Baileys and Shortbread Milkshake

And the booziest day of the year has arrived! I've never been much of a St. Paddy's gal, and since I've been commuting to work or from school over the past few years, I've come to associate the holiday with nothing more than a mass transit and commuter nightmare. Penn Station is awful on its own, but it transforms into this hellish, rowdy black hole, the kind of place where all you want to do is head in and head back out, as fast as you possibly can. I think based on those facts alone, it's clear that I'm no St. Patrick's Day partier, but it doesn't mean I'm a party pooper either.  I just celebrate with food instead of booze! Marrying the two and incorporating my one true love, ice cream, is the best of both worlds. 

Chocolate Stout Tart with Pretzel Crust

When it comes to beer and cocktails and fancy drinks, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m neither adventurous nor very knowledgable. I have a very basic set of cocktails, beers, and after dinner drinks that I stick to and rotate through, and if you were to offer me a glass of wine, I’d have to politely decline, as that’s a beverage I haven’t quite gotten a taste for just yet. It’s a situation that is slightly embarrassing, but at the same time, it’s not a priority for me to fix.  I don’t drink all that often because to put it simply, I much prefer to indulge in a caloric overload via ice cream, cake, and brownies. That’s just the reality of the situation. It’s not to say that I don’t enjoy a beer with friends every now and then. I’ll just almost always choose a beer on the lighter side (because I like to play it safe), and I steer clear of anything dark.  I make a special exception for stout though. Definitely not for drinking, but for baking; give me a slice of rich Chocolate Stout Cake and I’m all over it.  The first time I made it, I wasn’t sure if the stout flavor would be too pronounced and overpower the chocolate (a horrible situation for anyone who prioritizes chocolate above all other things), but I was so surprised with how well the combination worked, and even more surprised at how much I loved it. 

Pots of Gold and Rainbows Cake Pops

With St. Patrick's Day just around the corner, I thought it would be an excellent idea to bring back this really fun and totally appropriately themed post that's perfect for kids and for those who aren't kids anymore but wish they were (aka me).  Aren't these Pots of Gold and Rainbows cake pops super adorable?  I love them!  It's been a while since I've looked at them closely, but I really think that these are one of my favorite treats that I've made to date.  They're so cute!

Normally, I don't do too many "decorated" desserts or treats, simply because I don't have the patience for it.  I'll typically start out a project feeling really enthusiastic about the sugar cookies I'm going to decorate or that gingerbread house I'm going to construct, but then after about an hour's work  when I realize that I'm nowhere close to being finished, I get restless and just have to stop.  I'm surprised I was able to make these cake pops from start to finish without any major moments of desperation!  I think I was able to stick to them because they're really not that involved, and they're just too cute.  One pot of gold with a rainbow coming out of it was not enough...I needed lots of them!  

Since these pops are definitely geared for kids and their St. Patrick's Day celebrations, make sure to stay tuned for tomorrow when I share a brand new St. Patrick's Day recipe that is definitely not for the kids, but is perfect for adults!  It's a pretty awesome recipe, so don't miss out!

Irish Soda Bread

There's a funny story behind this Irish soda bread recipe.  Actually, it's probably not funny at all...at least not any of you guys.  It's probably only silly to me. Basically, this is what happened.  Years ago, when my sister was in kindergarten or something like that, her class had a "heritage day" or something of sorts.  Every kid was supposed to bring in something that described their culture, and if possible, some type of food specific to their culture for everyone to try (and hopefully like!).  For this event, my parents took obleas (these are reallllyyyy thin big, round wafer-type cookies that are sandwiched with a thick layer of dulce de leche.  This is actually my favorite dessert EVER), and envueltos (I'd describe these as a type of corn cake, although they don't really have a cake-like texture at all, but they're delicious).  One of my sister's classmates brought in Irish soda bread as his culturally-relevant food, and my parents got to try it.  Ever since that day, they have not been able to stop raving about that Irish soda bread and just how amazing it is.  Eventually, a class cookbook was conceived, with each student bringing in a favorite family recipe to add to the cookbook.  The recipe for the ever-famous Irish soda bread was submitted, and my parents couldn't have been more thrilled.  They made the soda bread several times, and yes, that soda bread was pretty damn good. 

This recipe I'm sharing with you today is NOT that recipe from my sister's elementary school class. 

I like to share my baking plans for the blog with my parents and my sister, just to get some feedback and suggestions.  As soon as I mentioned that I wanted to make Irish soda bread for St. Patrick's Day, my parents were ALL over the idea.  They thought it was great!  The only condition was that I HAD to post the infamous Irish soda bread recipe from my sister's childhood cookbook. Knowing that the recipe was, in fact, quite delicious, I agreed, except that there was one tiny problem: the cookbook had mysteriously disappeared.  My parents were in denial that it was missing, and both of them claimed to have, "just seen it, right there on the kitchen counter!"  I was positive that we had lost the cookbook in the general shuffle of events that is life, but there was no convincing my parents that that had been the case.  Nope. My mother promptly stopped whatever she was doing at the moment, and took out literally EVERYTHING she saved from her children's elementary school years, and sat on the floor going through every last article of both me and my sister's childhood.  My dad did the same, only he looked in other random places, convinced that the cookbook was still in our possession.  Yup, this cookbook was just that important. Both turned up empty handed, so I decided to just use the powers of the Internet to find a new recipe, because, well there had to be other good versions of Irish soda bread in this world.  My parents, very reluctantly, accepted the fact that the cookbook no longer existed in our household, and that they would have to settle for a potentially inferior quality Irish soda bread.  I told them, in as nice a way as I possibly could, to get over it.  This new Irish soda bread would still be delicious!

And delicious it was, indeed...or at least I thought so.  

Guinness and Pretzel Truffles

Hello everyone, and happy weekend!  Hopefully your weekend is off to a much more fun and exciting start than mine.  My plans for this weekend include nothing but studying for a Japanese architecture midterm on Monday, and working on my portfolio, which is officially due in LESS than ONE month.  "OMG" is right.  That's what went though my mind when I read the email sent out to all the seniors in the architecture department reminding us about all the senior requirements that are due at the beginning of April, because, hey, we're GRADUATING.  What is this.  This is nuts, that's what it is.   

I have been proactive though at least.  Lots of studying has been done, and an obscene amount of flashcards have been made (seriously, 200 flashcards to memorize is just ridiculous).  I actually woke up early today and am currently drinking coffee (this has become the story of my life), and having some orange juice and frozen blueberry waffles with Aunt Jemima syrup as I finish up writing this post.  It's a perfect way to start off my day, but then there's the thought that I'm going to be immersed in Illustrator, Indesign, and Photoshop for the rest of the day looming over my head, and then I just get sad.  Sigh.  This madness will be over soon, at least!

Chocolate Stout Cake

Finally.  I am saying that to describe two things, the first being spring break.  I finally got to take that really long nap I had been so looking forward to.  This week was just rough.  So many midterms to study for, so many papers to write, and so many Roman architecture flashcards to memorize.  But it's finally over!  At least until finals roll around in like a month and a half...but I'm not going to think about that right now.  I need to celebrate this tiny little victory that is a whole week off from school to do nothing.  Except bake, of course; let's not be that ridiculous and pretend like that wasn't going to happen. In any case, I was beyond ready for break, it was about time!

I also am saying finally about this cake.  I'm finally sharing with you this absolutely amazing chocolate stout cake, and let me tell you, it actually might just be my new favorite chocolate cake.  It's definitely up there with my other favorite chocolate cake, which is one that my mom makes for my birthday that gets soaked in amaretto for several days before it's finally "ready" to be eaten.  But I don't know.  This cake was just as good.  I'm just going to say that they're both tied for first place.  In any case, my dad reallyyyy loved this cake, which I found so surprising, since he isn't really a cake/sweets kind of person.  I brought this cake for my friends on my floor and in studio to try and they loved it, and my dad ended up getting upset that I left so little for him to have on his own.  Looks like I'm making more chocolate-stout cake this break!   

Baileys Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream

Happy March to everyone!  I cannot believe it's already March!  I feel like I say this continuously throughout the year, but I always mean it.  It's March!  It's almost spring time! Hooray!  The weather in New York City has really been excellent these past couple of days; I've been able to go out with a light jacket and a scarf and not feel like I have to run from one building to another in order to prevent myself from freezing outside.  I was leaving the library late one night after doing some serious reading up on architecture in Pompeii (not fun stuff), and I actually heard birds chirping!  I even heard some this morning!  These are totally good things.  It's not just me overreacting to tiny little things.  It just means that it's almost spring. It means that it's almost time for spring break, and spring break means a whole week of nothing.  And that, is no tiny little thing.  A whole week of nothing is a whole great big thing that is worth celebrating.  And by celebrating, I obviously mean taking a nice, long nap.  

While it's technically not "ice cream season" yet (whatever that means, I don't know; I feel that ice cream is a treat that should be enjoyed all year round regardless of the outdoor temperature and the number of layers you're wearing), I have an ice cream to share with you today.  A really, REALLY good ice cream, that is.  Seriously.  This stuff is delicious.  It has BAILEYS in it.  How could Baileys ice cream NOT be good?  I even thew in some chocolate chunks in there to make it extra-good.  "Extra-good."  I'm clearly a talented writer.