blue moon beer blondies & cupcakes....!

....so since cinco de mayo is coming up! what a fun holiday and i love how lots of beer and alcohol infused foods start showing up all over the place this time of year....

....and it's also the season for spring like beers....so why not make some beer blondies and cupcakes?!

...this is another super simple recipe that i found here which was inspired by this recipe....it called for 2/3 cup of light colored beer so i used blue moon which is a belgian style wheat beer (you could also use corona or similar too)....

...i also replaced the lemon and lime zest in the recipe with orange zest since this beer has flavors of coriander and orange (so it fits in nicely with flavor)...

.....for the icing i also used the beer for the liquid....add confectioners sugar to about 1/3 cup of the beer and the zest of 1/2 of an orange....

....add enough sugar to get a good glaze consistency...

....and i've made blue moon beer cupcakes before here from scratch.....but these are super simple since i had frozen vanilla cupcake batter that i wanted to use.....just bake up normally then "inject" them with about 2 teaspoons of the beer! (you could also brush on while the cupcakes are warm and let the beer soak in)...the frosting is left over swiss meringue buttercream....i actually experimented and added a little beer (maybe 1/8 of a cup) to about 2 cups of this frosting...it made it too liquidy so needed to add some confectioners sugar to firm it up

....cut up the blondies into squares once the glaze has set.....and you get some really tasty beer blondies! (these are actually more like a tea cake versus dense like brownies or blondies---which actually was a nice surprise - very very tasty and moist!)

...and also some really simple beer cupcakes topped with swiss meringue buttercream with a little beer flavor as well and topped with some orange zest....adding the beer directly too the cupcake made them moist and the beer flavor is not at all overpowering.

 ....i am just getting back from a solo trip to amsterdam for work, so still recovering from that (what a beautiful city!) .....but definitely make one of these beer desserts for a grown up party....the cupcakes were good, but i have to say the blondies may be one of my favorite desserts to date!..thanks for stopping by and hope everyone has a super great week!

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some boozy desserts for cinco de mayo....!

....some desserty-serts for the grown-ups around here to celebrate the festive 5th of may!....is it terrible that i don't even really know the history of cinco de mayo?...aside from going to get some great mexican food and beers...? ok according to the all knowing wikipedia....cinco de mayo is a mexican civic holiday commemorating mexico's victory over the french on may 5th, 1862 during the battle of puebla...oh and apparently only really celebrated here in the US as an excuse to get some great mexican food and beers....great back on target then....!

.....first some margarita cupcakes....used a boxed vanilla cake mix but also added a box of this stuff.....

...i just added the jello powder to the dry mix and added an extra egg more than what the box calls for....and to give it a little something something....also injected them with some real margarita (prob about 4 mL) .....not because i wanted to drink a margarita at 1 pm on a saturday or anything....(ps those kiddo medicine syringes come in handy, right?)

....the icing is lime buttercream....my fav vanilla buttercream but with the juice of 2 limes added in place of some of the milk, and the zest of one of the limes mixed in at the very end.....this stuff would make an awesome icing shot...!

....i used a "lime wedge" made from candy melts because i didn't want the tops getting soggy or wet from a real lime wedge.....i've gone over how to make candy melt toppers a gagillion times....but you can find the basics here....

.....and because margarita cupcakes were just not enough also made some.......

....i wanted to make them with some dos equis in the spirit of cinco de mayo, but didn't have a chance to pick any up....so it's made with a birra moretti.........i couldn't really find any beer jello or gelatin recipes (go figure) so i had to wing it.....with:

beer jello

1 cup of beer

2 packets of knox gelatin

1 cup of water

6 packets of splenda (or you can use 1/2 cup of sugar)

icing or cool whip topping

lime garnish

....add the gelatin to cold beer and let sit to thicken....heat 1 cup of water to a boil then remove from heat.....add gelatin/beer mix to hot water and mix with a whisk.....add splenda and mix again.....pour into your cups and refrigerate (i let it sit over night).....once solid....top with frosting or cool whip topping (i used the lime buttercream from the cupcakes above) and garnish with a lime slice....very simple!

...the cupcakes may have been the best cupcakes i've made to date....the lime/margarita cupcake with the lime buttercream was so very awesome and the injected margarita was not too much and didn't make the cake too soggy either....

...the beer jello tasted like beer jello!....but not overpowering for jello or anything....not my favorite dessert but definitely not terrible either....the 41 year old kid tasted it and said it was ok...but he'd rather just drink a beer vs eat some beer jello...i can't argue with that...!....but it was fun to experiment and it was so simple and took no time at all really.....

...anyway hope everyone has a great cinco de mayo tomorrow---can't wait to get some great mexican food and some real beers...!

tidymom

Blue Moon Beer Cupcakes!

...yep beer cupcakes...these were for a visit to awesome friends @ lake wallenpaupack....wanted something a little different and my kids are totally sick of cupcakes so made them for the adults....the cake was made with real Blue Moon beer, orange zest, coriander, etc and the icing was cream cheese based but also with beer and orange zest..so kinda like a Blue Moon beer with an orange...!

...the logo is fondant, yup fondant....tinted shades of blue and royal icing for the details....i guess not too bad for my first attempt at using the stuff....not sure how'd I'd do with an actual cake and fondant...i never really liked play doh (the smell is really nasty) and I totally failed in high school working with clay (wish i had a pic of that travesty--but lets just say it looked like a cross between a mug and a sad gargoyle)...so I'm a bit fondant phobic and it's taste/texture is definitely no buttercream! ....but that said, you can do some neat stuff with it....

...overall these were good, the cake was more dense (kinda like muffin texture), maybe it was the beer and buttermilk combo....my worst critic gave them a thumb's up so that must be a good sign...!..ran out of steam a decorated the other half with pieces of oranges...

NOTE: you know Blue Moon beer has jumped the shark when your mother in law drinks it...