• Home
  • Who Am I?
  • Sides
  • FAQs + Disclaimers
  • Contact

Darcie Bakes //

December 25, 2015

Random Sides // Merry Christmas!

Hey y’all.

Just wanted to take the time to say MERRY CHRISTMAS! And, as always, for those of you who actually follow me… Thanks for your support. I hope you’re all enjoying the holidays and having a wonderful, safe, relaxed time with your loved ones.

MERRYXMASDARCIEBAKES

xoxo – Darcie 🙂

<3

Leave a Comment Filed Under: christmas, holidays, randomness

December 25, 2014

Random Sides // Happy Holidays!

xmasMerry Christmas, ya filthy animal!! [Home Alone quote. Don’t get offended.] 😀 Here’s to hoping that everyone enjoys the holidays. Regardless of what you celebrate, enjoy your time off and time with family.

As an added bonus, here’s a whacky photo of Christmas lights on my friend’s tree that I got on accident:

crazylights

Leave a Comment Filed Under: christmas, holidays

December 23, 2014

Chocolate Stout Cupcakes with Bailey’s Buttercream.

I never knew that it was possible to love a boozy cupcake as much as I love these. Holy crap. I first had one that was made by a fellow baker/coworker – Kelley – at a party awhile back. And it was just love at first sight.

chocstoutcupcakesYou might be wondering what it is about using a stout beer in cake that makes the cake so amazing. I don’t know the exact science behind it, but something about that stout added with the cocoa powder adds an extra depth of flavor and richness to the final product. It’s hard to explain; it’s just one of those things that is awesome.

I have made these cupcakes several times, but I recently made them again for an ugly sweater party with some friends. Usually I prefer to use one of St. Louis’ local brewery’s stouts in these cupcakes – 4Hands’ Chocolate Milk Stout – it’s seriously one of my favorite stouts. This time, however, I opted for another local brew: Schlafly’s Coffee Stout. I think that the coffee in the stout really added another nice depth of flavor to the cupcakes; coffee and chocolate are always a good pair. Of course, you could use a common stout, such as Guinness. I’m just a fan of using local products in my final baked goods wherever possible, and the 4Hands and Schlafly stouts are solid choices. 🙂

schlafly Since these cupcakes were for a Christmas party, I got pretty festive with them. I have an overabundance of sprinkles, so I used some of my Christmas-y sprinkles. I then added these cute little plastic pine tree cupcake toppers to several of them. I think they turned out pretty well, and that’s my absolute favorite part of baking: when treats turn out tasting delicious AND looking awesome. It’s just the bees knees.

chocstout

chocstoutcupcakes1
//   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //    //   //   

Chocolate Stout Cupcakes with Irish Whiskey Chocolate Ganache Filling + Bailey’s Buttercream Frosting

Yield: 24 regular sized cupcakes. I actually cut the recipe in half for the Christmas party, which is easy to do with this recipe.

Ingredients:

For the Cupcakes:
1 cup stout beer [such as Guinness, or opt for an awesome local stout if you can]
1 cup [2 sticks] unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder [preferably Dutch-process]
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

For the Ganache Filling:
8 oz. bittersweet chocolate [I used the Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate bars]
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 TBS. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 to 2 tsp. Irish whiskey [Optional – I used Jameson.]

For the Bailey’s Frosting:
3 1/2 cups (14 oz.) powdered sugar
1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
6 to 8 TBS. Irish cream [I used Bailey’s… Creamy beige!]
8 oz. (1 block) full-fat cream cheese, COLD and cut into 6 to 8 chunks

Instructions:
Make the cupcakes!
1. Line 24 regular muffin tins with liners, and preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Over medium heat, bring the stout and butter to a simmer in a saucepan. Add the cocoa powder, then whisk the mixture until it’s smooth. Allow it to cool slightly.
3. Whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl: flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt.
4. In the bowl of a stand mixer [or with an electric hand mixer], beat the eggs and sour cream until blended. Add the stout-chocolate mixture to the egg mixture, and beat until it’s just combined.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and beat briefly on a low speed. After that, use a rubber spatula to fold the batter until it’s totally combined.
6. Fill the cupcake liners about 2/3rds to 3/4ths of the way full, and bake the cupcakes until a toothpick comes out clean, about 17 minutes [mine only took 15 minutes, but oven times vary]. Allow the cupcakes to cool completely on a rack.

Make the Filling + Fill the Cupcakes:
1. Chop the chocolate [or use chocolate chips], and transfer it to a heatproof bowl.
2. In a small saucepan, heat the heavy cream until it’s simmering. Then pour the cream over the chopped chocolate. Allow it to sit for a minute, then stir it until it’s smooth. Add softened butter and the whiskey, if using, and stir until combined. Allow the ganache to cool until it’s thicker but still soft enough to pipe. [You can put it in the fridge to speed up the process, but you will need to stir it every 10 minutes.]
3. While the ganache is cooling, you have two options for preparing the cupcakes for filling: either use a Wilton No. 230 tip to fill them [it is a tip that kind of resembles a bird’s beak, used for filling cupcakes], or cut the centers out of the cupcakes and spoon ganache into them, then replace the tops with the cake you cut out of the top. For a more detailed post on filling cupcakes, this post on Annie’s Eats is a good one.
4. Fill the cooled cupcakes with the ganache, then prepare them for frosting!

Make the Frosting:
1. Into a small bowl, sift the powdered sugar. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter, 1 1/2 cups of the powdered sugar. Mix until it’s fluffy and thoroughly blended.
2. Next, add more of the powdered sugar along with 3 TBS. of the Irish cream, and mix again until combined. Add the rest of the powdered sugar, the remainder of the Irish cream, and the vanilla extract. Mix until evenly incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
3. Finally, turn the mixer up to medium high speed, and then add the cold cream cheese a chunk at a time. Wait about five seconds after each addition so that the mixer can incorporate each. Turn the mixer up to high speed and beat the frosting for about one minute, until it’s smooth. Be careful to not over beat.
4. Frost the cupcakes using a piping bag and tips or spread on with a knife. Be sure to use the frosting within 30 minutes or it may become too soft.

Recipe Source: This recipe was given to me by one of my former coworkers, Kelley. I think the chocolate stout cupcake + Irish whiskey ganache recipes are from Smitten Kitchen. I’m not sure where the Bailey’s buttercream recipe comes from, so if you know… please tell me!

lightscupcakeOne more photo for good measure: some bokeh from the Christmas tree in the background, plus my friend Katie being an awesome hand model! 

1 Comment Filed Under: baking, beer, boozy, cake cake cake, chocolate, cupcakes, desserts, holidays, stout beer

December 5, 2014

Random Sides // DIY Baking Themed Christmas Tree!

bakingtreecover

OMG. I am so excited about this that it’s ridiculous.

My roommate was teasing me a few months back, because I claim to not be “that into Christmas,” yet I’ve been planning for this since the end of October. As I’ve said before, I’m not exactly a Grinch. But I don’t get as excited about Christmas as I once did. I think it probably has something to do with that elusive thing called “adulthood.” I also really dislike how Thanksgiving basically gets overlooked, especially in all of the stores. It seems to me that we often forget about Thanksgiving because we get too wrapped up in Christmas/end-of-the-year shenanigans.

*steps off soapbox*

Okay. I have a valid excuse reason for planning ahead on this. I’ve been wanting to do a baking themed Christmas tree for over a year now, but I didn’t properly plan for it last year. And we all know that without proper planning and preparation, most projects are doomed to fail. So in order to execute this tree project well, I had to start thinking about how I would go about it a month or two in advance. Overall, I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.

Here are some close up photos of the different ornaments on the tree – prepare yourself to be bombarded with pictures [better than text bombardment, I reckon]:

rollingpin

wisk1The main theme colors are as follows: candy apple red/light pink, mint green, and gold. I wish I could have had more mint green, but alas, I did not end up with as much as I’d like. Oh well.

I’ll admit that this project got a tad bit pricey… But to me it’s an investment: I will love having a baking themed tree every year. Or if I don’t, then someone slap me. 😉

muffintinpantreepanhandmintgrncupcakeornamentbowcinnornamentcookiecuttercupcake2Most of my ornaments were all DIY. So even if you don’t want to invest a ton of money into a baking themed tree, you can still make some of your own nifty baking themed ornaments, if you so choose. I’ll do separate posts for all of my DIY ornaments so that you can see how I made them, but for now I just wanted to share pictures of my awesome tree!

I think the only thing I forgot was oven mitt ornaments… 😉 Dang.

sprinkleornamnetmixercloseupdonutcloseup1My DIY donut ornaments! Love.

 //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //   //    //   //   

// The Baking Tree – Resources:

– Christmas Tree: This is just an old, hand-me-down tree that my dad gave me. It’s not really a mini tree, but it’s not quite full-size either. It’s kinda janky, but it works for now. I would love to have a white or bubblegum pink tree. But that will have to wait, as I can’t spend all of my disposable income on crafts. 😉

– Garland / Lights / Other:

  • Gold Garland: This is just your average gold garland. I got it from Target.
  • Pink Pom-Pom Garland: I spotted this at my local Anthropologie the other day, and just had to grab it. Isn’t it awesome?
  • Lights: These are LED string lights from Target. They’re a bit larger than your average Christmas lights. I like them.
  • Red Bow Topper: I couldn’t think of anything to have as a cool tree topper, so I just went with a stereotypical Christmas bow. You can find these just about anywhere.

– Purchased Ornaments:

  • Red Kitchen Aid Mixer Ornament: I spotted this at Michael’s a few months ago and snatched it up. I was searching high and low for a mint green mixer ornament to match my actual mixer, but had no luck. Note to Kitchen Aid: y’all would make BANK if you would produce and sell mixer ornaments. Just saying. 🙂
  • Sparkly Cupcake Ornaments: I saw these at Urban Outfitters and once again, snatched ’em up.

– DIY Ornaments:

  • Donut Ornaments: These DIY ornaments are made out of plaster of paris and then painted. I got the idea from Studio DIY, and I absolutely adore them. I’ll be doing a separate, more detailed DIY post on these soon.
  • Sprinkle + Mint Green Ornaments: I simply took clear ornaments [mini sized] and filled them with acrylic paint or sprinkles, and tied them with baker’s twine. Again, I’ll go into more detail on this later.
  • Cinnamon Dough Ornaments: My lovely friend Jordyn and I made these aromatic cinnamon dough ornaments a few months back. All the dough is made out of is cinnamon and applesauce! You can find recipes for them online pretty easily.
  • Baking Tool Ornaments: For all of these ornaments, I took miniature baking tools and either hot glued or tied a ribbon around each item and hung them from the tree. Boom! Instant ornaments.
    • The whisks, spatulas, miniature muffin tins, and miniature wooden spoons were all purchased from Amazon.
    • The miniature bundt cake pans, pie pans, rolling pins, and cookie cutters were purchased from an Ikea children’s baking set. I opted to not use the baking sheets because they were too large for my smaller tree. {These little sets will also be useful if I ever reproduce, because you know any kid of mine will be forced into baking.}

– Inspiration: General inspiration for my baking tree came from Bake it Pretty [One Charming Party] and Studio DIY. 🙂

Even for someone who is not quite so enthused about Christmas, I must admit that this was SO MUCH FUN. I hope you enjoy this tree and I hope that it inspires you to make your Christmas tree awesome!

PS: I still hate Christmas music. This is most likely a result of working in retail for three years. WOOF.

Leave a Comment Filed Under: baking, christmas, christmas tree, decor, diy, holidays, sides, the baking tree

Search.

Hello, World!

Welcome!
I'm Darcie. In a nutshell: I'm a baker and mental health advocate in the tech industry.
Darcie
Learn more about me here.

// // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // //

Socialize.

Instagram is my fave.
Instagram Icon
Pinterest is cool.
Pinterest Icon
Tweet, tweet.
Twitter Icon

Subscribe.

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

// // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // // //
Copyright © 2015 Darcie Bakes. All Rights Reserved.

Website designed by Darcie C., using the Beautiful Pro Theme.

Proudly powered by the Genesis Framework.