Recipe: Honey Whisky Chocolate cupcakes with Honey Buttercream

I don't watch football regularly. It's not my sport (to say the very least). Honestly, for as un-American as I may sound, I really, really detest football.  But the Super Bowl is a great occassion for a party. It's a great time to gather with friends, goof around and most importantly eat. So when my friends invited me over, I quickly asked if I could bring dessert.

Well, that was a couple of weeks ago and the Super Bowl is today. It took most of yesterday but I finally figured out what dessert to bring. There are a lot of dessert options out there so I definitely had a hard time deciding what would fit best at a Super Bowl party. I decided to skip cake, because it seems like a more formal, sit down dessert. You have to cut it, and serve people... Definitely too much hastle at a party where most eyes will be focused on a tv screen. And then there are cookies but those are FAR too easy to eat by the hundred. Macarons felt too formal, ice cream too much of a pain to make and so forth and so on.

In the end, I decided to make cupcakes because you can decorate them beautifully but they're handheld and easy to pick up and go.
Then I had to figure out what KIND of cupcake to make... That took a while to figure out because again way too many options and I'm just not decisive enough. I decided to go with something that reminded me of football.... Liquor became my theme.

My first cupcakes were these:

Honey Whisky Chocolate Cupcakes:

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1/4 cup espresso (cooled)
1/4 cup whiskey
1-2 tsp honey
1/2 cup vanilla greek yogurt
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350°F

In a large bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients. In another bowl, combine the egg, coffee, whiskey, yogurt and oil. Carefully sift the flour mixture into liquid. Combine until smooth.

Pour the mixture into your 12 prepared cupcake liners. They should be about 3/4 of the way full.
Lower the heat to 325°F and bake for 18-20 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean.

Cool completely before frosting.

the perfect consistency

Honey ButterCream:
2 sticks butter
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 tbs honey

Cream the butter with a small blender. Carefully add in the powdered sugar and once smooth blend in the honey.

Refridgerate until you're ready to frost!

There are a couple of easy ways to frost.

1. The slather method; take a spoonful of frosting and spread it with a knife.
2. The piping method: take a plastic ziplock bag (bigger is better, otherwise you'll just make a mess) fill it with your frosting. Cut off one bottom corner. Your ready to frost. I chose to pipe in a circle, but the "pastry bag" really allows you to get creative. 

And that was cupcake number 1! I made two other kinds as well!

-Raspberry Truffle

Recipe: Tortellini Soup...

It's not exactly soup.... There was definitely less broth than I had anticipated, but it was absolutely delicious anyway. :)
It was wonderful for the "snowstorm" that kept me trapped in Sesto Fiorentino. Warm with a little kick of goodness.

Tortellini Soup
5-6 carrots, peeled and sliced
4-5 stalks of celery, washed and sliced
1/2 a large onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, diced
3 medium sized potatoes, cubed
Olive oil
1 boullion cube (follow package to make broth)
1 package of prosciutto tortellini
nutmeg
red pepper flakes
oregano and basil
salt and pepper


Saute the onions and garlic over a low heat until the onion begins to wilt (approximately 5 minutes). Add the spices and cook for 1 minute before adding the carrots, celery and potatoes. When the veggies are almost half done pour in the boullion cube broth (about a quart). Cover and let simmer for about a half hour (the potatoes should be almost fully dissolved). If adventurous, and legally of age, add in a liberal amount of whiskey for flavor. (Don't worry the alcohol will cook off).
Uncover and add the tortellini.  Cook according to package time.

~Raspberry Truffle