.bon anniversaire à moi.

Yup. The big 2-5. I think this is officially considered "mature" but not quite "aged." If I was a bottle of wine I would be in the medium price range. I would also be sweet and fruity, like a nice Riesling... but I suppose most of you know that already.

So, this is not exactly going to be the big birthday bash I would prefer. I still have yet to meet a single person in this new town and the Man gets to work a lovely 17 hour work day, bringing him home at right around 1:00 or 2:00AM. Lovely, right? So, here I am, with the whole entire day completely to myself and instead of letting that get me down I thought to myself, "Sara, cowboy up."

So that's what I did. I went shopping, and found some lovely ramekins that will have a date with this blog in the near future. I also got, not one.

Not two.

But THREE bottles of wine.

I threw in a nice lunch and came home to this on my counter top.

Yes. It is time for birthday booze cupcakes! I have been wanting to try this recipe since... wow... a long time. Years. And I've finally decided now is the time to do it. I have also been religiously checking out the awesome blog Dessert for Two, as you know from the red velvet cupcakes I made awhile back, and I am still completely inspired by her.

Now, technically this recipe made 5 cupcakes but, come on y'all, I tried. I majored in English, not math. I also guarantee the Man and I will finish off all 5 of these cupcakes in less than 24 hours. I promise. As a side note, I meant for the batter to make 6 cupcakes but I guess I'm a little heavy handed with that scooper.

These cupcakes were so divine though. They had a nice, Guinness aftertaste coupled with an incredibly dense chocolate cake and the frosting paired wonderfully. It was so damn good that somehow, without realizing it, there were two empty wrappers on the counter.

Again though, I had way more frosting left over than I should have. I attempted to load one cupcake with more frosting while I was inhaling eating it and I found it to be cloyingly sweet, so I'll just stick with my little tiny amount of frosting. Here is the recipe I used.

Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes serves 6
1/2 cup flour
2 Tablespoons cocoa powder
pinch of salt
1/3 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 ounce butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg yolk
2 Tablespoons sour cream
3 ounces Guinness, or like stout


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a small bowl mix together the flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder. In a mixer bowl mix butter, sugar and brown sugar until whipped together. Add the egg yolk and vanilla extract, whip again. Add the sour cream and turn on the mixer, while it is mixing, slowly add the Guinness. I did this one teaspoon at a time. Add the dry ingredients until everything is entirely mixed. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Bailey's Cream Cheese Frosting serves way more than 6 cupcakes
2 ounces cream cheese
1/2 ounce butter
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
1-2 Tablespoons Bailey's

Beat all ingredients together except for the Bailey's. Add this last, in small amounts until it is as boozey as you want it to be! I found it best to make this frosting and put it in the fridge while the cupcakes are cooling.

Also while the cupcakes were cooling, I made this!

That, my friends, is a homemade, from scratch, half sauteed onions, mushrooms and pepperoni, half sauteed onions, mushrooms, sun-dried tomato and goat cheese pizza on a whole wheat crust. Yeah.

I was super excited to try 1) a new crust recipe I had found and 2) the new King Arthur Flour White Whole Wheat Flour I just bought. At first glace I look very successful, eh? Let me give you more glances.

I thought I had been pretty successful too.... until I started to cut the pizza. Turned out I super epic failed and completely burned the bottom of the crust. This was easily fixed by just removing that portion of crust, and really the pizza was still delicious. But, the baking sheet is a goner. Too bad.

Cook on!