Sweet Tooth Mania

This week, I bring you recipes sponsored by my gigantic sweet tooth. I love sweets. I mean, really. LOVE. Luckily, I live a life that often has occasions where sweets can be included. The crazy thing? Both of the cupcake recipes I found ended up being vegan and totally delicious. In my 4 year stint of veganism I became an expert vegan baker but I didn't even mean to bake vegan dishes. Just goes to show, that food can be amazing AND vegan.

In this post I bring you:

-Birthday Stout and Chocolate Cupcakes (Vegan)

-Guajillo Chili Chocolate Mexicano Cupcakes (Vegan)

-Honey and Whiskey Ice Cream

First up: Stout and Chocolate Cupcakes

It was one of my best friends birthdays at the begining of the month. We usually throw a mini birthday part at girls night to celebrate. My friend has recently really gotten into beer so I wanted to represent that in the sweet treat I made her. I found this recipe on Chef Chloe and I loved it! When I first googled "Beer Cupcakes" all I could find were recipes that were filled with sour cream, heavy cream, and multiple sticks of butter (not lying, one had 4 sticks of butter in the recipe!!). Now, I love food and sweets but I wanted a light cupcake that really showcased the rich and fizzy flavor of beer. I liked Chef Chloe's recipe because it was simple and cheap (I had all of the ingredients and only had to go out and buy one bottle of beer). I wasn't able to find a single selling bottle of Oatmeal Stout so I used Leinenkugal Brewery's Fireside Nut Brown. The cupcakes came out perfectly and I really enjoyed drinking the remaining bottle of Fireside Nut Brown :)

Second Up: Guajillo Chili Chocolate Mexicano Cupcakes (Vegan)

During February a local grocery store called Central Market had a Chocolate Festival. A coworker and I went and I ended up spending around $20 bucks on specialty chocolate. I purchased bacon chocolate, sweet Mexican vanilla chocolate and a guajillo chili chocolate. The vanilla and guajillo chocolate were both from Taza and while they were delicious they were a bit too grainy to be consumed on their own. I went to the Tazo website and found a vegan recipe for guajillo chili cupcakes. I liked this recipe because (again) I already had all of the ingredients (except for the lemon juice) so it was super cheap and easy. I ended up using some of the left over icing from the Stout Cupcakes. I also used some of the vanilla chocolate to make a sweet ganache for the cupcakes that I didn't have icing.

Up close

Finally! Honey and Whiskey Ice Cream

I've mentioned before that I've started seeing someone new. He's awesome and I'm constantly thinking of ways to show him how glad I am that he's in my life. Those ways are usually food. We're both big fans of whiskey so I wanted to find a recipe that included some kind of bourbon. When I found this recipe for Honey and Whiskey Ice Cream I was so freaking pumped. Besides loving whiskey we both are bananas for ice cream. So, I'm about to say (type?) some craziness. I really enjoyed this recipe but I want to tweak the way it's made because it tasted too much like whiskey. I can't even believe that I'm critical of anything for tasting too much like whiskey. I love whiskey! I was just disappointed that the sweet honey flavor was completely over powered. I plan on making a batch for my beach trip next week and I'm thinking that if I simmer the honey and whiskey together instead of mixing the whiskey straight into the whipping cream that both flavors will have a chance to shine.

Despite the pounds and pounds of sugar I've been consuming my body is still looking nice which is good because I'm one week away from sitting on a bright and sunny beach with my honey. I'll be posting about ways to save money while vacation soon!