My Gift to You.

"Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon."

-Dalai Lama

Once, I made a trifle that wasn’t very good.

Another time, I made some pretty bomb ass baked apples.

And even another time, I got up at 5am to bake molten chocolate cakes for one of my best friend’s birthdays. Just so she could have them still warm from the oven at 7:15am when I would see her.

My mother always said that the only thing that could get me up at 5am in the morning was baking. She was right for a long time. (I get up for beer stuff now too!)

This one time, I went to the apple festival in Hendersonville, NC and brought back a whole peck of apples. I made an apple pie every day for almost a week. 

I love to bake. It’s one of the few things in the world that’s really a great stress reliever for me. Just follow the steps, throw in a lot of love, and everything will come out okay. Guaranteed to work, 100% of the time. Not to mention, I really enjoy making a mess every once in a while. I always end up covered in melted chocolate and flour and god knows what else. (It’s also an excuse to buy really cute aprons.)

It started with my family. My mom cooks. My grandfather. My grandmother. My mom always had to shoo me out of the kitchen because I always wanted to stick my nose into everything and ask if I could help. She said that even when I was really young, no one could keep me out of the kitchen. I still love stepping into my kitchen. For me, it really is a home. As long as I have an oven and a stovetop, I’m happy.

Then came the inevitable. Time to learn to cook. And I was not always good at it. I never burnt soup (shout out to my sister), but I have made some pretty terrible concoctions in my life. Baking was something I could always rely on, though. If you followed the steps, it should turn out well. I liked that. (I’m a much better cook now, by the way.)

I was making cookies one day and messed something up. Just threw in a bunch of mini m&ms into a batch of chocolate cookies I was making and they crushed up in the batter and melted everywhere. I still baked them. They were delicious. That got me thinking, though. About making my own recipes, and experimenting with the ones I already had. Then came the different cookie recipes. The white chocolate and heath bar cookies, the double chocolate chip chocolate cookies (that’s a mouthful), the peppermint crackles, and peanut butter cookies. I like cookies. Because you don’t have to share. It’s your cookie. There’s one cookie. I liked that.

About a year ago, I was on a cupcake kick. I was also drinking a LOT of really good beer. I was also spending a lot of time at Fullsteam. Love that spot. And they had a beer coming out. Wanderlust, a cherry imperial stout. And all I could think was, I want to bake with that. So, I did. And they were pretty wicked cupcakes.

That got me moving. What else could I do? That’s when the ideas started becoming real, tangible, tasty treats. Carrot cake with DFH Raison D’etre. Pumpkin and ginger with Southern Tier’s Pumking. Dragon’s Milk chocolate stout cupcakes. El Mole Ocho Spice Cake. And my personal favorite so far, Lemon Raspberry Framboise cupcakes.

They’re my little creations. I love that. I love to share them with people.

Yesterday, I taught a Beer Education class at Growler’s Pourhouse in Charlotte. The subject was Baking with Beer. I made Dragon’s Milk cupcakes and Lemon Honey cookies with a lemon Mad Hatter IPA glaze. I had a great time teaching the class, and I think everyone really enjoyed the beers and the desserts.

On the way over there, I got a request for the Dragon’s Milk cupcake recipe while I was at NoDa Brewing. I get that request a lot. It kind of makes me itchy all over. I’m a little protective of my recipes. But perhaps it’s time to put one of them out there. So people will bake them and share them and get to experience that same happiness I feel when people tell me that I did a good job on them.

So, I guess what I’m trying to say (as I feel itchy all over), is that you guys deserve to have this recipe. Because without Fullsteam letting me play with Wanderlust, and without all of the amazing people who really appreciate the beer in the first place, I don’t know if I ever would have decided to make these cupcakes. And without New Holland, I doubt that I would have ever thrown Dragon’s Milk into some chocolate cake.

So here you go, everyone. My gift to you.

Dragon’s Milk Cupcakes

Yield: 3.5 dozen

Ingredients:

·       2 c. Dragon’s Milk

·       4 sticks (2 c.) butter

·       1 ½ c. unsweetened cocoa powder (I like to use Hershey’s Special Dark)

·       4 c. all-purpose flour

·       4 c. sugar

·       1 tbsp. baking soda

·       1 ½ tsp. salt

·       4 large eggs

·       1 1/3 c. sour cream

Instructions:

1.     Oven at 350 degrees.

2.     Bring stout & butter to simmer in a heavy, large saucepan over medium heat. Once simmering, add cocoa powder and whisk until smooth. Turn off the stovetop and set the pan to cool on an empty burner.

3.     In a large mixing bowl, blend the flour, sugar, soda, and salt.

4.     In an electric mixer, beat the eggs & sour cream until blended. Add the stout mixture from the pan until it’s just blended. Add the flour mix and beat on low speed until everything is incorporated.

5.     Bake until set (toothpick comes out clean) and cool completely. For cupcakes, it takes anywhere from 15-18 minutes is what I’ve seen. For cake it’s longer, around 30 minutes per each 8 in. round.

Dragon’s Milk Icing

Ingredients:

·       3.5 c. powdered sugar (you may need up to 5 cups or so in the end)

·       ½ c. unsweetened cocoa powder

·       1 ½ c. unsalted butter @ room temperature

·       ½ c. Dragon’s Milk

·       4 oz. melted & room temperature bittersweet chocolate (Baker’s chocolate)

Instructions:

1.     Mix cocoa powder and sugar together in a mixing bowl.

2.     Cream the butter and the stout in an electric mixer. It won’t mix completely, but that’s okay.

3.     Add the cocoa mix & beat until light and fluffy.

4.     Add the melted AND COOLED chocolate and beat until stiff peaks form. You may need to add more powdered sugar (1/4 – ½ c. at a time) until the icing is stiff enough to pipe & retain it’s shape.

5.     Pipe onto COMPLETELY cooled cupcakes with a piping bag. I prefer to use the closed star or open star tips on these cupcakes. Or you can just slather it on the cupcakes. Whatever floats your boat.

6.     Garnish with whatever you like. Praline pecans go well.

Take care of my baby, y’all. And enjoy. Spread the glory of Dragon’s Milk cupcakes to the world for me. And go play in the kitchen and come up with something glorious. So I have more excuses to play in the kitchen as well.

Cheers.