This past weekend I completed the first 4 of my recipes for the year in a whirlwind day (January 1st!) at my friend Maggie's house down in Tigard, Oregon. Maggie, her friend and blog-partner, Kelsey, and I spent the whole day cooking, from about noon to 9 PM. We produced 3 Harry Potter related sweets, and a hearty dinner of chicken pot pie. Here's a picture to give you an idea of what the day was like:
The first recipe of the day was butterbeer cupcakes, recipe found online here. These cupcakes were tasty and very butterscotch-y, with a butterscotch ganache injected into the middle of the cupcake using a plastic bottle bought at a beauty supply store. We used a ziploc as a homemade pastry bag to frost the cupcakes, and bought some gold gems to jazz them up a bit - they were really pretty! The other great thing about these cupcakes is that apparently Jared loves butterscotch, so when I brought some home to him he was really excited!
Harry Potter dessert number 2 was chocolate cauldron cupcakes, that we made from a combo of this recipe (for the cake itself), this recipe (for the chocolate ganache), and some store bought "Whipped Cream" frosting. These cupcakes were almost more like brownies in texture, and were really tasty in combination with the chocolate ganache and frosting. They were fun to decorate, but it also ended up being really stressful trying to get the ganache, frosting, sprinkles, and handles on all at the same time. I'm not really sure we could have done it with less than the three people we had. For the HP nerds out there, the green cauldron on the front right of the photo is what we deemed "Neville's Cauldron." We spent a lot of time completely cackling about how hilarious it was, and it became our crowning achievement for the night (despite the fact that we initially made it because the cupcake broke when it came out of the pan).
The third and final treat of the night was butterbeer, made from this recipe. I love the Bakingdom blog, and I had really high hopes for what the butterbeer would taste like, especially because Darla (from Bakingdom) has been to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and she says that this recipe tastes really similar to the butterbeer they serve there. It was essentially cream soda with McCormick Imitation Butter Flavor, topped with whipped cream that was also made with the butter flavor (I know, right? We were a little freaked out by the idea of whole butter flavor thing, especially because it smells exactly like the butter you get at the movie theater). The butterbeer wasn't bad, but it wasn't quite as much of a revelation as I was hoping for. We also talked a bit about how we all imagined butterbeer to be a little more along the lines of hot buttered rum, instead of a cold soda-type drink, but that may just be something our 13 year old heads made up when first reading Harry Potter.
Now, the day wasn't all sweets. We also made a delicious chicken pot pie from Joy The Baker. It was really easy, really delicious, and a great way to add something savory to an otherwise super sweet-filled day. I would definitely recommend that anyone who likes chicken pot pie give the recipe a try.
Well, this is a pretty long post to go along with a pretty long day of cooking. It was a great start to the new year, particularly spending it with a far away friend (everyone should check out her blog)! Hope everyone has had a great and productive first week of the year!
1 comments:
Irene, I'm so glad you came down to Portland for the HP fest!
As someone who usually avoids chicken pot pie, gotta say, I loved that recipe. You know, even though I have a giant sweet tooth I think the pot pie was the surprising winner of the day for me!
-Kelsey
Post a Comment