Study Break Cupcakes

When you're in class for 4 hours a night for 4 nights a week you get a pretty clear idea of things that would make these classes go by a little easier. Cheetos come to mind. But really other than Cheetos, coffee, booze, and sugar are probably in the top 5. So imagine my happiness when this month's Cupcake Hero was Baker's Choice. Baker's choice meant that we get to pick at least two of the previous Cupcake Hero challenges and combine them into our entry for this month. Conveniently booze, and coffee were two past challenges. Sugar is pretty much a standard cupcake addition, but if I'm going for truly comforting sugar, I'm going for marshmallow fluff. Nicely, marshmallow is yet another past challenge. And being that my cupcake is made from coffee we had in the house and the Brain took all the regular coffee to the office, I was left with Pumpkin Spice coffee. So I made it a coffee spice cake. And of course with a spice cake, cloves then enters the cupcake, yet another past challenge.

I didn't go hog wild though. I left out the jalapeno.

And the Cheetos.

Study Break Cupcakes

an original Shazamer recipe

Cupcake:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp allspice

1/8 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp cloves

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature and cut into small pieces

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 Tbsp Kahlua

2 large eggs

1/2 cup Pumpkin Spice flavored coffee at room temperature

Preheat oven to 350F. Place paper liners in 12 cupcake wells.

Whisk flour, baking powder, allspice, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt together in a small bowl to aerate and combine. Set aside.

Beat butter and sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer for 3 minutes or until light and fluffy, scraping the down the bowl occasionally. Beat in vanilla extract. Add eggs one at a time and scraping the bowl between eggs. Mix in one half the flour mixture. Then beat in the cooled coffee. Add the rest of the flour mixture and beat briefly until well combined.

Divide the batter evenly among the 12 cupcake wells and bake for 18 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Cool completely on a rack.

Marshmallow Frosting:

1 cup marshmallow fluff
4 Tbsp softened unsalted butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar
1 Tbsp milk
pinch of salt

Mix together fluff, butter, extract, sugar, and salt. Add milk to create the right consistency frosting. You may need more or less depending on how thick you prefer your frosting.

Happy Pi Day! Have some Bourbon.

Yes I am a geek. I'll say it proudly. I have a bachelors in statistics and I know that Pi, π, commonly known as 3.14 is merely an approximation for a never ending, never repeating number. It is also one of the most important mathematical constants. It represents the ratio of any circle's circumference to it's diameter. It is also the ratio of a circle's area to the square of it's radius. It's where the pie are squared formula comes from. HAHAHAHAHAHA! math humor. You gotta love it.

So it's Pi Day. Get it? 3.14? March 14? Math geeks get ridiculously excited about silliness like this. Just like October 23rd is Mole Day. OK this one might be a little harder, but if you think of Avogadro and his constant, another of the most important mathematical constants, you should be able to get it.

So yeah. I'm a geek. And I tried to think what kind of pie geeks would eat. And I came up with a few ideas. The Statistics and Math geeks I hung out with in college tended to drink a lot, party hard, and stay up the entire night before an exam eating pizza, drinking beer and learning the concepts of multi-variable calculus from the smartest girl in class who happened to be stoned at the time. She's now a very good math professor, but I'm not telling where.
Geeks like to drink. My friend S has an aeronautical engineering degree and works on tertiary Internet systems. I don't even understand what that means, and she's explained it to me numerous times. She is the Queen Geek. And in the days were both single we could get plowed on some very nice wine or good quality beer.

My whole family seems to be engineers and they all like to drink. Seriously, Mom, Dad, Step dad, Uncle J., Uncle J., Uncle T., Grandpa, Papa, Great Uncle Bernard. These are a bunch of engineers who all like their booze. Heck some of them were deans of engineering at very good schools. I should point out here before Mom gets annoyed that to say they like their booze does NOT mean that they are all alcoholics.

My sister Super G is also a major geek. She actually graduated from college in 4 years (it took me 10- my geekdom didn't come easy) and she has a combined math and Spanish literature bachelors degree, and a master's degree in education. She teaches high schoolers in Brooklyn mathematical concepts like spacial geometry through quilting. She also likes her booze.

And the Brain. Yeah, he's a lawyer. But did you know he was a mechanical engineer before he became a lawyer? It's really funny coming from a family of engineers, because I can recognize that he THINKS like an engineer. He approaches problems logically and in a step by step fashion. Analyzing away. He, the love of my life, is a big geek. He also really likes his bourbon.
So today for Pi Day, I made a Bourbon Pie. Yes, you read that right. I didn't know it existed either. I happened to be leafing through the Joy of Cooking last night, wishing I was more prepared because a pot pie cannot be eaten on a Friday in Lent. And although I found a Fish Pie recipe, I wasn't quite that brave. So Bourbon it is.

The decision was cemented when I went to the doctor today and he surpassed my worst case scenario. My surgery is set for March 25th. The best case would be a little teeny surgery. But they measured me for a brace while I was in the office. And given what the doctor implied, most likely I'm looking at months on crutches.

Bourbon it is.

Bourbon Chocolate Pie
sort of from The Joy of Cooking

One 9 inch prebaked pie shell in pan.*

4 large eggs
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup honey
5 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1/2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp bourbon
2 oz. dark chocolate chips
2 oz. semisweet chocolate chips
2 oz. white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375° F.

Whisk together the eggs, sugar, corn syrup, honey, butter, salt and bourbon. Mix in all of the chocolate. Pour into prepared pie shell. Bake for 35 minutes until the pie is set. Cool the pie until firmed. Slice and serve.

I topped mine with Black Walnut Ice Cream.

* I purchased my pie shell, so I'm not eligible for the Pi Day Pie Roundup at Kitchen Parade. Go check it out though. There are some really yummy pies listed.