend we hosted a bbq for our friends here in Dayton, so I decided to try out a new cupcake idea.  Carlos loves lemon cake - especially when filled with lemon curd - but since the 2 of us usually can't (or maybe shouldn't is a better term) eat a whole cake, I wanted to try to make it into a cupcake.  

Here's what I came up with - Lemon cake, filled with lemon curd, and topped with vanilla buttercream.  
Lemon Cream

Lemon Cream 2

Lemon Cream 3

Friday, May 1, 2009

Spring Tulips

This past saturday I had the chance to join in on a photography shoot at the Wegerzyn Gardens here in Dayton.  I really enjoyed having a little time to photograph some flowers and wildlife and just enjoy the peacefulness of the garden.  These are just a few shots I took that day:

Field of Tulips

Close Up

Looking Up Part II