LIFE ON SUGAR: Baking with Beer: St. Patrick's Day style

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Written by Heather Kelly Director of Operations, NoRA Cupcake Company Photos: Winter Caplanson, Connecticut Food and Farm

Baking with Beer: St. Patrick's Day style

The end of winter is approaching and thank goodness we have St. Patrick’s Day to look forward to get us through the dullness of March. Between all the parades and celebrations throughout the state – we have plenty of opportunities to celebrate with our award winning, all-time best seller, and O.G. cupcake flavor, IRISH CAR BOMB. A namesake of the classic cocktail, it is baked, stuffed, and frosted with boozy deliciousness. Doesn’t get much better than that. We’ll break it down for you into cake, filling, and frosting if you want to try it at home.

CAKE: the base of this delectable dessert is a chocolate Guinness cupcake. Sub out Guinness Irish Stout for water in your recipe and your cake will have balanced richness without being overwhelmingly sweet. And the beer allows the cake to puff up more than a normal cupcake – creating a lighter than air density.

FILLING: stuffing your chocolate Guinness cupcake with a Jameson chocolate ganache filling makes for a kicked up ooey, gooey center. While making your ganache with chocolate and heavy cream, add in a pour of Jameson Irish Whiskey. The heavier the hand, the boozier the taste - pour up to your preference.

FROSTING: what’s better than a cream cheese frosting…a Bailey’s cream cheese frosting, of course. Mix up your traditional cream cheese buttercream and add in a pour of Bailey’s dependent on your batch size. Start off slow, if you add too much your frosting may get loose and runny making it difficult to top the cupcake. A little goes a long way.

If you’re too busy celebrating to experiment with a recipe, we will be stocked up for you on Irish Car Bombs and other festive flavors for the whole month of March. Find us at our bakery on Main Street in Middletown or if you are in the Southeastern part of the state you’re in luck because we’ll be opening a storefront at 60 Bank Street in New London early March! We can’t wait to be a part of the amazing community and we already feel so welcomed - looking forward to seeing you all and getting you those Irish Car Bombs soon!

NoRa Cupcake Company (860) 788-3150 700 Main St, Middletown, CT 06457 noracupcake.com