Root Beer Float Cupcakes/Peeps birthday

2 posts in a matter of mere days?

To celebrate my dear friend Kathleen's 24th birthday, we decided to hold a potluck! I was very impressed with everyone; finally, a potluck without bruschetta.


Peeps made a variety of things herself, which does go against the whole potluck idea, but she is always the hostess. She did up a tomato-bocconcini-basil salad, chili, her classic chocolate chips cookies and a few Indian dips. I made some Jello shots (that went over very well, but I didn't manage to snap any photos) and we tag teamed and made Root Beer Float Cupcakes, c/o Smitten Kitchen.

Cupcakes
2 cups root beer (We used good ol' A&W)
1 cup cocoa
1/2 cup salted butter
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs

Toppings
1 1/2 cups heavy or whipping cream
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Maraschino cherries (optional)

Make the root beer cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 28 cupcake cups with paper liners. In a small saucepan, heat the root beer, cocoa powder and butter over medium heat until the butter is melted. Add the sugars and whisk until dissolved. Remove from heat and let cool.

In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, and salt together. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs until just beaten then whisk them into the cooled cocoa mixture until combined. Fold the liquid and flour mixtures together in the large bowl. The batter will be slightly lumpy; this is okay. If you overbeat it, it will get tough.

Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 to 3/4 full (a 1/4 cup scoop or measuring cup will filled mine perfectly) and bake cupcakes, rotating trays back to front and top to bottom halfway through, until a tester inserted into the center of each comes out clean, about 14 minutes. Remove cupcakes and cool on wire rack.

Whip whipping cream with powdered sugar and vanilla until it holds soft peaks. Once cupcakes are cool, add whipped cream as icing. Top with a cherry, if using.

Eat immediately!

If you take a look at the Smitten Kitchen link, you'll see that she used come ice cream as decoration, but in the best interest of keeping our cupcakes looking snazzy while sitting out, we opted out.

The root beer flavor wasn't super strong but you could taste it a little bit. Graham was quoted as saying 'I want a conveyor belt to put these into my mouth'. I guess that means it went over well.

It's been almost a year since I've last posted. This doesn't mean that I haven't been cooking, or even taking pictures of my creations; I've just been lazy.

I'm not usually one to write a restaurant post, but my first post back will be about my favorite culinary moment of the past year: a visit to Garde Manger in Vieux Montreal. The head chef at Garde Manger is none other than Chuck Hughes from Chuck's Day Off, my favorite Food Network Show. Unfortunately, Mr. Hughes wasn't in the restaurant when we managed to sneak into a small table (he was catering for the bands at Osheaga, which we also attended) but we were stoked nonetheless.

We started with the drink special, a strong watermelon margarita and were quickly brought fresh bread with a creamy smoked salmon whipped butter.

Being fans of the show and being slightly obsessed with going to this place, we knew about their Caesar that contained 3 ounces of vodka, homemade horseradish and of course, a giant crab leg sticking out of it. Clearly, Garrett had to order it immediately. We also ordered the fish and chips with jerk mayo. Garde Manger's menu is centered around seafood; one could order a huge seafood platter (for $100+) that would serve 4 people, or oysters by the dozen.

I ordered the seafood risotto. I make risotto all the time at home, but I like to order it when I'm out if it contains ingredients that I'm not brave enough to try. It was amazing. So creamy and flavorful, but not mushy or oversalted. Basically perfect.

Garrett ordered the duck confit with foie gras, again, something we could never do at home...yet. It was a little rich for my tastes, but Garrett enjoyed it. The menu was written on a few chalkboards posted around the restaurant, lending the idea that it changes often.

We somehow fought the urge to get dessert, knowing that we were about to head off to a party that would have a ton of yummy goodies. Overall, the whole experience was lovely, and we're very grateful that we were able to get in. Garde Manger only has two seatings a night (6pm and 9pm) and we weren't able to get reservations over the phone, so we made it down to the restaurant just before 6pm to ask if we could we squeezed in somewhere. We were able to get a small table for 2, under the condition that we were out by 8pm.



I'm going to try to post more, since I really do still do a lot of cooking and baking; I still even take pictures of these food items, so I'll just stop being such a lazy bones.

Happy eating!