Cupcake Wars Part 3: The Final Countdown

Dear Employees of my Awesome Boyfriend's Kick-Ass Company,

I have to say a huge thank you to all of your support and participation as test subjects for my many baking endeavors. I know it must be hard on all of you when Evan brings in boxes of cupcakes for your approval and commentary, but I appreciate you persevering for the benefit of my culinary skills. Today's feat was particularly challenging and I know that asking you to decide between the epic Cookie Dough Cupcake and the tasty Chocolate Guinness Extra Stout/Irish Cream Cupcake was not going to be a simple one, but I knew you were up for the challenge. You did not disappoint. For that, I applaud you! I will remember you for future baking challenges and hope that you will continue to entertain my need for approval by devouring my delightful treats and offering comments and suggestions.

You are truly heroic.

Thank you!

Sincerely,
Shelly

Ah, now that we've got that out of the way...

It is time for the results of the epic Cupcake War: Cookie Dough vs. Chocolate Stout/Irish Cream. Evan so kindly hauled 5 boxes of cupcakes into his company's kitchen today. I had them all laid out on plates and they looked so very pretty, but that just wasn't practical. I mean, there was no way that they would survive such a very dreary, drizzly day and a ride in Evan's car, so we packed them into their tupperware boxes and he delivered them in 36 beautiful pieces.

I had my thoughts about which cupcake would reign supreme, of course. I assumed that, since everyone loves cookie dough and not everyone is as wild about beer as my dear boyfriend, the Cookie Dough Cupcake would come out on top.

At first, the reviews were mixed.

I received word from my dear friend, Casey (who happens to work at Evan's company), that they were a big hit. In fact, her exact words were: Loved your cupcakes this am!! Guinness/Bailey's Cupcakes=Breakfast of champions!!!

One of the other employees said: The cookie dough was completely amazing! I didn't try the stout but the cookie dough rocked!

Once I talked to Evan, however, there was a clear favorite. The Chocolate Stout/Irish Cream cupcake flew out of the kitchen while the Cookie Dough cupcake was slow and steady throughout the morning. I hesitate to call either on the "winner" but, if we're going by initial interest alone, The Chocolate Stout came out on top. I think curiosity killed the cookie dough.

I tried to get "artsy" here and give you a shot
of the Chocolate Stout in front and the
Cookie Dough in back, but it didn't turn out like I expected.
But you get it, right?

I look forward to hosting more of these challenges in the future and hope to have more conclusive results for you all. I have to say that I feel like it was a win-win situation for both cupcakes though because they taught me something new and made me think out of my Betty Crocker box. Thanks, rainy days and boredom, for inspiring me to do something I've never done before.

Cupcake Wars Part 2

Ok, so...yesterday I made those delicious cookie dough cupcakes. My taste for experimentation was not quite satisfied yet, though. Evan and I went out to the store and got the supplies for some yummy chocolate stout cupcakes. I used a couple of different versions and combined them.

I had a lot of trouble with this one. I've never really made cupcakes 100% from scratch, but I felt it was necessary for this one. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail because it literally took me all day to make these and the mess in the kitchen is still waiting for me...

I had fun with this but I have to say I won't be making these again anytime soon. I used Guinness Extra Stout in the batter (8 oz only, not the whole bottle, which made Evan very happy since he got to drink the leftovers) along with some butter, cocoa powder, sour cream (I know...it didn't sound right to me but it was good, trust me!) and the usual suspects in the baking department.

This was a very dense batter and I was kinda worried about it not getting cooked all the way through so I'm afraid to say that I may have over-cooked them just enough to make the tops all crusty. :( Sad panda for sure.

However, Evan didn't seem to mind once they were all put together.

I used a glaze recipe from my new favorite site: The Cupcake Project

I didn't have a very good experience with this however. I really don't know what I did...things turned out to be much runnier than I wanted and they also didn't taste quite as much as like the stout as I wanted. However, I tried to doctor it a bit but I failed. I failed miserably and it made quite a mess. I made it work as well as I could, but they were not up to my standards.

After I exhausted myself to no end with that debacle, I chose to make an Chocolate Irish Cream Buttercream frosting for little blobs on top of the glaze. This stuff tasted amazing. All I did was take store bought buttercream and add a bit of Bailey's Original Irish Cream and cocoa powder in there.

Please, don't tell me that they look like poop blobs. I already know that...

I sprinkled a bit of cocoa powder on top of it to make it look a little more refined and I think I made them decent.

According to Evan, they were much better than I thought they were going to be. I'm not sure if he was just telling me that or he was being honest, but I really needed to hear that after about 5 hours of struggling in the kitchen.

I guess the only way to decide if they were really truly good or if Evan was just flattering my ego is to send them to his office and let them decide. While I'm at it, I might as well see what they thought of my cookie dough cupcakes, too! :) Looks like his office is becoming my test market for my baked goods.

Hopefully they don't mind. Tune in later for the results in Cupcake Wars Part 3!