Irish Car Bomb Twinkies®

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  Irish Car Bomb "Twinkies" are the perfect end to your corn beef and cabbage celebration!  These are made very similar to the cupcake varieties that you see on the internet with some adaptations:  chocolate stout cake with a creamy chocolate whiskey filling and topped with an Irish cream glaze.  A little bit dressed up and  little bit down home. 

I've had these on my baking bucket list for a long, long time.  I had wanted to make the cupcake version, but when Hostess announced that they would be closing up shop on Twinkies, I had to get the pan to make homemade Twinkies.  The pan is called a "cream boat" pan.  So, technically, these are Irish Car Bomb Cream Boats.  No copyright issues there...And, if you remember, Jacqueline posted her delicious version of Grown Up Twinkies with Rum a while back, too.

Moist chocolate cake that holds its shape well and can handle the filling of chocolate whiskey marshmallow cream. Lots of great chocolate flavor in this beauties.  Once these are filled, they are topped with a Irish cream glaze.  Booze of choice for these are Tullamore D.E.W. (no surprise!), Baileys Irish Cream and Bison Organic Chocolate Stout.  Irish all around and I wouldn't do these any other way.  

This was sort of a trial and error process for me.  I tried to cheat and didn't prepare the pans with shortening and flour.  Well, I sure learned my lesson and now have 14 'rejects.'  Not very pretty but taste great.  Good news is that the second attempt was a success.  So, if you try these, prepare your pans the old-fashioned way or you will have lots and lots of chocolate cake crumbs to make some trifle or cake pops.

Trial and error aside, I will make these again.  Now I know all their secrets and am excited to try different versions of Twinkies for adults!  

Hope your St. Patrick's Day is grand!  

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Campfire Cocktail S'mores Bars

I know, you're thinking...S'mores...Again?!  Ah, but I don't think these are your little sister's S'mores.  These rich and gooey and luscious and oh, so boozy, S'more are definitely Big Girl S'mores. 

Kinda like the difference between flower panties and a black-lacy thong.  Right?

I've been wanting to experiment with a boozy version of a traditional Hershey's S'more for quite some time.  I've seen cupcakes and bars, of course.  There are tons of them out there in foodie blogger land.  Adding booze can be tricky and this bar is a boozy experiment success (or so my taste testers have told me this past week).  

Love when that happens...

And, my friends, I found my inspiration for this recipe from the strangest of places: watching Sandra Lee's show (I know...I was very, very bored one Friday night) about bars and lounges (why SL was picked for this, I have no idea).  On one trip, she visited a very cool bar, Boulevard 3 in Los Angeles, which serves a Campfire Martini. 

Oh, yeah.  You KNOW I tried that puppy that very evening.  I had everything cuz you already know we have the most amazing liquor cabinets at BIWB.  Easy, too.  Equal parts whiskey (Tullamore D.E.W., of course), Baileys, Kahlua and half-n-half (my version).  Shaken over ice and poured oh-so-smoothly in a chocolate swirled martini glass.  It was served with a marshmallow coated in graham cracker crumbs.  I didn't have those, but that sure didn't stop me.

One of the BEST after dinner dessert drinks on this planet...Trust me!

So, today I bring you my version of the Campfire Cocktail S'mores Bar {with Tullamore D.E.W.}.  Yeah, you know it's good.  You know you want this, not just in the summer, but ALL-YEAR-LONG!  

You don't have to wait for your next barbecue to make these, either.

And, who says you can't have your S'mores in one neat, portable bar?

Soft graham cracker-laced bar surrounding a gooey layer of melted marshmallows 

over deep, dark Hershey's chocolate bars.  

Heaven.

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Irish Brownie Bites

Every guy I've ever met who had Irish in his blood loves chocolate.  He loves all chocolate in its many varieties:cookie, cakes, mousse, pie, brownies, blondies, bars...The list is endless.   This Irish version of a simple brownie bite is sure to please every Irish Man in your life.  Trust me...I know these things.  

I used the cocktail recipe, Lucky Irishman, as the inspiration for these little bits of heaven.  It's a cocktail made with Baileys and Irish whiskey (duh...).  So, in true cocktail fashion, these are a 50/50 mix of those two alcohols in both the brownie and the frosting.  A winning Irish combination, as you've seen here with Jacqueline's Chocolate Stout Cupcakes (with stout and chocolate) and my Luck o' the Irish Cupcakes.  

There is one sneaky secret here: I used canned frosting.  Yes, I know...How could I do such a thing?  Well, I had this canned frosting, not knowing what to do with it.  I wanted something easy to make, with booze.  And, I knew I could zuzz it up to taste better...And, I DID!  

Last little addition: half a Lindor dark truffle.  I know...You thought the booze and brownie were enough.  Again, I needed to do something with these truffles.  I don't eat dark chocolate, but love to bake with it. 

So, truffle meets brownie meets canned frosting meets Lucky Irishman.  So gooooood...

St. Patrick would be proud!

I am sharing this recipe over at Cake of the Week as part of this month's Baking with Spirit Challenge: Irish Cream.   Yeah...

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Shamrock Sugar Cookies with Whiskey and Baileys Frosting

Moist and soft, green-tinted, whiskey-infused sugar cookies with smooth Baileys frosting...Wearing o' the green never looked so good!

These are my favorite sugar cookies and are mildly adapted from my favorite cookie book, Cookie Mania.  It is out of print, but if you're lucky, you can find a gently-used copy on the Internet.  It is my secret recipe book for the majority of my Xmas cookies.   Shh, don't tell anyone. 

I don't make sugar cookies often, well, almost never really.  This recipe is very forgiving and makes a very moist cookie that holds up to frosting.  They are very plain on their own, so I highly recommend at least sugar on top.  I tried to tint them green, but alas I goofed.  No problem, I adapted.  They still turned out yummy and soft.

The addition of Jameson Whiskey really helped crisp them up and I think it was necessary as they can tend to get really soft once frosted.  Not this time!  Soft, yet still a nice chewiness.  The Baileys frosting was a BIG hit at the office.  Each time I opened the Tupperware container to share, the waft of Baileys helped the day go by so much better.  :) 

Easy recipe, cuz I don't make cut out cookies unless they are EASY! 

Erin-go-Bragh, ya'll! 

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