Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer Cupcake

Remember that Adam L's birthday was just a few days ago? And we promised to share our beer cupcake receipe with you? Well today's the day!

We thought the perfect way to celebrate Aj's birthday was by making him Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer Cupcakes with Beer Frosting.

Are you needing to make beer cupcakes to celebrate someone or something? Here's what you what to do:

I used this beer cake recipe-
1 yellow cake mix
1 box vanilla pudding
1 cup beer (I used Pabst Blue Ribbon)

1/4 vegetable oil
4 eggs
Mix all ingredients. Pour into cupcake pan lined with cupcake liners.

Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes (check with a toothpick for done-ness)






Before frosting, I poked each cupcake several times with a fork and basted a little more beer on the top of the cupcake with a basting brush (saw that tip here).

And then for the frosting, I used this beer frosting recipe at Yummly.

1/2 cup softened butter

3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar (divided)

1/3 cup cocoa powder (unsweetened)

1/8 tsp salt

1/3 cup beer (divided, again I used PBR) 

Mix butter, half of the sugar, cocoa, salt and half of the beer. After mixing well, add in the rest of the sugar and the rest of the beer. Pipe onto PBR cupcakes with a frosting bag.

Top with blue ribbon toppers and you have yourself the perfect birthday treat for any beer lover out there.

What do you think? Do foresee making these in the future? Any variations on it you can think of?

Happy Birthday Adam L.

Tomorrow is my sweet husband's birthday. I thought it'd be the perfect chance show you a little bit more about him and why I love him so much:

1. He's goofy:

(he's the one in the pink, and yes this is his prom photo)

(yes this is his real hair, and yes it was only for a couple weeks-yikes!, and YES this is before we were dating, ha).

2. He's a great athlete (one of those ones who's good at everything):

3. He's loves to dance:

4. He's an awesome friend:

5. He's a great uncle, brother, son, grandson, and in-law:

(he loves his crazy hair...)

6. He's such a blessing to me:

Happy Birthday Adam, I'm so thankful for you!

PS. Here's a little teaser: We had a little surprise party to celebrate him this weekend...

... and we made Beer Cupcakes!

More photos and a recipe to come soon!

Happy Birthday Kirstin (and a Chocolate Milk Martini)!

You probably don't know this, but today is Kirstin's birthday!

And since she was so sweet about what she wrote for my birthday,

and I don't think I get to say this stuff about her enough,

and so you can get to know her a bit better,

I thought I'd share some of my favorite things about her here:

1.She's beautiful inside and out.

2. How much she loves her family (immediate and extended). I was seriously hard pressed to find a picture of her to put on here where she wasn't posing with a family member.

 In fact, I was unsuccessful.

3. She's seriously one of the most generous people I know. I'm not sure we've said this on here yet--probably not, because why would it come up?--but my Adam, me, and Stetson (did we mention he's a St. Bernard?) are currently living with their family until we are a bit more settled here in Denver. And Kirst and her Adam have pretty much gone by the philosophy "what's ours is yours". I just hope that some of this generosity rubs off on us, but I know at the very least I know I have never been so thankful.

4. She's quirky, and funny. In fact pretty much the perfect mesh between the two. 

5. She loves to travel.

6. She's passionate-- about diet coke, sushi, the beach, and some more important things too:)

7. She is a great friend and a great encourager. She throws showers for people all the time (even for people who she just met) and will always take a phone call from a friend regardless of how busy she gets.

And so, in honor of Kirstin, I tried to find a drink that used some of her favorite things: Magic Shell, dark chocolate, and whipped cream.

The Chocolate Milk Martini + some Magic Shell for rimming = just the thing.

Here's what you need:

2/3 c milk

3 t Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate Syrup

2 oz Pinnacle Whipped Cream Vodka

Hershey's or Smuckers Magic Shell Ice Cream topping (again, for rimming)

Here's how to do it:

First mix up your milk and chocolate.

Then add in your vodka.

Stir well.

Then pour your Magic Shell onto a plate or into a wide bowl.

Take your empty glass and turn it upside down to coat the rim in chocolate.

It should harden.

Then pour in the drink.

It's ok if some of the Magic Shell breaks off into the drink. It's like adding chocolate shavings.

Happy Birthday Kirstin!

Do you have anyone special who has a birthday coming up?

What kind of special drink can you think of to customize for them with things they love?

happy birthday tricia (and a birthday cake martini recipe!)

The start of this little blog just so happens to coincide with the birthday of one of my favorite people in the whole world. You guessed it- Tricia Joy is celebrating her birthday this very weekend.

Since you don't know all of the things to celebrate about my lovely sister-in-law, I thought I'd share a few of them with you!

1. She has great taste in clothes (and shoes and accessories). Side note- I directly benefit from the fabulousness of her closet!

2. She is great with kids- like ohmygoodness great. She can get my three-year-old picky eater to chow down his entire lunch, and my baby girl cries whenever Tricia holds someone else. They adore her. But all kids adore her so that's no surprise.

3. Tricia has a great eye for decorating. Even though her degree is in marketing, she once did an internship at Crate and Barrel, and I would not be surprised if she ends up in the interior design field at some point.

4. She's funny. Really funny.

5. Tricia loves their puppy, Stetson, so much. She's hilarious about it- she worries that Stetson will be scared of thunderstorms, gives him special food, checks in on him about twenty times a day- Stetson is one spoiled dog!

Now a birthday just wouldn't be a birthday without a fabulous drink recipe. So, in addition to getting to know Miss Tricia better, today I'm also going to share a Birthday Cake Martini recipe!

Here's what you'll need:
Pineapple juice
Cranberry juice
Vanilla rum
Ice
Vanilla frosting
Sprinkles

Here's what to do:
In a shaker, mix one part vanilla rum, two parts pineapple juice, two parts cranberry juice, and ice. Shake vigorously. My sister, Jordan, swears that if you skip this part of wimp out on your shaking duties, that it won't turn out right. Heed her advice and shake well.

Strain into a glass rimmed with vanilla frosting and sprinkles. In case you're thinking about skipping the frosting-sprinkle-rimming, I would strongly urge you not to. The sprinkle-adorned rim makes this drink twice as festive. Maybe three times as festive.

And that's it! ENJOY!

Happy birthday Tricia!

If you're visiting us from TasteSpotting.com, Welcome! You can learn a bit about us here, and be sure to check our monthly Barista Banter column, and our weekly Beer column with TheAdams. 

We're so glad to have you!