Top o’ the mornin’ to ye all…..and a Happy St. Paddy’s Day! Help ye’selves to one of my wicked Irish Moss Cupcakes! Wash it down wit a pint of ale and be merry! Today we are all Irish!

What is tat ye all are sayin’? It’s not St. Patrick’s Day today? It’s the 18th already? How can tat be? I started workin’ on tis post so much earlier but……aaaw…ye all caught tis lazy Irish colleen nappin again. ‘Appens more and more these days. And it was all tat ‘orrible Murphy fault anyways I tell ye. He has been hangin’ around here for te better part of tree weeks now – messin’ wit me ‘puter! And messin’ someting bad wit me head too! Well tats my excuse for tat anyway.  I am hopin’ tat now he will leave me be and go chat up some other milk maids…… honestly ye’d all think he’d kissed te blarney stone wit all his blabbering! I won’t miss him one little bit I tell ye!

So I’m late, well just a wee bit for St. Patrick’s Day anyway, but in some parts of the world it is STILL the 17th so let me get on with this post quickly so I can at least not hang my head too low in shame. I really have had endless problems with my computer and today was a very bad day! But I seem to have it going so while things are looking up….here goes!

Last year I came across some cupcakes called Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes and I loved the sound of the ingredients although I felt that the name was rather offensive, even though there is a recognized alcoholic drink by the same name and many many links to cupcakes made from the same three alcohols used in the cocktail. So, I decided that I was going to bake the family some of these for St. Patrick’s Day this year (leaving the whiskey out of a bit of the ganache for the little boys). But, so as not to offend any readers all over the world who may have been affected in some way by the many acts of terrorism involving that despicable cowardly act,  I decided to give my cupcakes a rather delightful name more suited to the day. I asked on facebook for ideas and one Irish friend came up with the name Dublin Moss Cupcakes. I rather liked that and decided to call mine Irish Moss Cupcakes…what do you think?

Now…..strictly speaking, there is absolutely nothing Irish about my cupcakes. My hubby could not find single cans of Guinness at our local bottle store and neither of us are ale drinkers so I decided to use a bottle of local Milk Stout that I had on the shelf in my pantry. Come to think of it now though I know a few leprechauns who would have relieved us of the other 5 cans! We did not have any Jameson Irish Whiskey in this house but we did have a bottle of J&B and of course there was no Bailey’s Irish Cream Liqueur either. There to save the day however was half a bottle of our delicious South Africa Amarula Cream liqueur in the cupboard So hey, these are a real twist on the original but let me tell you they are delicious! And because we are ALL Irish on St Patrick’s Day these are being passed on to you as my Irish Moss Cupcakes. Tell me that makes sense in an Irish kind of way please!

IRISH MOSS CUPCAKES 

(inspired by and adapted from Sugar & Snapshots Blog)
Yield: 22 Cupcakes

Ingredients

Stout Chocolate Cupcakes

250g Butter
250ml Cocoa Powder
5ml Good Quality Instant Coffee Granules
250ml Stout beer or Guinness
625ml Cake or All-Purpose Flour
10ml Baking Powder
5ml Salt
500ml Sugar
2 Extra Large Eggs
250ml Buttermilk or Greek Style Yoghurt (Sour cream could also be used)
5ml Vinegar

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180°C
Line two muffin pans with paper cupcake liners

Melt the butter, stout and sifted cocoa powder together in a small saucepan over medium heat or in the microwave on high and whisk until smooth. Set aside and allow to cool while you make the batter

Sieve the flour, baking powder and salt together, add the sugar and set aside

In the bowl of your electric mixer beat the eggs and buttermilk together until smooth

Add the vinegar and mix in

Slowly pour the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture with the mixer running on a low speed then turn up to medium until all combined

Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed until just incorporated. Don’t over mix at this stage

Pour the batter into the cupcake liners, filling each one about ¾’s full

Bake for about  15 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean

Allow to cool in the pans for 5-10 minutes  then transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool completely before frosting

Whiskey Chocolate Ganache

125 ml Cream
120g Dark Chocolate (I used 70% cocoa solids) roughly chopped
15ml butter at room temperature
50ml Whiskey

Heat the cream in the microwave until just below boiling point
Place butter and chocolate in a small mixing bowl
Pour the hot cream over and leave to stand for 2 minutes before whisking together until shiny and smooth
Add the whiskey and whisk in. Set aside until needed, whisking every now and again. As it cools it will thicken in consistency

Buttercream Frosting

3 Egg whites
2ml Salt
185 ml Vanilla Flavoured Castor Sugar ( I always have this – fill a Consol or Mason Jar with Castor Sugar, split a Vanilla Pod and stick it into the sugar and seal. Refill as needed with sugar)
375g Butter (at room temperature)
125ml Icing (Confectioners) Sugar – sieved
80 ml  cream Liqueur (I used Amarula of course)

In the metal bowl of your mixer whisk the egg whites and salt until frothy

Add the sugar and whisk on medium speed until incorporated

Now place your mixer bowl over a smallish saucepan of barely simmering water – the base must not touch the water

Continue whisking with a balloon whisk by hand until the sugar has dissolved into the egg whites and it is starting to look like meringue – test by rubbing a bit of the whites between your fingers and it is ready if no grains are felt. It doesn’t take too long to reach this stage – maybe 5 minutes

Return the bowl to the mixer stand and whisk on high until the mixture has cooled and is almost tripled in volume. It needs to be glossy and at the stiff peak stage

Divide the butter into 4 and add one portion at a time, whisking well to incorporate between each addition – it will thin the frosting down a bit but will build up again to a fluffy consistency

Add the icing sugar and beat in well

Pour in the liqueur and whisk well

I added a bit of green food colouring gel to make it a soft green shade

Fit a piping bag with a star nozzle and fill with the frosting

To decorate the cupcakes:

It seems that most people make a filling of the ganache by removing a scoop of each cupcake and piping in a bit of ganache but I was running late so just spread a thin layer of the cooled thickened ganache onto each cupcake with a spatula, allowed it to stand for 10 minutes and then piped the buttercream on top.

I have to say, this was the most amazing buttercream and I will most definitely use it often!

Enjoy! And I will be back as soon as I can with a delicious exotic mushroom and blue cheese risotto!

Happy week everyone! Almost Easter holidays and my two young hooligans will be invading my space again! Where does the time go?

browniegirl xx

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Finally! A very warm welcome to my brand new self hosted browniegirlblog site to you my fabulous reader! Thank you for finding your way over. I do hope that while you are here you will click on the Bloglovin’ link to the right of this post to sign up so that you never miss a post. A very special thank you once again to my friend and IT Ninja Fritz from Real Men Can Cook for all the hard work that he has put in to make this moment a reality! And thank you Jackie from Inspired by Food for the lovely header and the design work that you are still doing for me behind the scenes! I am deeply grateful to both these lovely people for all the fabulous help!

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Who doesn’t love a dense, moist, decadently dark, fudgey brownie? My tagline on this blog says “there is more to life than brownies….but not much!”

I think that chocolate cures just about anything! And yes, there is a reason that I am known as browniegirl……..and here it is! My signature dish Cheesecake Swirled Brownies – deliciously moist, heavy and fudgey. Delightful on their own straight out of the fridge….but best at room temperature a day or so after they have been baked. By this stage the texture has settled into darkly deliciously fudge like and moist. We love them as a dessert with a dollop of creme fraiche to cut through the richness and some fresh berries in season. But equally delicious with a scoop of Vanilla ice cream! Enjoy them however you choose to…..but do make these!

Cheesecake Swirled Chocolate Brownies

DECADENT DARK CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKE SWIRLED BROWNIES

a decadently dark, rich, fudgey and dense chocolate brownie, swirled with cheesecake. What more could you want?

Original Recipe taken from “Cookies & Brownies” by Alice Medrich; Adapted by me!

Recipe type: dessert

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Total time: 45 mins

Serves: 16 squares (depending how you cut them)

Ingredients

Brownie Layer:

125 grams Lurpak unsalted butter, cut into pieces

150 grams 80% dark chocolate, coarsely chopped

250 grams granulated white sugar

Fresh Vanilla Bean – split and seeds scraped out with the tip of a sharp knife

2,5ml pure vanilla extract

2 Jumbo Free Range eggs – at room temperature

90 grams Cake (or all purpose) Flour

2.5ml Salt

5ml Finely Grated Orange or Clementine Zest (optional)

Cream Cheese Layer:

250g Philadelphia Cream Cheese at room temperature

50ml Fresh Cream

70 grams granulated white sugar

2,5ml pure vanilla extract

1 Jumbo Free Range egg – at room temperature

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and place the rack in the center of the oven.

Melt a little regular butter then brush base and sides and line a 23 x 23 cm square baking pan with 2 sheets of baking paper across the bottom and up all four sides of the pan. The paper needs to come above the edges of the pan as you will use it to lift the baked brownies out of the pan. Brush the paper as well. Set aside.

In a large glass bowl melt the butter and chocolate in the microwave – you can do this over simmering water but I prefer the micro method. It only takes 1 -2 minute at about 50% power. Remove from microwave, stir well then stir in the sugar and vanilla extract and seeds and the zest if using.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well (with a wooden spoon) after each addition.

Stir in the sifted flour and salt and beat, with the wooden spoon, until the batter is smooth and glossy and comes away from the sides of the bowl (about one minute).

Remove 1/2 cup of the brownie batter, cover with cling film and set aside.

Pour the remainder of the brownie batter evenly into the prepared pan.

Then in the bowl of your mixer or processor (or with a hand mixer), beat the cream cheese & cream until smooth.

Add the sugar, vanilla and egg and blend until creamy and smooth.

Spread the cream cheese filling evenly over the brownie layer.

Spoon small dollops of the reserved brownie batter evenly on top of the cream cheese filling. Then with a table knife or wooden skewer, swirl the two batters a little bit (without mixing them together) to make a marbled effect.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 25 minutes or until the brownies just start to pull away from the sides of the pan and the edges are just beginning to turn golden.

Remove from oven and place pan on a wire rack to cool.

Once cool refrigerate the brownies (still in the pan covered with foil or cling film) for at least 2 hours but preferably overnight.

Once chilled, remove the brownies from the pan by lifting with the ends of the paper and transfer to a cutting board.

With a sharp hot dry knife, cut into 16 squares. It is a good idea to have a damp cloth handy to wipe your knife between cuts.

These brownies can be stored in the refrigerator for several days. Bring to room temperature before serving if you want the fudginess! Dust with icing sugar before serving.

Delicious with a scoop of ice cream or creme fraiche, mascarpone and fresh berries in season – or just alone straight from the container

browniegirl Notes

Don’t use a mixer when you make brownies….you don’t want to incorporate any air into the batter which will not result in fudgy dense brownies

Don’t use any leavening agent in your brownie mixture

Don’t over bake – You want your brownies to be a little bit moist in the middle when you take them out of the oven

Do use the best quality ingredients that you can afford to buy. These days you can get a very good comparable local cream cheese called Lancewood Superior (South Africa) which I have started using.

Pegs come in very handy in my kitchen. Use them to peg the paper firmly into place onto the edges of the pan. Once the batter is in the pan you can remove the pegs but if you use wooden pegs you can put the pan into the oven with the pegs attached

Enjoy!

browniegirl xx

This recipe was featured in Issue 13 of Crush! Online Magazine. If you are not already subscribed to this fabulous, classy food and wine magazine go on over and subscribe. It is free and is delivered monthly to your inbox!

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And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count.  It’s the life in your years 

~Abraham Lincoln

I came across a blog post a couple of nights ago that made me cry….that made me realize that so often we take our loved ones for granted….until they are no longer there. That there is no certainty to life and that life is, indeed, very fragile.

Jennifer Perillo, a fellow food blogger and tweeter , food editor and mom to two gorgeous girls, suddenly lost her beloved husband just a few short days ago. I felt an instant bond with Jennifer from In Jennie’s Kitchen and her girls because I lost my dad suddenly when I was just bigger than a toddler and he was a mere 36 years old. I don’t remember the wonderful man that he was. I only know him from photographs and the stories my mother and uncle would tell us. My amazing mother was both father and mother to my four siblings and myself.  I look back on my own married life and gaze at my hubby of 33 years and I realize how blessed I truly am….how blessed my little grandsons are that they still have their Papa to spend special times with. We need to treasure those times more, spend more time appreciating and valueing what we have been blessed with, not taking for granted that tomorrow will come. Two years ago that wake-up call came for us when my hubby was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident while on his way to work. Albeit held together in some parts with metal…we are so blessed to have him with us still….and rejoice in his life.

Jennie posted a recipe for this fabulous creamy peanut butter pie. You guessed it….it was Mikey’s favourite pie. And Jennie kept telling herself “Tomorrow. I will make it for him tomorrow” Sometimes, tomorrow doesn’t come. To honour her request that we make the pie for Mikey and celebrate his life today, to stand in solidarity and support for a grieving fellow blogger, woman and mother….here is my rendition of the pie for Mikey….

Creamy Dreamy Peanut Butter Pie for Mikey

original recipe from Jennifer Perillo

Serves 10 to 12

250g chocolate cookies – I used the dark oreos

120g butter, melted

120g finely chopped dark chocolate (I used a 62% Madecasse chocolate)

75ml finely chopped roasted salted peanuts

250ml Fresh Cream

250g Cream Cheese

250ml creamy-style peanut butter

250ml Icing sugar

397g can sweetened condensed milk

5ml vanilla extract

1/2 Lemon - juice only

Pulse or bash the cookies into fine crumbs.  Combine melted butter and cookie crumbs in a small bowl, and stir with a fork to mix well.  Press mixture into the bottom and 1-inch up the sides of a 23cm springform pan. 

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave.  Pour 3/4′s of it over the base of cookie crust and spread to the edges using an off-set spatula.  Sprinkle chopped peanuts over the melted chocolate. Place pan in the refrigerator while you prepare the filling.

Pour the cream into a bowl and beat using a stand mixer or hand mixer until stiff peaks form.  Transfer to a small bowl and store in refrigerator until ready to use. 

Place the cream cheese and peanut butter in a deep bowl.  Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy.  Reduce speed to low and gradually beat in the icing sugar.  Add the sweetened condensed milk, vanilla extract and lemon juice. Increase speed to medium and beat until all the ingredients are combined and filling is smooth and creamy.

Stir 1/3 of the whipped cream into the filling mixture (helps lighten the batter, making it easier to fold in the remaining whipped cream).  Fold in the remaining whipped cream.  Pour the filling into the prepared springform pan. 

Drizzle the remaining melted chocolate on top (optional) and refrigerate for three hours or overnight before serving.

The only tip that I have is that I would probably freeze this pie for about half an hour before cutting it…It is perfect in every other way

Here’s to you Jennie, your lovely girls, and your Mikey…..this evening we are going out to celebrate my hubby Don’s upcoming 60th birthday and we will raise a glass to you!

Have a good weekend everyone, love your loved ones! Cold and rainy weather has descended on Cape Town again..my garden is happy to get some rain water!

Hugs,

browniegirl xx

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Well now, who can resist an open invitation to join a crazy bunch of baking bloggers to submit an entry for a cupcake competition? When food24.com posted about the cupcake competition they are running, the entries started flooding in immediately, delicious little mouthfuls of cake and frosting….they get wilder and  more wonderful as the days wear on. It has been interesting to see what creative ideas  people come up with. I am a plain  jane type of girland was rather hesitant to submit my rendition. But here I am at the last  minute, yet again hehe with my little offering for the food24.com cupcake competition.

I  love cupcakes and I love traditional flavours. I have had a pretty successful little homebakes business going the past few years and cupcakes have always been popular. I have come a long way from those original cupcakes that I used to bake. Over the years I have perfected my recipe and it honestly is the easiest cake recipe that you can ever hope to find. I have blogged it before, many times. You can ring the changes so easily with it by changing the flavours, either of the cupcake, the frosting, or both!

Recently, when attending the Cape Town Good Food and Wine Show I was introduced to some  amazing gourmet soft toffees, wrapped in different candy striped wrappers and created by a family run company called Sweet Temptations. What amazing toffees, and such an exciting range of 17 flavours, ranging from creamy vanilla all the way through to cinnamon swirl and turkish delight…with lots of other delights in between. There is so much you can do with them. I had quite a few (blush) of the flavours in the range and had great plans for baking with them but sadly, they have all  mostly met an untimely end thanks to my love of sweet things! I did however rescue one of my favourite flavours and decided to use it  in my cupcake recipe. Do  make friends with these lovely folk on twitter They are running a competition where one of their followers will win a basket of their toffees when they get to 100 followers.

Anyway, on to my cupcakes…..

I  used my trusted recipe yet again, but this time I added the zest of half a ClemenGold to the cupcake together with 2 Tbs of some fantastic  NoMU drinking chocolate. If you are lucky enough to live in South Africa the awesome ClemenGold citrus has once again hit the shelves at Woolworths. Do yourselves a favour and go and buy some. I love them. And I love the NoMU drinking chocolate as well so combining these two flavours in  my cupcakes worked really very well. I brought the liquorice flavour into play by melting my toffee (sob) with a little bit of cream in  the microwave and I whipped it into  my buttercream frosting. Pure genius!!

EASY CITRUS CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES WITH SALTED LIQUORICE FROSTING

250ml Milk (I use ratio ¾ milk ¼ water)

60ml Coconut Oil (or sunflower oil)

500ml Cake Flour – sifted twice     

30ml NoMU Drinking Chocolate                                           

4 Jumbo Free Range Eggs

500ml White Granulated Sugar

10ml Baking Powder

5ml Vanilla Essence (I used the seeds from ½ Vanilla Pod)

Pinch Salt

5ml Brown Vinegar

Finely grated zest of half a ClemenGold

• Preheat Oven to 180 ^o C
• Line muffin trays with paper cups
• Boil Oil & Milk together (I do it in the microwave)
• Beat eggs & sugar together till pale & thick (about 5min on high)
•  Add the vinegar, zest & vanilla & beat in
• Sift flour, baking powder, drinking chocolate & salt together
• Fold gently into beaten egg mixture
• Add hot milk & oil mixture
• Fold all together gently
• Pour about an ice cream scoop amount into each paper cup. They should be about 3/4 full
• Bake for 12 -15 minutes until a cocktail stick comes out clean
• Turn out onto wire cooling racks to cool completely before frosting 

Makes about 36 muffin sized cupcakes

SALTED LIQUORICE BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

500ml Icing Sugar (confectioners sugar)

125ml Butter

5ml Good quality Sea Salt Flakes (I use Maldon)

1 x 60g Liquorice Toffee bar – cut into small pieces

25ml Fresh Cream

Tiny drop of Black Gel Food Colouring

Place the toffee and cream into a glass bowl and microwave at short bursts until the toffee is melted and incorporated into the cream. It makes a thick paste. Stir in the salt flakes

Beat the butter until it is very pale and creamy.

Add the sugar (in two lots) beating well  after each until the icing is thick and white

Add the liquorice mixture and beat all together.

Add a bit of milk to thin to a piping consistency

Add a tiny drop of Black Gel Food Colouring to get a good greeny black colour but not dark. I use a cocktail stick that I dip into the gel and what was on the tip of the stick was enough to colour the frosting.

Pipe or spread onto cooled cupcakes and decorate as desired.

YUM!!! Everyone loved  these cupcakes.  My most discerning  testers are Ty and Jay and they definitely confirmed them as winners!

Editors note:

I will be away for awhile as I have to undergo some surgery but will be back as soon as I am able to. I thank the blogging community for their love and wonderful  support! May God bless you all.

browniegirl xx

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