Posts tagged birthday

It has official been two years since my first blog post! I have had a lot of good recipe postings, a few great and successful posts or recipes and pictures, many recipe fails that will never see the light of day, and so many memories that have come along with everything I have made for my blog. There are so many foods and flavors that I have started to love. My tastes and craves are much different than when I started.

Thank you VERY much to all of your who have come across my blog and found a little interest in it.

Here are some of my favorite recipes:

• Fish Tacos
• Sweet Potato Gnocchi
• Decadent Brownies
• French Dip
• Blueberry Streusel Coffee Cake
• Spinach and Artichoke Dip

Happy Cooking!

These cupcakes are in honor of my 24th birthday, which is today! I brought these to class on Wednesday for my classmates and anyone else who was lucky to get the leftovers. I figured we would need a little vodka and chocolate to get through our lecture of the acoustics of speech, noise management options assessing needs and measuring outcomes of hearing aids. I swear it’s exciting as it sounds…

Any who, I saw this recipe on Cupcake Wars on Food Network. It was on the winning team of the Grammy’s episode. The cupcakes they make are so marvelous and I can only imagine how good they taste, especially since it was a winner! So I decided to attempt these gourmet cupcakes and wow the masses! Or just my friends.

Chocolate Vodka Raspberry Cupcakes

(Revised by Alyssa Magliato on Cupcake Wars)

Ingredients:

Cupcake

• 2 sticks unsalted butter*, room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons raspberry extract
• 3 cups all purpose flour*
• 1 cup cocoa powder*
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup skim milk
• 1 cup warm water
• 1/4 cup vodka

Frosting

• 2 sticks unsalted butter, melted*
• 1 1/3 cups cocoa powder*
• 6 cups powdered sugar*
• 2/3 cup skim milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Filling and Garnishes

• 1/2 cup raspberry preserves
• 3 teaspoons vodka
• fresh raspberries
• white chocolate designs

*Make sure you have enough butter (4 sticks/1 pound), cocoa powder (almost an entire container), flour (I always think I have enough when I don’t), and powdered sugar (you need more than 1 bag for this recipe!)

Method:

Cupcakes

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together eggs, raspberry extract, butter, and milk. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well for 1 minute. Add the warm water and vodka slowly to the mixture while mixing for one more minute, or until smooth. I happened to make a huge mess, but totally worth it. 

Line muffin tins with cupcake liners and fill 3/4-full with batter. Bake until the cupcakes are puffed and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool the cupcakes completely!

Frosting

Mix the melted butter with the cocoa powder in a mixing bowl. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating on medium speech to spreading consistency. Add more milk if needed. Stir in vanilla extract at the end.

Filling

Mix raspberry preserves and vodka to an even consistency.

Time to Assemble!

Core the cupcake with a 1/2 teaspoon, apple corer, or melon baller, and add raspberry filling to the top. Generously frost each cupcake with a pastry bag (or ziplock like I did) and cut a 1/2 inch off the top. The recipe should make about 24 cupcakes.

I garnished mine with a fresh raspberry and made white chocolate decorations. You can smell the essences of raspberry right way along with the luxorious chocolate. People were wow-ed when they realized there was a magic raspberry filling. Jacki help with me make them because she said that I can’t make cupcakes for my own birthday. She mostly just laughed at me nearly killing myself about 4 times. No matter what the recipe is, if it involves baking I create a gigantic mess. But regardless of mess it usually turns out very well!