Wednesday, April 22, 2009

You Complete Me

As a lifetime member of WeightWatchers, I have been taught that, if you are going to splurge, make it on something really good. Don't waste your calories on dessert items that don't at least approach culinary perfection.

On a somewhat related note, I love chocolate. And alcohol.

Yet I often feel as though I have to give at least one of these things up to allow for the other. If I am going out drinking, I avoid chocolate. If I have a piece of chocolate cake, I spend a Friday evening convincing my friends to play Scene-it and snack on carrot sticks.

Chocolate or alcohol? It's like the ultimate Catch-22.

But no more.

I have been introduced to two amazing inventions in the past week involving the combination of these two wonderful things. First, I spent two amazing, spatula licking hours (while watching the Biggest Loser on dvr) baking these:

Please don't be fooled by their common-place appearance. These cupcakes have a Guinness chocolate base, a chocolate-whiskey ganache center, and Bailey's Irish Creme frosting. And, keep in mind, only 1/3 of that alcohol is baked off in any way. Biting into this is like eating the most delicious shot you've ever tasted. And you don't have to eat it in one bite -- the frosting doesn't curdle when combined with the Guinness cake.

Then, due to my propensity for combining two guilty pleasures into one, I was sent this link a few days later. Now, some may think that spending $15 on 3 chocolate bars is inappropriate in this economy, but they are ignoring two factors: 1. You (I) would spend $5 on a glass of scotch and 2. The more you drink (eat?), the less concern you have about the faltering economy. Everybody wins with a whiskey chocolate bar.

Because I consider two things to equal a pattern (not a math major), I'm convinced that there must be more delicious chocolate/alcohol combinations out there, waiting to be discovered. If anyone is aware of any other recipes (or wants to attempt the cupcake recipe), please let me know. I am more than willing to test out a batch of alcoholic chocolate and report back.

1 comment:

T. Long said...

"Good advice" doesn't even do justice to this post and those cupcakes.