High-Rise cocktail

Hello, everyone! So, it's been about six months since I've ruffled the waters of this reticent food blog. I'd like to imagine that it's been absently humming to itself, completely relaxed in a warm, summery field, somewhere along the coast of the internet. I won't offer meandering excuses as to where I've been or fluffy reasons for a long absence, but they involve an archaic, finicky oven and the need to replenish a disappearing blogging mojo. I'm still trying to deal with the latter, but I *think* I have managed to grab onto its tail (my mojo's spirit animal is an elusive, prickly arctic fox).

Instead of confections, I've resurfaced with a libation (my very first!). You will be smitten with this coy, little intoxicant, I promise.

Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes with Spiced Wine Cream Cheese Frosting

"This is the solstice, the still point
of the sun, its cusp and midnight,
the year’s threshold
and unlocking, where the past
lets go of and becomes the future;
the place of caught breath…"

                          ~ Margaret Atwood, from "Shapechangers in Winter"

Chocolate-Stout Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream

I'm not a fan of romantic comedies. I like romance and comedy, but I don't think they need to be fused into 90 minutes of predictable "quirky girl" antics, and yawn-inducing happy endings. I like movies that throw curve balls. Sorry, 95% of Jennifer Aniston movies. (Ouch, I know.) Apologies.

Okay, I admit that I'm slightly jealous of the fact that the quirky girl always gets the guy. And while I'm outwardly showing my disdain by muttering sarcastic zingers, inside I'm actually huddled in a blue Slanket eating a rapidly-disappearing pint of Häagen-Dazs coffee ice cream and sipping from a never ending grasshopper.

Just like the movies, I think food sometimes needs a good plot twist...something that will keep people guessing and prevent self-deprecating inner-monologues, and lethargy.

Chocolate Stout Cake with Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting

Since Thursday I've been house-sitting (yay!) for someone who happens to have a Mac. (double yay, with a hint of jealousy lapping at the edges.) Whenever I see my food photos on a Mac, I immediately understand why some of my snaps are rejected on foodie sites.

Macs show every. single. detail, including lack of decent lighting, and errant hard water-stains on cutlery. I kind of feel like an American Idol contestant who is convinced that they can sing like Sarah McLachlan, when in reality they sound more like my cat when I'm trying to get him to take his sickeningly sweet-smelling antibiotics. There were several "ah ha" moments these last few days. After almost two years, my latest point and shoot camera are still getting acquainted.

Guinness-Chocolate Cupcakes with Nutella Cream Cheese Frosting

Guinness and chocolate. Who knew that these two star-crossed ingredients would make such a deliciously handsome couple?

(I had an inking...barely more than a hunch, really.)

Because I speak to the food that I bake and cook with, it's usually cordial enough to carry on a candid conversation. For a while now, I had the sense that chocolate was sad. Indeed, chocolate confessed that it sometimes feels wistful. Despite all the decorative pink bows and sweet fillings, chocolate often felt hollow, and wondered if there was life beyond coconut and marshmallow. Please don't tell chocolate I said this, but "she" has always had a secret crush on beer, stout beer in particular.

Tipsy Chocolate Pecan Pie

Have you ever sighed, woefully, because pecan pies are so cloyingly sweet? Or wept internally over the fact that you couldn't have a second piece because you just complained, aloud, that pecan pies are cloyingly sweet?

Well, sigh no more, would-be pecan pie lovers. Sigh no more.

Boozy Bread Pudding

What's the first second thing you crave when it's so hot that even the sidewalk is melting and your version of a mirage includes an abandoned Häagen-Dazs ice cream truck, a vacant neighborhood, and a spoon? If, like me you're slightly off, then the answer is bread pudding.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Lot's of ways Banana Cake

Is it crazy to be obsessed with a baking pan? A mini bundt cake pan to be exact. Seriously, if I could make cookies, pies, pasta, and salad in this thing, I would. Everything goes into it's softly rounded contours, come out so beautifully.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Rum-Drenched Vanilla Cakes

"Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me."

When I finally have a dog, I'm going whistle that tune when I'm calling him in for dinner or play time.

Baileys & Crème de Menthe Brownies

I promise, the green filling in these brownies is all from the crème de menthe, I have not backed out of my vow to avoid food colouring (with the exception of red velvet cake and that time when I was 5 and wanted to be a blonde.)

Mini Toasted-Coconut Lime Custard Tart (TWD)

Rum, coconut custard, and fluffy whipped cream. All that was missing was the lime and private cove from a Maxfield Parrish painting. The lime was easy to incorporate. The weather here is wet, slushy, and muddy so the sea side sunset wish would have required a lot more rum than I was willing to ingest.