Saturday, May 07, 2011

Stout and Portly Cupcakes

Friends, I am swimming in a sea of confusion, upheaval, and waves wash the swabbed decks. Say you were to organize a recipe contest, let's say, for cupcakes. The cupcakes need to use Scharffen Berger chocolate. Many from the country send their recipes in hope of winning top honor and ten thousand dollars. That's right. So, everyone sends in recipes; you taste, you look, you decide. And all three of the top winners feature stout beer. That's right. How odd, you may think. Akin to five Oscar nominations for five films on Gandhi. Until you look at the rules.


Along with chocolate, these folks were required to choose at least one from a list of  "adventure ingredients": stout beer (oatmeal, chocolate, imperial or any other stout); ricotta; buttermilk; coconut butter, coconut milk or coconut cream; saffron; molasses (light, dark or blackstrap); adzuki bean; fresh beet; sweetened condensed milk; fresh or whole dried chili pepper; bee pollen; meyer lemon; almond flour; and Sumatra coffee bean.


In my world, one of the winners would use ricotta. And the exquisite meyer. I am also a sot for coconut flavor which I might spice with chili pepper. 

1 comment:

Rachel said...

Here would be my choices using those ingredients.

A chocolate gingerbread cupcake using Molasses (dark).

A chili chocolate cupcake using (chili).

A chocolate coffee cupcake using (Sumatra coffee).